Revisiting Love Canal

Hickory Woods, a neighborhood near Love Canal, which sparked the creation of the Superfund law 25 years ago, "changed the way the nation viewed toxic waste" and "proved that ordinary citizens could take on the system—and win"--is facing similar contamination-related health problems today. "With more than half the 1,500 sites on the Superfund National Priorities List already cleaned up, most Americans assume the toxic-waste crisis is behind them....But environmentalists caution that many of the remaining Superfund sites face delays and funding cuts; this year the EPA will finish only about 40 sites, compared with 87 in the late 1990s. A report due out shortly from the pro-environmental U.S. Public Interest Research Group blames the slowdown on underfunding by the Bush administration and complains that taxpayers, not polluters, are now shouldering most of the costs. (Horinko admits that taxpayers are picking up more of the tab but says the Superfund program has enough money to do its job. She pins the slowdown on today’s complicated cleanups.)"