An estimated four to five hundredprotesters met the truck—the first of seventhousand trucks—at Coley Springs Baptist Church in Afton

When I moved here in June of 1999, one ofthe first things I was told I had to be at wasa rally . . . in front of the courthousedowntown. And at that point I began tounderstand all that was going on

In 1997, Joel Hirschhorn, an independent advisor to the Joint WarrenCounty/State PCB Working Group,18stated that there was evidence thatthe landfill was leaking andcontaminating air and soil. Hestated, “we have hard evidence thatthere are cracks in the top liner ofthe landfill, which is why it’s notsurprising that we’ve found PCB airemissions” (Office of Minority Health,1997, October). Craig Brown, an environmental engineer for EPA, said, “Monitoring data sofar [are] insufficient to determine if the landfill is releasing toxic substances to theenvironment” (ibid). Both the EPA and the state of North Carolina maintained that thelandfill was safe. Dr. Hirschhorn disagreed,saying that the landfill was “an unsafe situation.”Tests detected dioxins in several monitoringwells.

The state should utilize eminent domain powers in Chatham County where soil wasmore suitable

Warren County ranked 97th of 100 counties in percapita income with most residents subsisting on about two-thirds of the per capita income of the rest of the state