"Industry has shown laxity, not infrequently to the point of criminal negligence, in soiling the land and adulterating the waters with its toxins." So says a recent report from a House investigative subcommittee. The report adds that as deposits of dangerous industrial wastes proliferate, the authority charged with eliminating the hazards, the Environmental Protection Agency, has done little to search out such sites and compel offending companies to clean them up. Meanwhile, as much as 35 million tons of toxic waste continues to be improperly disposed of every year, and, charges one environmental watchdog group, another year and a half may pass before the EPA puts proper regulations into force. There may be as many as 34,000 seriously hazardous waste dumps spotted about the country. The article that follows documents the miseries and losses induced by only one such man-made horror, the infamous Love Canal dump in Niagara Falls, New York.
