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ANNISTON, Ala. – The Rev. Thomas Long doesn’t have neighbors on Montrose Avenue anymore. Everyone is gone.

Widespread chemical contamination from a Monsanto plant was discovered in this quiet city in the Appalachian foothills back in the 1990s. In West Anniston, behind Long’s home, a church was fenced off, and men in “moon suits” cleaned the site for weeks. Nearby, boarded windows and sunken porches hang from abandoned shotgun houses. Stray dogs roam the narrow streets. A red “nuisance” sign peeks above the un-mowed lawn of one empty house. Bulldozers will be here soon.

But Long stayed. He was the only one on his street who chose not to move; he had lived in the same house for all but one of his 64 years.

Now he is stuck. Stuck on a street with no neighbors. Stuck with a property he’s convinced is unclean. Stuck with an extraordinary load of chemicals in his body. And stuck with diabetes.

As the Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the cleanup of this neighborhood stretches into its eighth year, new research has linked PCBs exposure to a high rate of diabetes in this community of about 4,000 people, nearly all African American and half living in poverty.

The findings add to a picture of the town’s poor health following decades of contamination. It’s the latest chapter in a saga that this poverty-stricken, powerless community feels has dragged on far too long.