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When the BioLab chemical plant caught fire in Conyers, Georgia, chlorine gas caused stay-in-place orders, school closures, and potentially dangerous medical fallout for residents. Soil and Water Conservation Representative Kenny Johnson consistently spoke out against corporations’ environmental neglect, penny-pinching, and failure to meet regulatory standards. Until he couldn’t.
On October 8, 62-year-old Johnson demanded a shutdown and federal investigation of BioLab before Georgia state legislators, calling the fire far from the first “environmental disaster.” After collapsing in the hallway, he died in a hospital.
It’s unknown whether the BioLab fire was a factor in his death. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case before returning the body to his family without conducting an autopsy. Johnson’s mission must continue. BioLab had dangerous incidents in 2016, 2020, and January 2024. But the implications go far beyond Georgia.
Flint, Selma, and Jackson residents have endured water and wastewater crises. For decades, the federal government contaminated Indigenous reservations with nuclear waste and built prisons on top of toxic waste. Outside the U.S., waste colonialism has latched onto Accra, Ghana, and Koko, Nigeria.
Johnson’s final moments should embolden us to question why the EPA allows polluters to turn Black neighborhoods into “sacrifice zones.” It is criminal for our communities to be viewed as dumping grounds for pollutants.