Document npqMGL0LzG0ZVEnpko4yEQ2YX

The News and Observer \ Tuesday, September 21, 1933, y Fhis newspaper's opinion Afton dump no 4Love Canal' Mrs. Lois Gibbs of Niagara Falls, Other contrasts between the two N.Y., has stepped out-of-bounds by sites are dramatic. The dumped linking her neighborhood's Love dirt at Afton contains a single chem- Canal problems and Warren Coun- ical, PCB, to which activated car ry's concerns over a PCB landfill, bon was applied long ago to prevent The differences between the two it from migrating mto plants and sites and their methods of toxic- water. The site is lined with both six waste disposal are so different that feet of compacted clay and a plastic she is playing with- the emotions ofr-liner; It wifi be buffered by acreage North Carolinians rather than deal- that will keep human activities ing with the facts. from encroaching on it. Finally, af- Mrs. Gibbs helped to /organize f ter.tHe dump has-been capped and protests and ipgaT apfinn ngninst sealed, the state will monitor it reg Love Canal -- and for good reason, ularly for leakage arid for any poBut, she engaged in reckless over- tential danger to humans and the statements when she told protest- environment, ers: "Ten years from now, you'll be the recipients of cancer and sick- Mrs. Gibbs does a disservice to ness. Your dump's not that different North Carolinians, in suggesting from Love Canal, except that you that unlawful conduct by protesters have the ability to stop it. is merely an assertion of constitu- Not that different? Come now, tional rights. What the Niagara Mrs. Gibbs. The landfill site near Falls visitor ignores is that the dis- Afton has been so carefully pre- posal of PCB-tainted dirt in this pared that, if anything, it overcom- landfill has come about through the Knsates for safety. In Niagara legal processes that keep the Contils, a chemical Company dumped stitution from being just a worthless many kinds of toxic wastes at a site piece of* paper. That Constitution that was neither suitable nor care- guarantees Mrs. Gibbs the right to fully prepared. Unlike the Afton speak her piece in Warren County, landfill, Love Canal was in a resi- but it does not guarantee that she 1) dential neighborhood and no moni- will make sense, 2) will provide a toring was used to protect people suitable alternative to the landfill or and property from its toxic con- 3) will not do more harm than good tents. by her pronouncements. , PCB-ARCH-EXT0378512