preview

What Is Warren County PCB Landfill

Decent Essays

Final Paper Warren County is a county in the northeastern region of North Carolina. It is on the northern border with Virginia and about 90 minutes driving from closest large city, Raleigh. The county was formed in 1779. From 1840 to 1860, it progressively became the commerce and transportation center and one of the wealthiest towns in the state. Then in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its heavily reliance on agriculture slowed its economic development down. Because of the rise of the cities, many residents decided to migrate to the cities to work for a better salary in general. The county tried to come up with some policies to attract industrial and business development. However, they had not been particularly …show more content…

The town did not have a mayor, not even a city council. The purpose of the landfill was to bury the large amount of contaminated the soil with toxic Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), a class of chemicals so toxic that Congress banned production later. The whole story began in 1973 when Ward PCB Transformers Company dumped more than 30,000 gallons of PCB-contaminated oil on the side of state roads in 14 North Carolina counties. The trucker, who was responsible for taking the oil to a facility to be recycled, disposed of it discreetly and illegally. The person in charge of the company and the trucker was sent to jail for a short time for their negligence on the matter. Contaminants left in the truck and factory was detoxified. However, the area around the factory as well as the lakes and rivers close to the road had been polluted. As a result, more than 60,000 tons of oils were polluted with toxic PCB. Right after the pollution happened, the State of Carolina decided to erect large warming signs telling people to have cautions on the PCBs. From public’s point of view, the PCBs had become a serious threat to health and soil condition. Consequently, State of Carolina found it really hard to deal with the polluted soil. A legal, long, and regulatory preparation had to be made. Finally, the state decided to landfill all the soil in the Warren County. As we can imagine people in the county would not

Get Access