georgeetheredge:Pigeon river.Part of this river was severely polluted by the Champion Paper Mill Com
georgeetheredge:Pigeon river.Part of this river was severely polluted by the Champion Paper Mill Company for years. Cancer rates along the river in Tennessee were staggering, as a result. It’s been an ongoing problem, with multiple law suits from people affected. The river has been significantly cleaned up, but the paper company (which keeps changing names), is still polluting the river.In order to lure jobs to the region, the South has long been known to have extremely lax environmental regulations. The problem here is that the company itself is in North Carolina, dump into the river in North Carolina, gets its permits in North Carolina, but the pollution ends up downstream in Tennessee. The company is technically breaking TN laws, but is itself located in NC. The impacts of this pollution aren’t felt by the wealthy. -- source link
#appalachia#pigeon river#environment#champion paper#tennessee