Real People – Real Stories Afton, NC (Warren County) Published: September 2006 © 2006 – Exchange Project at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Published September 2006 Permission is hereby granted for reproduction of this material, in whole or in part, for educational or scientific purposes except those involving commercial sale, provided that (a) full citation of the source is given, and (b) notification is given in writing to: The Exchange Project Department of Health Behavior and Health Education The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Campus Box # 7506 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7506 Fax: (919) 966-7955 Email:
[email protected] http://www.ExchangeProject.unc.edu 1 Significance of Case After the illegal disposal of PCBs1 along North Carolina highways in 1978, state officials selected the predominately Black community of Afton for a landfill despite the site’s incompatibility with EPA guidelines. Community residents fought the initial placement of the landfill, often placing themselves in harm’s way by physically blocking trucks. Over twenty years after the landfill was constructed, persistent activism by community residents caused the state to complete on-site decontamination of the PCB-contaminated soil. Warren County is widely recognized as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. Community History State officials, including Governor Jim Hunt, selected Warren County as the disposal site for PCB-contaminated soil in June 1979. According to the 1980 U.S. Census, the population of Warren County was estimated to be 16,232 and 60% Black (the state-wide percentage is 22%) (General Accounting Office, 1983). State officials denied that the racial makeup of Warren County influenced the decision to place the landfill in Afton.