Warren County vs PCB's
- Date Range
- June 1978 – 1982
- Title
- Warren County vs PCB's
- What occurred
- In 1978, two men disguised a tanker truck and dumped 31,000 gallons of PCB's along North Carolina roads using the cover of darkness. The two men were caught and locked away, but the state of North Carolina was now tasked with cleaning up these road shoulders and dumping the chemicals into a remote location. The Toxic Soil Control Act created in response to Love Canal required that the toxic soil be placed into a landfill. The state chose to place this toxic landfill in Warren County, North Carolina, a town that had been politically neglected. A key component in this story was that the town's population was 65% black, forty percent of houses lacked indoor plumbing according to the 1970 census. This town with the third lowest GDP across the state. In January of 1979 a public hearing was held in which an outstanding and outspoken group of 800 protestors showed up, but despite their cries, the governor announced that the construction would persist. Despite years of protest, in 1982, the EPA Superfund allocated $2,500,000 for the construction of the landfill in Warren County. Once construction began, 500 people were arrested in the six-week long protests, majority of which were extremely peaceful. Warren County would come to be symbolic of community members protesting to protect their homes as well as a vivid example of discriminatory state-level action by the government of North Carolina.
- Location
- 307 N. Main St., Warrenton, NC 27589
- Image Citation
- https://timeline.com/warren-county-dumping-race-4d8fe8de06cb
- Student name(s)
- Reed Karaska