"It will probably turn out to be a hazardous-waste site."

Buck Jim Wynne 3d, chairman of the water commission, said state lawmakers need to understand the emotional and economic issues in any proposal to establish hazardous-waste sites.

One issue that most upsets Texans these days is any proposal to put a hazardous-waste site near a community.

They are particularly interested in the Lipari Landfill in Gloucester County, named the nation's worst hazardous-waste site.

Although the Croton dump has been declared a hazardous-waste site, Ms. Weissman said, "The gulls didn't care."

Once it is cut up, a project that could take more than a month, the pieces are to be carried out of the plant for disposal in a hazardous-waste site.

One, in Tuxedo, has been ruled a hazardous-waste site and is expected to cost millions of dollars to clean up.

When, in 1987, the EPA did a laborious review of the relative seriousness of America's environmental problems, it ranked old hazardous-waste sites below 30 others.

Several construction workers on the part of the property not listed as a hazardous-waste site, the former Marley junkyard, were treated for skin rashes and breathing problems.

One mile - the target of the cleanup - contains Glen Cove's original industrial area, two Superfund sites, a hazardous-waste site and the city's former incinerator.