Dioxin Dusting Destroys Times Beach

Between 1970 and 1976, the town of Times Beach, Missouri hired waste oil hauler Russell Bliss to spray its unpaved gravel roads for dust control, not knowing he had mixed in highly toxic dioxin. He tried to dispose of the chemical waste by adding it to engine oil and spreading it across about 23 miles of town roads. The EPA confirmed the dangerous TCDD contamination in December 1982, prompting health officials to order the evacuation and demolition of the town. The state disincorporated Times Beach in 1985, and after cleanup, the land reopened in 1999 as Route 66 State Park.

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