Forests to Burn

摘要

HAMLET, NORTH CAROLINA, is a place ringed by polluting industries. The town of about 6,000 people in Richmond County is close to a Perdue Farms chicken-processing plant, a Duke Energy biogas facility, a Piedmont Natural Gas power plant, a Trinity Manufacturing chemical plant, and a CSX rail hub through which freight cars carrying coal ash regularly pass. A quarter of the residents live at or below the federal poverty line of $26,200 a year for a family of four.