Why Route 66's Times Beach is Totally Forbidden

Comments · 315

• IT

  @ITSHISTORY · 1 month ago · pinned

  A huge thank you to the St. Louis community for sharing your personal stories and insights! To clarify for those asking: while the site is a public park today, the reputation of Times Beach remains &apos;forbidden&apos; due to the scale of the disaster that led to its evacuation. I’ve also noted the community’s correction regarding the peak population (approx. 2,000 residents)—keeping these historical records as sharp as possible is our top priority.<br><br>If you lived through this era or remember when the site was truly off-limits during the cleanup, I’d love to hear your memories below!

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• EA

  @eaglescout1984 · 1 month ago

  Russel Bliss was definitely a typical sleazy businessman. He didn&apos;t know what was in the sludge from NEPACCO, because he didn&apos;t bother to ask. They were paying him enough not to care. So, he didn&apos;t. And rather than be more cautious about something he didn&apos;t know anything about, he knew he could sell the sludge as part of his spraying business. So he was making money on both ends of handling toxic waste. Funny thing is, Modern Marvels did an episode on EPA Superfund sites, including Times Beach and he actually agreed to be interviewed! It&apos;s definitely worth a watch to get a peak inside the mind of the guy that poisoned a whole town.

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• EP

  @eppie83 · 1 month ago

  My Dad worker for the EPA and did cleanup there. He used to tell me stories about it. Now I’m a chemist obsessed with Superfund sites and industrial disasters.

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• AN

  @Anthony-kk5zc · 1 month ago

  Title: &nbsp; &nbsp;Why Route 66&apos;s Times Beach is Totally Forbidden<br>Video: &nbsp;It&apos;s a park that is open to all.

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• CH

  @charlespaterson9714 · 1 month ago

  In May 1987, my Army unit travelled by charter bus from Fort Campbell, KY to Ft Leonard Wood, MO. &nbsp;Part of that trip included riding on I-44 through the Time Beach area. I had never heard of Times Beach, so it was surreal as we passed adjacent, to see the empty streets and houses, some of which still had cars in the driveway but not a person to be seen. &nbsp;The lawns were all overgrown. &nbsp;The houses really didn&apos;t look more than 20 years old. &nbsp;Only later did someone mention that we probably passed through that town that had been abandoned due to Dioxin contamination. &nbsp;This is the first time I actually heard a more in-depth explanation of what went down. &nbsp;All I could compare it to in my knowledge base was what I had heard of at Love Canal in NY.

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• RO

  @rossjohnson1872 · 1 month ago (edited)

  High-tension electric pole transformers used to have liquid insulation with high levels of PCBs. Used to see them after hit by lightning leaking, and all got replaced beginning in the 1980s. All replaced now. A transformer leaking messed up the lineman replacing one behind my Mom&apos;s house in Ohio, &nbsp;and he just dropped his leather tool belt and left it, walked away. Imagine all your coworkers one by one dying horribly, slowly, with deformed children, while your job is to replace these toxic timebombs?

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• TI

  @tisenhow · 1 month ago

  Makes me wonder...if the Meramec river flooded, didn&apos;t the river take on a ton of Dioxin as well?

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• KR

  @krockpotbroccoli65 · 1 month ago

  I&apos;ve heard of this before. Thanks for posting this summary.

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• EL

  @eldoolittle · 3 weeks ago

  Another great example of why we need functioning governmental agencies like the EPA to regulate and monitor companies and corporations. They will always look for ways to cut corners to increase profits without regard for long-term consequences to the public.

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• CL

  @clayton5584 · 1 month ago

  200,000 residents? Maybe more like 2,000. Pretty big discrepancy

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• DS

  @Dsdcain · 1 month ago

  I worked on a base that&apos;s quite a large superfund site and they used the exact same process of heating soil to decontaminate. Because I worked at the base I actually had to attend classes on hazardous waste handling and clean up every year to stay qualified. I&apos;d heard this one in class and it&apos;s awesome that you&apos;re bringing it to the wider public. Excellent work.

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• RE

  @reichjef · 1 month ago

  It’s so interesting that this video published. I was just telling someone about the dioxin contamination at Times Beach, and how one guy basically poisoned the entire town, while we were talking about the Love Canal.

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