Our Road: Then -- E24: In-Good-Faith Double-Cross Artwork

Our Road to Walk: Then and Now

Our Road to Walk: Then and Now is a podcast series hosted by Deborah and Ken Ferruccio broadcast from Warren County, North Carolina, known as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. The purpose of the series is to share the inside, untold, documented, forty-four-year PCB landfill history which serves as a roadmap and guidebook for communities everywhere who want to actively help protect the environment, especially marginalized communities, through education and activism based on science for the people. Our goal is to raise the consciousness of our listeners by informing and inspiring them and by winning their hearts and minds so that they want to join Our Road to Walk on a mutual pilgrimage for the planet, person by person, community by community, region by region, and nation by nation.

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Our Road to Walk: Then and Now

Our Road: Then -- E24: In-Good-Faith Double-Cross

August 14, 2023 • Deborah and Ken Ferruccio

Photo: Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety Herbert Hyde:
Was he "in good faith?"

On the heels of threats to Ken’s life and the break-in at the Ferruccio cabin,
Ken examines his contradictory leadership position as a proponent of non-violent civil disobedience who felt it necessary to protect himself and Deborah with arms.

In the aftermath of the statewide publicity about the “Anti-PCB Leader in a State of Armed Alert,” the Hunt Administration proposes the multiple-dump option. Seven of the fourteen counties agree to let the state test their solid waste landfills for potential PCB disposal.

Secretary Herbert Hyde comes to Warren County, meets with commissioners, says that he comes “in good faith,” and convinces commissioners to approve testing at the Warren County landfill as part of the multiple-dump plan. At the meeting, the state grants $565,142 as part of funds for the the proposed $4.6 million regional waste water treatment plant.

The next day, however, the Council of State allocates funds to purchase the Afton site for the PCB landfill in Warren County. County Commissioners call a special meeting where two-hundred citizens attend and express their outrage at Secretary Hyde's apparent in-good-faith double-cross.

They demand that commissioners take out a lawsuit to stop the state’s PCB plans. Commissioners agree, and Greensboro environmental and constitutional attorney Norman Smith is hired. In a complaint filed by the county to stop the sale of the property, the county says it is informed and believes that the state has undisclosed future plans to use the Afton property not just for PCBs but as a principle dumping site for large quantities of other highly toxic and dangerous chemicals.

Herbert Hyde resigns as Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety, possibly because he had in fact been in good faith and had been double-crossed himself.

Governor Hunt goes to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Carter to secure $926,000 in federal funds for the Warren County regional waste waster treatment plant with plans for the federal government to hand over portions of Soul City to the state.

Citizens question what is going on, but they are fairly certain officials are not acting in good faith.