Love Canal, New York

The area of the notorious suburban community and school built on a toxic dump left by the Hooker Chemical Company, has now been largely resettled. The epicenter of the chemical contamination, however, is still toxic and visible, though it has been isolated with plastic sheeting and covered with soil. The "Canal Site Containment Area," as it is called, is a 3,000-foot-long, 80-foot-wide, grassy mound, surrounded by an eight-foot high chain link fence. Inside, under tons of clay and polyethylene, is much of the 22,000 tons of Hooker Chemical waste, as well as the contaminated streets and buildings that were demolished in the early eighties. The state of New York, which had to buy 789 houses in the area as part of the settlement agreement, recently offered those houses up for sale, at around 15% off the market rate.