Hanover County:
“The H&H burn pit was a clearing in the woods where
people got rid of toxic waste the old-fashioned way — by dumping it in a hole
and setting it ablaze. Neighbors recalled seeing black smoke rise hundreds of
feet in the air and then settle over the community. ‘We used to go back in
there and play in the pit,’ said retired truck driver Lester Gordon, 65,
standing on his back porch near the site.
The 1-acre site lies just off U.S. 33 in the rural Farrington
area of southwestern Hanover County. The Haskell Chemical Co. used the site
from 1960 through 1976 to dispose of waste including solvents from the cleaning
of printing presses, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The waste was hauled to the site in drums, poured into two
pits and burned. Toxic chemicals called PCBs ended up in the soil and on the
muddy bottom of a small stream. Pollutants including benzene and
trichloroethene, or TCE, built up in underground water. PCBs, benzene and TCE
have been linked to cancer.”
~ Writes Rex Springston of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
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