Twenty years later, Love Canal remains a synonym for ecological disaster.  The episode had an enormous impact on public awareness of toxic waste issues and seriously damaged the credibility of the chemical industry and regulatory authorities. It was the impetus for passage of the Superfund law through which abandoned toxic waste sites all over the country are being cleaned up.   In 1989, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, parent company of the firm which deposited the wastes agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $129 million to cover the costs of cleaning up the site.  Occidental also paid many millions of dollars in settlement of the lawsuits by homeowners from the area.

Nevertheless, numerous studies of health impacts of the contamination have been inconclusive and, apart from the land where the wastes were actually buried (which is covered under a mound of earth and fenced off) and its immediate vicinity, the neighborhood has been declared suitable for residential use.  Homes have been refurbished and sold, and the community has been given a new name, "Black Creek Village."  Many observers believe those involved in Love Canal over-reacted to the situation and that many of the subsequent clean-up activities supported under Superfund have had costs far out of proportion to their benefits.

Much has been written about Love Canal.  Few of the writings are as balanced as Allan Mazur's 1998 book, A Hazardous Inquiry.  Mazur uses the unique approach of the classic Japanese film, Rashomon, and presents six accounts of the events surrounding Love Canal, ranging from that of the chemical company that deposited the wastes to the woman who led the campaign on behalf of the residents to the New York State Health Department, which was charged with evaluating residents' illnesses.  In the end he concludes that while a "real hazard requiring a serious solution existed. . . . the solution applied was less efficient and more costly than it should have been."