Skip to main content

Real People – Real Stories (by issue)

See the stories listed by county

 

Jump to issue: 

 

Landfills

Wake County (Town of Holly Springs) – The mostly Black neighborhoods of the Holly Springs area have received a disproportionate share of Wake County’s landfills for more than three decades.  For five years, residents of these communities, as well as newer, more affluent communities nearby, fought in court against the siting of a tenth permitted solid waste facility.  Although the North Carolina  Supreme Court allowed the county to proceed with the construction and operation of the landfill, the two sides reached a settlement in 2003 that provided some protections to the community.  The new landfill will open in 2007.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (18 pages)

 

Greene County (Town of Snow Hill) – A citizens’ group sued the Greene County Board of Commissioners in 1998, saying that they approved a landfill site without following proper procedures or considering alternative locations.  After four years of community pressure and an NC Court of Appeals opinion in favor of the citizens’ group, the Board re-voted, overturned its original decision, and decided not to approve any of the proposed landfill sites.  This case was the first to fall under a North Carolina statute, passed in 1999, which established a protocol for approving landfill sites within one mile of an existing facility.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (16 pages)

 

Warren County (Community of Afton) – After the illegal disposal of PCBs 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, the state completed on-site decontamination after persistent activism by community residents. Warren County is widely recognized as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (18 pages)

 

Hazardous Waste

Warren County (Community of Afton) – After the illegal disposal of PCBs 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, the state completed on-site decontamination after persistent activism by community residents. Warren County is widely recognized as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (18 pages)

 

Stanly County (Town of Aquadale) – In the 1980s, Carolina Solite Corporation began incinerating hazardous waste in Aquadale, NC.  In the years that followed, the company exceeded federal and state regulations for air, water, and soil standards numerous times.  Local residents believe that emissions from the plant are associated with health problems they have experienced; however, these suspicions have not been confirmed.  Concerned citizens formed a grassroots organization to pressure state and federal authorities to enforce regulations governing Solite’s waste incineration, and the plant agreed to use alternative fuel sources in 2000.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (28 pages)

 

CAFOs (hog farms)

Bladen County – The rapid growth and concentration of large-scale, intensive hog operations in North Carolina has raised concerns about disproportionate environmental and public health burden on low-income communities of color in North Carolina. Bladen County residents are concerned about possible negative impacts of nearby hog waste lagoons and intensive livestock confinement buildings.  Black and Latino residents employed in local hog processing plants work in jobs with high rates of work-related injury, and there have been reports of short- and long-term physical and mental health problems.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Edgecombe County (Town of Tarboro) – When Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. proposed a hog-processing plant in Tarboro, North Carolina in 1995, residents deemed it a potential hazard.  As Edgecombe County officials considered rezoning a 323-acre tract of land to accommodate the construction of this proposed plant, opponents raised concerns about the social, physical, and environmental costs of the plant’s operation.  The strong opposition led to extensive public debate about the rezoning.  Though the rezoning eventually was approved by County officials, the plant was never built, with burdensome water needs and waste processing challenges cited as the main barriers.  Ultimately the tract of land was used to build a distribution center.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Biosolids (sludge)

Orange County – (Coming soon)

 

Industrial Pollution

Mecklenburg County (Community of Paw Creek) – The community of Paw Creek is the location of two major petroleum pipelines and over 100 aboveground storage tanks. Residents attribute groundwater contamination, air pollution, and a possible cancer cluster to the numerous leaks from these facilities.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Randolph County (Town of Glenola) – In 1997, Trinity American Corporation, Inc., a foam and fiber manufacturer in Glenola, North Carolina, was closed in response to evidence of toluene diisocyanate and methylene chloride emissions and groundwater contamination exceeding standard levels.  Community members had begun reporting health problems and noxious fumes in 1981, though local officials didn’t initiate monitoring efforts until the mid-1990s.  State and federal agencies tested ambient air and wells surrounding the company, and ultimately issued several public health notices.  This case marked the first time a North Carolina Health Director formally declared a company a public health nuisance.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (24 pages)

 

Rowan County (Community of Milford Hills, Town of Salisbury) – Residents of Milford Hills garnered the support of local, state, and federal officials to pressure the local asphalt industry to control odors and to examine the health effects of hydrogen sulfide, benzene, petroleum products, and chlorinated solvent contaminants.  Residents were also successful in getting an industrial area near their neighborhood rezoned to prevent expansion by existing businesses.  However, the community groups were confused by research that was methodologically limited and did not consistently substantiate their claims.  While noxious odors were curbed through new equipment at the plants, remediation of existing contamination was not fully addressed.  The situation at Milford Hills helped spark a reassessment of statewide emissions standards.  The ongoing quest by some community activists to demonstrate a link between past pollution and health problems has become a controversial issue within the community.  The NC Division of Public Health branch of Epidemiology includes a medical evaluation and risk assessment about the asphalt plant emissions.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Stanly County (Town of Aquadale)– In the 1980s, Carolina Solite Corporation began incinerating hazardous waste in Aquadale, NC.  In the years that followed, the company exceeded federal and state regulations for air, water, and soil standards numerous times.  Local residents believe that emissions from the plant are associated with health problems they have experienced; however, these suspicions have not been confirmed.  Concerned citizens formed a grassroots organization to pressure state and federal authorities to enforce regulations governing Solite’s waste incineration, and the plant agreed to use alternative fuel sources in 2000.

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study(28 pages)

 

Wake County (Community of Shiloh) – Shiloh residents successfully garnered the assistance of county, state, and federal officials in investigating the contamination of soil, surface water, and groundwater by pentachlorophenol, isopropyl ether, and dioxins from a nearby wood treatment plant. The community also mounted a successful campaign to force the polluter to provide an alternate water supply to the community. Residents guided the development of the cleanup plan and pursued efforts to have the contamination treated locally, rather than shipped to another poor community for disposal. Strong community cohesion and the presence of an established local advocacy group contributed to Shiloh’s success in influencing both the investigation and remediation of the contamination.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Outlying Landing Field (military practice airfield planned for eastern NC)

Washington County (Communities near Pocosin Lakes NWR) – (Coming soon)

 

Basic Amenities (water, sewer)

Alamance County (Town of Mebane) – Black citizens in Alamance County are working to achieve access to water and sewer services while also fighting to prevent the construction of a highway bypass that will negatively impact two Black neighborhoods (West End and White Level) in Mebane.  The original plan for the highway bypass, supported by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and elected officials from the City of Mebane, was declared a violation of environmental justice by the United States Department of Justice.  This 1999 ruling has halted further planning for the bypass until remediation is achieved.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Wake County (Community of Sunset Acres) – Throughout the 1990s, Holly Springs, NC grew rapidly, annexing new affluent developments and expanding its water and sewer services to reach them. Established communities that did not yet have these amenities and in which the majority of the residents were low income and people of color were not annexed.  Residents of Sunset Acres, one of these established communities, and the Wake County-Holly Springs chapter of the community driven organization North Carolina Fair Share mobilized around the shared concern of well water contamination, advocating for water and sewer services in the older neighborhoods.  This activism ultimately resulted in extension of water and sewer lines and annexation for Sunset Acres; however, delays continue to prevent the connection of some homes to the new water and sewer lines even a decade after residents first began organizing in 1995.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Disaster Response

Edgecombe County (Town of Princeville) – When Hurricane Floyd hit eastern North Carolina in September 1999, the low-income, predominantly Black town of Princeville was one of the most devastated communities.  Princeville ultimately chose to rebuild the historically significant town, despite the potential for future devastation, rather than accept government funds to assist residents in relocating.  Potential environmental and racial justice concerns exist regarding the response to the disaster, as well as the rebuilding process and related government policy.

(Brief summary and complete case study coming soon.)

 

Pender County (Community of Maple Hill) – Hurricane Floyd devastated eastern North Carolina in September of 1999, damaging or destroying approximately 20,000 uninsured homes and inflicting $6 billion in damages.  Communities of color and economically disadvantaged areas were disproportionately affected by the hurricane and associated flooding, and they faced greater barriers to receiving disaster relief funds than their wealthier counterparts.  A decade after Hurricane Floyd, the community of Maple Hill is still feeling the aftereffects of the flooding.  Despite the enormous amount of natural disaster resources sent to eastern North Carolina, only a small portion of these funds reached the town.  Now those resources have been exhausted, and residents remain concerned about health effects resulting from houses damaged by flood waters and contaminated by mold and mildew.  

Download the Brief Summary
Download the complete Case Study (22 pages)