If you’re cruising Interstate 64 on Afton Mountain near the lower scenic overlook, or traveling U.S. Route 250 west of Charlottesville, and you spot three carved wooden bears frolicking in a roadside field, you’re pretty close to what’s left of the Greenwood Chemical Company.
Now the Superfund site is expected to be auctioned off, more than 40 years after a chemical explosion killed four men, shuttered the plant, and traumatized the tiny community of Newtown, down the road from Greenwood.
Antoine Sims grew up on Summer Rest Lane, right next door. He remembers scouting for Christmas trees with his mom near the plant and seeing a waste lagoon there…