February 2, 1981

''When we heard about Love Canal, we were kind of happy it didn't happen to us,'' said Joseph T. Kluge, whose home is just across a field from Union Carbide's Linde plant here. ''Now look what's happened.'' Mr. Kluge lives in the shadows of the sprawling Linde industrial complex where, according to a State Assembly report released yesterday, the Federal Government once dumped more than 37 million gallons of radioactive caustic waste from the World War II atomic bomb project. On this dreary, chilly Sunday afternoon in this industrial city north of Buffalo, Mr. Kluge and his neighbors were trying to figure out just what this monumental finding about something that happened in the 1940's might mean for their lives, their health and their property values.

Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. has relieved Robert E. White of his duties as United States Ambassador to El Salvador as a sign of a new policy in Central America, according to State Department sources. Mr. White, a career Foreign Service officer, has been strongly criticized by many Republican conservatives. He was called here for consultations last week by Mr. Haig and informed that the Reagan Administration would soon appoint a new Ambassador to El Salvador to signal the new United States policy, the sources said. When a change in administrations involves a change in party, most of the ambassadors who are political appointees lose their jobs. However, career ambassadors, such as Mr. White, generally remain at their posts or are transferred to another assignment. The Reagan Administration has not made any announcements on career assignments.

Sales of the Chrysler Corporation's ''K'' cars have increased significantly in the past few weeks, enabling the auto maker to keep open assembly plants that were scheduled to shut this week. In a series of interviews, some Chrysler dealers said that ''K'' car sales had picked up so much that they were ordering cars from Chrysler to replenish inventories. Other dealers said they were even expanding their inventories, which had been kept at a low level because of high interest rates. The improving sales, which many dealers attribute to Chrysler's 7 percent rebate for credit buyers, are expected to provide the company with additional cash to help tide it over the next few weeks as it puts together a financial package to qualify for $400 million in Federal loan guarantees.

Three persons who said that they were members of the Jewish Defense League were issued summonses for harassment after they alledgedly were abusive to diplomats at the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. The three - Howard Perel, 19 years old, of Manhattan; Barbara Herzka, 21, of 144-27 70th Avenue, Forest Hills, Queens, and Shira Goldstein, 17, of Manhattan - were taken for questioning to the 19th Precinct, along with six others who were not formally charged, according to the police. Mr. Perel said later that he had ''spat and cursed'' at the diplomats as they left the mission, and had shouted slogans refering to Anatoly B. Shcharansky, the imprisoned Soviet dissident.

The Federal Department of Energy, which last year acted to cap possible radiation leaks at the site of a World War II ordnance works near Buffalo, expects to take additional measures this spring, a high official of the department said yesterday. The site of the old Lake Ontario Ordnance Works was among those where ''environmental crimes'' had been committed in the Buffalo area and elsewhere, it was charged by a New York State toxic waste task force in a report issued Saturday. The task force said Federal officials and the United States Army had failed to take sufficient action against radiation and chemical contamination arising from the World War II atomic bomb project and from ordnance plant activity.