Our Road: Then -- E15: Unreasonable Risk: A Warren County Delegation to Governor Hunt --Part 2

On January 18, 1979, we recorded and later transcribed our meeting with Governor Hunt. This episode is based on the transcript of that recording.

In this Part 2 of the Warren County delegation to Governor Hunt, Warren representatives continue to make their case against the PCB landfill perfectly clear to Governor Hunt.

Larry Limer queries the Governor hard on the PCB landfill site selection criteria, and 
Henry Pitchford mentions inalienable human rights.

Frances Davis asks, “Upon what basis does the state have the right to consider only the evidence of its own paid people?” while Earnest Turner shares his concerns about a waiver for a fifty-foot separation between the landfill site and groundwater and asks, “What is an unreasonable risk, and how is it determined? 

Historian Edgar Thorne asks, “How can we attract home buyers if Warren County has a popular image associated with the disposal of toxic waste?”

The Governor’s answers are evasive and contradictory. He says he respects delegates’ feelings and asserts his belief that EPA approval of the PCB landfill will be not based on an “unreasonable risk”, even as he admits that there are no good measurements for assessing the consequences of the impact of the PCB landfill.

Governor Hunt assures our delegation that the PCB dump will to be a one-time dump only, and then he tells Mr. Thorne, “If there were an open, continuing dump, your concern would be especially appropriate, almost overwhelming.” 

To delegate Frances Davis, the Governor claims that he knows nothing about the chemical waste landfill industry that has been looking at Warren County, even though both the News & Observer and the Warren Record have published articles describing how the governor’s task force for small community economic development, led by Bob Goforth, has recently flown nine Warren County officials to Alabama on a state-owned turbojet to inspect the landfill facility there in order to consider duplicating the operation on a 500-acre tract of land in Warren County. 

Our take-away? Governor Hunt hears what we are saying, but he doesn't seem to be listening. The option to haul the PCBs to Alabama appears to be an empty option, and the Governor has no other backup plans. If the EPA determines that the PCB landfill won't pose an “unreasonable risk,” then it seems clear the Governor plans to bury the PCBs in Warren County — regardless of the public sentiment; regardless of the closeness of the water table or the inappropriate soils, or the known failures of landfills and the dangers of PCBs and dioxins; regardless that Warren County already is the second poorest county in the state. 

Governor Hunt thanks the delegation for coming and says, “This is what democracy’s all about,” but delegates can see that when it comes to the disposal of deadly chemicals, neither the state nor EPA regulators seem to care much about democracy.