agent orange

Chemical slick. Photo courtesy Adam Mooz/flickr.com

Chemical slick. Photo courtesy Adam Mooz/flickr.com

Columbia, Mississippi is a small rural town most known as the home of Walter Payton, NFL player for the Chicago Bears. It is also my home — the place where I was born and raised.

On January 1, 1992, Jesus People Against Pollution was founded in Columbia. Residents had discovered that the town had been heavily polluted from the Newsom Brothers/Old Reichhold Chemical Company facility, now closed but still registering high levels of hazardous waste — what the EPA calls a “Superfund site.”

In March 1977, the plant exploded and wrecked the facility and surrounding community. The Old Reichhold Chemical Company abandoned their facility and hired an inexperienced contractor to dispose of the remaining toxins left on the site. 

Julie Clawson 6-04-2010
The day after we here in the U.S. paused to remember the men and women who had died fighting for our country, the fight continued from beyond the grave.
Jim Wallis 2-01-2010
The book of Jeremiah states, "For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?