Report highlights toxic waste risk in hurricane paths
A recently released report from the Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center and the N.C. PIRG Education Fund highlights the serious threat that toxic Superfund waste sites pose when the lay in the paths of hurricanes and tropical storms.
“Every year, North Carolinians contend with the risk of losing their homes and their lives from devastating storms. They shouldn’t have to worry that flood damage could also mean toxic waste contamination,” said Drew Ball, Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center director.
The report, “A Perfect Storm: When Tropical Storms Meet Toxic Waste,” pulls together data from the National Hurricane Center and the Environmental Protection Agency to show that 810 sites were in areas affected by hurricanes and tropical storms during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, including twenty-two in North Carolina. Additionally, the report made recommendations to the EPA for improving and expediting cleanup at these sites.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history with a record-breaking 30 named storms, 11 of which made landfall in the United States.
Read the report at www.environmentnorthcarolina.org/reports/nce/perfect-storm.
