The US EPA then began to visit Times Beach in 1982, taking soil samples and identified dangerously high levels of Dioxin. of Agriculture and CDC who began an investigation in 1979. When 62 horses died in stables Bliss had sprayed, the owners contacted the Dept. The waste liquid contained levels of Dioxin (at the time the most potent cancer-causing agent made by man) that were 2,000 time higher than the Agent Orange used in Vietnam! What the city didn’t know is that Bliss hauled waste for the Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company ( NEPACCO).

Soon town’s people began to get sick as well. No one gave the foul-smelling substance a second thought, that is, until horses at the ranches he had sprayed started dropping dead. And it worked too, gluing the dirt to the road for up to 10 months. Kids loved sliding around in Bliss’ slippery purplish goo. Bliss sprayed his carcinogenic cocktail on the dirt streets of Times Beach. The liquid waste was tainted with toxic levels of Dioxin.įor 4 years, he was regular sight in Times Beach. It was one that manufacturing the notorious defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Bliss mixed 1 tank load of used engine oil with 6 tanks of waste liquid from a nearby chemical plant.

He also knew he’d make a profit, as he got the materials from the companies that paid him to haul their wastes away. To solve the problem, the city hired waste hauler Russell Bliss to spray what was supposed to be just used engine oil on the streets, at a cheap cost of 6 cents a gallon.īliss said it would do the trick, cause he’d successfully sprayed his horse stables and other ranches in the area. In the 1970s, the lower-middle class town couldn’t afford to pave its miles of dirt streets and was plagued with constant dust clouds kicked up by cars and trucks. But one with a very checkered past, as it’s the former location of the town of Times Beach and an infamous hazardous waste site. Louis, is one of Missouri’s newer state parks.

Superfund site Warning sign outside Times Beach, Missouri 1985Īlong famed ROUTE 66 just outside St.

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