Our Road: Then -- E22: House Bill 290 Preempts Environmental Civil Rights & "PCB Cleanup Hunt's Folly"

What should have been a slam dunk by the Hunt Administration to bury the roadside PCBs in Warren County by March or April of 1979, weather permitting, has been anything but that. Apparently, Governor Hunt had been so confident that he would bury the PCBs in Warren County, that he warned citizens there that public sentiment would not deter the state from burying the PCBs in Warren County.

His strong-armed warning only serves to ignite the wrath of Warren County citizens who are vehemently opposed to a PCB landfill in their county, not just because they believe that science predicts that the landfill will fail but because they believe that the Governor knows it will fail, and that’s why he doesn’t plan to give them a say in the matter.

Citizens contact “60 Minutes,” the television show, because they believe that the midnight PCB dumping spree was strangely criminal and needs journalistic investigation.

As spokesperson for Warren County Citizens Concerned About PCBs, Ken is asked by Warrenton Attorney Frank Banzet to address a North Carolina Senate Subcommittee and to share our concerns about the intrinsic dangers of hazardous waste landfills designed to temporarily contain toxic chemicals that last perpetually.

Ken warns legislators that flexible federal EPA regulations will permit industries to chemically embalm communities across the state and nation and that these regulations are a recipe for environmental and public health disaster. He warns senators that House Bill 290 will preempt the fundamental human and civil rights of North Carolinians to determine their own ecological fate.

But North Carolina legislators are working with industrialists and the Governor to pave the way for economic development by making it easier to site hazardous waste landfill facilities that will serve to attract industry. One senator says to Ken after he makes his presentation, “But, Mr. Ferruccio, if we let the communities decide, how shall we ever get these dumps?”

Her question strikes at the heart of the dilemma of our chemical age.

As the EPA and North Carolina legislators are institutionalizing environmental injustice, Governor Hunt continues his plans to dump the PCBs in Warren County as the investigation into the in-place carbon treatment plan buys the Governor time.

Meanwhile, the toxic contamination is spreading. One Johnston County farmer, T. Mitchell Langdon, says that the “Hunt Administration has messed around long enough.” Langdon has  erected a 4’x8’ plywood sign that captures the sentiments of many North Carolina residents which reads: “PCB Cleanup Hunt’s Folly” and features a skull and crossbones in the upper corners of the sign. A photo of Langdon's sign is in Newsweek magazine.