Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160682
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/10   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.                                LENGTH: Medium

LOVE CANAL HOMES FIND READY BUYERS

About 200 people by Tuesday had signed a list for homes that will go on the market in about six weeks, according to the Love Canal Area Revitalization Agency.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pronounced 250 homes safe to live in. They will be put up for sale over the next three years.

Among those signing up were former Love Canal residents who want to return to the neighborhood they remember fondly.

"The canal went right through my backyard. As kids, we used to go back in those fields, mow them down, play baseball," said Gail McClinsey. "I'm fine, and I have two children. They're fine. I keep in touch with some of the friends I grew up with. They're fine."

James Carr, the revitalization agency's planning director, said drains have been installed to catch any leakage from chemicals dumped here by the Hooker Chemical Co. in the 1940s and 1950s.

"They do testing all the time. There's a continual monitoring going on," he said. "Sure, I'd live here."

But Lois Gibbs, a former Love Canal housewife who became an environmental activist, said she and her allies would sue to block resettlement.

She said the study on which the EPA ruled was flawed because scientists compared soil and air samples from the Love Canal neighborhood with samples from two other contaminated parts of the city.

Carr said the asking price for the homes will be between $40,000 and $60,000, about 20 percent less than the going price for similar homes elsewhere in Niagara Falls.