In the early 1970s, waste hauler Russell Bliss was hired to suppress dust on dirt roads and horse arenas across eastern Missouri, including St. Louis County and the small town of Times Beach. To maximize profits, Bliss mixed industrial chemical waste from a nearby chemical plant—which produced hexachlorophene and Agent Orange precursors—with used motor oil.
Unbeknownst to arena owners, the sludge contained lethal concentrations of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), one of the most toxic synthetic compounds known to science. Within days of spraying, dozens of horses collapsed and died, bird populations vanished from the rafters, and humans exposed to the dust developed severe skin lesions and illness. By 1982, tests by the EPA revealed astronomical dioxin levels across dozens of sites in St.
Louis County. The government was forced to order a permanent evacuation and eventual buyout of Times Beach, turning an entire American town into an uninhabited ghost town incinerated under strict hazardous waste protocols.