American Notes NIAGARA FALLS Welcome Back To Love Canal

The Niagara Falls neighborhood of Love Canal has been a symbol of toxic- pollution nightmares. Now New York State officials hope it will come to represent a new kind of urban renewal. Last week state health commissioner Dr. David Axelrod announced that about two-thirds of the area where more than 21,000 tons of chemical wastes were buried in the 1940s and 1950s would be habitable again after a multimillion-dollar cleanup is completed next year.

Most homes in the contaminated neighborhood were torn down after the state agreed to buy out residents. But hundreds of abandoned homes still stand and 70 more are occupied by the handful of families (out of 1,100) who elected to stay despite official warnings. Their stubbornness may yet pay off. The Love Canal Area Revitalization Agency, the state entity that owns and plans to renovate 400 of the abandoned homes, claims there is already a list of potential buyers.