Toxicana (Texarkana nickname)

The city of Texarkana in Bowie County has three sites on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List for cleanup. An article by James Presley in the March 10, 1989 Texas Observer called Texarkana “Toxicana, USA.”
   
The “Toxicana” nickname is still used, although print citations are relatively few.
 
   
Wikipedia: Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue. The population of the city is 34,782 at the 2000 census. Texarkana, Texas has a current population of 36,054.
 
EPA National Priorities List
BOWIE COUNTY
Site Name Proposed Listing Final Listing Construction Completion Partial Deletion Deletion
Koppers Co Inc (Texarkana Plant) 
TXD980623904   10/15/84 6/10/86 8/20/02 N/A N/A
 
Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant
TX7213821831   10/15/84 7/22/87 9/24/02 N/A N/A
 
Texarkana Wood Preserving Co. 
TXD008056152   4/10/85 6/10/86 N/A N/A N/A
 
10 March 1989, Texas Observer:
Toxicana, USA: The growing drive to clean up Texarkana-and the nation
by James Presley
 
Google Books
The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right
By Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck and Diana Taylor
UPNE
1997
Pg. 44:
When I saw her it was summertime in Texarkana, a faded railroad town on the Texas-Arkansas border, and the brutal humidity made it difficult to breathe. In Carver Terrace, Oliver’s old neighborhood, it smelled like someone was brushing hot, sticky tar onto a sun-scorched roof. But it was just the air, licking at the toxic soil of this suburban ghost town.
Pg. 45:
Welcome to “Toxicana,” Oliver’s hometown and Superfund Site No. 677, one of the worst toxic waste dumps in the country. “Every time I come back here it’s like a pain in my heart,” said Oliver, her voice echoing off the plywood-shuttered houses. “There’s just death everywhere. There’s not a house here that hasn’t been affected.”
     
24 December 2006, Texarkana (TX) Gazette:
Texarkana’s Superfund sites lead some to refer to the city as “Toxicana,” says Delores McCright, a Texarkana College professor of biology. The third Superfund site is located at Red River Army Depot near Texarkana.