Kepone Scandal’s Impact on the Virginia Fishing Industry

A shopper in a Richmond grocery store checks the varieties of fish available, as well as the state they were harvested from. None of the fish shown on the list came from Virginia. This photograph was published in the September 9, 1976, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch as proof of the disastrous impact that the Kepone scandal had on the Virginia fishing industry. From 1966 until 1975, poisonous wastes had been dumped into the James River by a chemical plant producing Kepone, a synthetic insecticide which proved to be highly dangerous to humans. The fish in the James River and its tributaries were contaminated by the toxins. Fishing bans were imposed and only began to be lifted in May 1980. By that time, the fishing industry in Virginia had been decimated.