Photo Walk at Centre County Kepone, July 2025
I focused my thesis project American Toxics on the Superfund toxic waste site in my hometown of State College, PA, called Centre County Kepone. To quote American Toxics:
A chemical company made pesticides (kepone and mirex) here in the 1950s through 1970s, dumping toxic waste into lagoons and fields, which led to dangerous pesticide pollution in nearby water and fish. Cleanup began after leaks and chemical odors were found, with the EPA and Rutgers Organics Corporation working for decades to contain and monitor the contamination. The site is now capped and fenced, with strict limits on land and water use, but long-term monitoring continues to protect the community.
After finishing the project entirely in New York City, I visited the site to see the current state in 2025. While chemical dumping was occurring into the 2000s—when I was going to preschool just up the road, also next to a car oil shop, a sheet metal shop, a dry cleaner, and a concrete plant—the site is now dormant and protected by fencing. It’s peak summer, and the plants have grown up around the site blocking many lines of sight, and birds & wildlife flit about.
Like many Superfund sites, there is no marking whatsoever the site is dangerous or federally-managed; no explanation of Superfund, where to find background info, who to call about issues. (American Toxics provides all this & more.) It’s off-limits due to the barbed wire fencing. While in the past there have been gaping holes exploited by wildlife & likely locals, on this visit I didn’t spot any. It’s eerie to see this abandoned facility, with dozens of vehicles outside a boarded-up office building, birds flying over a chemical disposal well, security apparatuses guarding degrading structures that look entirely unremarkable. Its history of poisoning workers at the facility, of leaking long-banned pesticides into nearby Spring Creek, is only available to those who know how to look for it.
And what is success, for this Superfund site & many more? To be safe enough for re-development, i.e. to turn into yet another strip mall of dollar stores, banks, and fast food. Success will be a new parking lot paving over the old one, eventually.
But it might take awhile; the EPA expects this place will remain on our country’s National Priorities List to finish cleaning up until 2046.
The parking lot & administrative building across the street:
The main complex:
The main gates to the site:
Rutgers Organics is the current owner of the site. Note that the address is Struble Rd, not Stuble Rd.
The concrete-lined lagoon for chemical disposal:
Side gate:
From the train tracks:
