CTS of Asheville shut down more than two decades ago, but for some former employees and neighbors of the electroplating facility, the memories haven't faded.

"The odors were bad," recalls Mary McGraw, who worked at the Mills Gap Road plant until its closure in 1986. "If you're in the plant, you're breathing it, and I spent 20 years in there." McGraw says she struggles with fatigue and heavy-metal poisoning, and she believes her condition may be linked to chemical exposure.

In the summer of 1999, a family living adjacent to the CTS site, who asked that they not be named, phoned the state Division of Water Quality after noticing a foul-smelling, oily substance in the spring that provided their drinking water.

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Original article in Mountain Xpress...