<P> In 1994, Federal District Judge John Curtin ruled that Hooker / Occidental had been negligent, but not reckless, in its handling of the waste and sale of the land to the Niagara Falls School Board . Curtin's decision also contains a detailed history of events leading up to the Love Canal disaster . Occidental Petroleum was sued by the EPA and in 1995 agreed to pay $129 million in restitution . Out of that federal lawsuit came money for a small health fund and $3.5 million for the state health study . Residents' lawsuits were also settled in the years following the Love Canal disaster . </P> <P> The Department of Justice published a report that noted the sites have been successfully remediated is ready again for use . The Love Canal Area Revitalization Authority sold a few abandoned homes to private citizens . Virtually all remedial activities of the site, other than the operation of the leachate collection system, were completed by 1989 . </P> <P> Houses in the residential areas on the east and west sides of the canal were demolished . All that remains on the west side are abandoned residential streets . Some older east side residents, whose houses stand alone in the demolished neighborhood, chose to stay . It was estimated that fewer than 90 of the original 900 families opted to remain . They were willing to remain as long as they were guaranteed that their homes were in a relatively safe area . On June 4, 1980, the state government founded the Love Canal Area Revitalization Agency (LCARA) to restore the area . The area north of Love Canal became known as Black Creek Village . LCARA wanted to resell 300 homes that had been bought by New York when the residents were relocated . The homes are farther away from where the chemicals were dumped . The most toxic area (16 acres (65,000 m)) was reburied with a thick plastic liner, clay and dirt . A 2.4 - metre (7 ft 10 in) high barbed wire fence was installed around the area . It has been calculated that 248 separate chemicals, including 60 kilograms (130 lb) of dioxin, have been unearthed from the canal . </P> <P> In 1998, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, founder of American Council on Science and Health, wrote an editorial about the Canal in which she stated that the media started calling the Canal a "public health time bomb", an editorial that created minor hysteria . She declared that people were not falling ill because of exposure to chemical waste, but from stress caused by the media . Besides double the rate of birth defects to children born while living on Love Canal, a follow - up study two decades after the incident "showed increased risks of low birth weight, congenital malformations and other adverse reproductive events". However, the same report found a slight decrease in the incidence of cancer rates, and cautions, "It is important not to over emphasize any single finding but instead to search for interpretable, coherent patterns of findings, since these are more likely to indicate valid and meaningful associations ." </P>

Which of the following is (are) true of love in the united states