Three Plans for Love Canal Cleanup Proposed by EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed three options for disposing of Love Canal toxic waste, which destroyed a neighborhood built on top of it and for decades seeped into sewer systems and creeks.

J. Winston Porter, EPA assistant administrator for solid waste and emergency response, said a decision will be made later this summer on disposing of the hazardous waste, which migrated from the dump through several neighborhoods.

The state will be responsible for the actual cleanup.

Love Canal was a 3,000-foot-long pit into which the former Hooker Chemical Corp. admitted dumping 21,800 tons of toxic waste between 1942 and 1952. The dump later was capped and the flow of waste stopped, but as much as 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated off-site silt remains to be cleaned up, the EPA estimates.

Cheapest and Quickest

The first disposal alternative calls for placing creek and sewer sediments into an interim hazardous waste facility planned at the Love Canal containment site. This plan was described as the cheapest and quickest.

The second option would use a high-temperature furnace for on-site destruction of dioxin exceeding one part per billion in sediment. The treated sediment would be stored at the containment facility.

The third option would also involve use of the thermal unit to burn dioxin-contaminated waste but would store the treated sediment off-site.

The state Environmental Conservation Department, concerned about funding and awaiting the EPA’s disposal plan, announced that it had postponed from next spring to 1989 the actual cleanup of Black and Bergholtz creeks.

In 1980, Congress allocated $20 million to relocate Love Canal families. Eventually, 550 homes were razed.