Sue Pope

Midlothian | Activist

Mrs. Pope is a landowner in Midlothian, a rural community south of Dallas, who has been active personally and through a grassroots group, Downwinders at Risk, to discourage large local cement kilns from burning toxic waste as fuel. These kilns have managed to persuade regulators to view this activity as recycling, and avoid the strict regulations that would otherwise treat them as hazardous waste incinerators. Mrs. Pope is concerned that the ash (cement kiln dust, or CKD) and the air emissions from these kilns contain dioxins, heavy metals and other contaminants that are causing auto-immune irregularities, cancers, and endocrine problems among workers and neighbors to the kilns.