On December 23, 1982, residents of the town of Times Beach, Missouri, were told that their town had been hopelessly contaminated. In 1972, a contractor sprayed the chemical dioxin over the town’s unpaved roads to reduce dust. Within a few years, animals began dying and people fell ill. In 1982 the EPA announced that Times Beach was to be condemned. The government officials purchased every home in town and had to incinerate 265,000 tons of dioxin-tainted soil.
