The Toxic Town of Times Beach, Missouri

The former town of Times Beach, in Missouri, United States, about 27 km southwest of St. Louis, was founded as part of a strange marketing program. In 1925, a newspaper called the St. Louis Star-Times secured this large tract of land along the Meremec River, and started selling off plots measuring 20 foot by 100 foot in size. For just $67.50, which is about $900 today accounting for inflation, a purchaser could secure a plot along with a 6-month subscription to the newspaper. The plots sold off alright, but the town never became the booming resort the newspaper had hoped for. The Great Depression followed by gasoline rationing during World War II instead turned Times Beach into a community of lower-middle-class families. Around 2,000 people lived here until their forced evacuation in 1985. Photo credit: NPR.org The trouble started with dust. Times Beach’s roads were unpaved leading to frequent dust storms whenever cars and trucks passed by or the wind blew from the river. The draught would catch the loose dust and blow it into people’s homes and faces. It was a nuisance. Unfortunately, the town didn’t have the money to pave its roads, so they decided to hire Russell Martin Bliss, the owner of a small and local waste oil business, who had developed a unique solution to the dust problem. Bliss was spraying used motor oil over his farm and horse arena to successfully suppress dust. A single application kept the dust down for several months. Those who visited Bliss’ property were impressed by how well the technique worked. It was not long before people began to hire him for his dust-suppressant services. Around the same time, Bliss was hired for another job. A chemical supplier company wanted Bliss to dispose off some industrial waste. Unbeknownst to Bliss, the waste was laced with an extremely toxic compound known as dioxin.