31. The Piney Grove Community 1 Year After a Chemical Disaster

Sabrina Webster is a resident of Piney Grove, NC - which is in the 1 mile radius of where the Winston-Salem Weaver Fertilizer Plant Fire that happened in January of last year. I did four other episodes about the fire itself and stricter regulations that need to be in place, especially for Ammonium Nitrate that the community was exposed to, so listen to episodes 5,6,7, and 8 for that. There is now a report out about the fire from the Analysis of Publicly Disseminated Air Quality Information During Facility Fire Incident highlights instances when local officials told the public that the air quality was okay and pollutants were just “irritants” when, in fact, levels of Particulate Matter 2.5 were in the EPA’s hazardous and very unhealthy categories. Yet, they told residents it was safe to go back to their homes four days after the fire. With Sabrina, we talk about the day the fire happened, the process coming back, the rich history of the Piney Grove community, how the media portrays the community, the lack of compensation they got, and now the current situation. Contact and connect with Sabrina: www.bredl.org Report: https://archive.bredl.org/air/220803_Weaver_Fire_Air_Analysis.html