MAN WHO LIVES ALONG FENCED OFF AREA OF FORMER LOVE CANAL NEIGHBORHOOD IN NIAGARA FALLS., 2003-07-18...

Floyd Garrow, 77, gestures as he stands next to tomato plants he is growing in his back yard, directly along a permanently fenced-off section of the area formerly known as the Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, New York, July 18, 2003. Twenty five years ago, Love Canal was America's most notorious toxic dump, where leaking poisons from waste dumped by the Hooker Chemical Company (now Occidental Chemical) forced thousands to flee their homes and awoke the nation to the dangers of pollution. The U.S. government eventually declared emergency evacuations of the area in 1978 and 1980, and relocated more than 800 families and reimbursed them for their homes, which were destroyed. Garrow, who worked for Hooker Chemical for 35 years, declined the government relocation and lives with his son and grandchildren in the home nearest to the former toxic site where thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals are still burried. Picture taken July 18, 2003. REUTERS/Mike Segar/FEATURE/ENVIRONMENT-LOVECANAL MS/HB