After 4 railcars plunged into a creek a year ago near Paulsboro, N.J., spilling vinyl chloride, the effects are still being felt by local residents.

"Walt Stevenson grew up by Mantua Creek in Paulsboro.

When he was a kid, Stevenson helped a railroad employee with a bad leg manually open and close the bridge overhead where trains passed through. "Never a lick of trouble," he said.

As a teenager, Stevenson courted his high school sweetheart, Irma, on the creek, rowing out to the Delaware and all the way to Philadelphia International Airport. They married and later taught their kids to swim there."

Andrew Seidman reports for the Inquirer Staff December 1, 2013. [2]