City officials in Durham, North Carolina, have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene after decades of chemical contamination in a creek that runs through a historically Black neighborhood, but action has stalled under the Trump administration.
Lisa Sorg reports for Inside Climate News.
In short:
- Chemical runoff from the Brenntag Mid-South facility in east Durham has polluted a creek near McDougald Terrace, a predominantly Black and low-income community, with contaminants like lead, acetone, and 1,4-dioxane. The creek often emits odors strong enough to prompt police calls.
- Despite years of evidence showing groundwater and stormwater contamination, regulatory oversight has been lax. State agencies lost paperwork, failed to follow up on permits, and did not regulate stormwater discharge for nearly 30 years. EPA involvement has stalled since the agency's environmental justice office was disbanded earlier this year.
- Children and families living nearby face chronic exposure to hazardous pollutants from multiple industrial sources. Health data shows elevated asthma rates and shorter life expectancy in the area, which also ranks high for proximity to hazardous waste sites.
Key quote:
“Residents living around Burton Park have lived with decades of underinvestment, environmental injustices and industrial encroachment.”
— Nate Baker, Durham City Councilman
Why this matters:
Communities like McDougald Terrace show what is at stake as the Trump administration shreds the federal government's commitments to environmental justice. The neighborhood’s legacy of redlining and zoning for hazardous industry has left residents vulnerable to a web of toxic exposures: leaking barrels of chemicals, diesel exhaust, and polluted water running past schools and playgrounds. Many families live in homes built before lead paint bans, just steps from a creek laced with carcinogens. The systematic failure of regulatory agencies to monitor, enforce, and act adds another layer of harm.
