In the small town of St. Louis, Michigan, a simple marker tells the story of a terrible environmental disaster. In the 1970s, the Velsicol Chemical Company accidentally mixed the toxic fire retardant chemical polybrominated biphenyls, known as PBB, into livestock feed which was then distributed across Michigan, causing a statewide health crisis. But for the people of St. Louis, the problem went deeper. The company had been dumping harmful chemicals including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, known as DDT, into the land and water for years. When the plant closed in 1978, the contamination…
