Pennsylvania Residents Fear a Flood of Toxic Waste

May 29, 2007 - At the entrance to the property, a low brick building squats behind a chain-link fence, and leafy trees sway in the breeze.

There's nothing overtly menacing. But Donna Cuthbert is frightened.

Not by the offices at the old Occidental chemical plant in Lower Pottsgrove, but by what lies beyond, closer to the banks of the Schuylkill: landfills and man-made lagoons that hold decades of industrial refuse, including vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, and dioxin, one of the world's most lethal substances.

"It's very clear that something is wrong. The question is if someone is going to do anything about it," said Cuthbert, who with her husband leads the Alliance for a Clean Environment, based in Stowe.

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