Issue and Opponent: Local residents were outraged when the Waste Technologies Industry (WTI) company began building a toxic waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. The project was first proposed in 1977, and after over a decade of legal battles with local government officials and environmental agencies, the construction of the incinerator began in 1990. The incinerator was built on the floodplain of the Ohio River, just 300 feet from homes and 1,100 feet from the local elementary school in the impoverished Appalachian community. The project was allowed to proceed despite clearly violating an Ohio law preventing the construction of hazardous waste facilities within 2,000 feet of homes or schools. Parents in East Liverpool feared for the health of their children after learning that the plant would release 4.7 tons of lead into the air each year. Concerned citizens from Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania formed the Tri-State Environmental Council to advocate against the incinerator. In 1991, the activists pressured Ohio Governor George Voinovich to resolve the issue. Voinovich had abstained from the controversy surrounding the incinerator, particularly as he found himself caught between the conflicting interests of the pro-WTI Citizens for Progress group and the anti-incinerator Tri-State Environmental Council. Dilemma Action: After Governor Voinovich escaped anti-incinerator protesters in his car rather than addressing his constituents’ concerns over the WTI issue, West Virginian activist, nurse, and mother Terri Swearingen jokingly referred to Voinovich as a “weenie on waste.” Local newspapers began to circulate the quote from Swearingen, and soon the Tri-State Environmental Council activists adopted the hot dog as a symbol of the Ohio governor’s cowardice and inaction. Activists held a “weenie roast” in front of the governor’s mansion, appearing at the protest in their hot dog costumes. In grocery stores across Columbus, Ohio, they put stickers with the governor’s phone number on hot dog packages. They regularly delivered hot dogs to the governor’s office on visits to the capitol. In one incident, the activists even hid foot-long hot dogs under their coats during the governor’s press conference, pulling them out and waving them silently in the air as he spoke. The “weenie on waste” protests created a dilemma for Voinovich. The governor was forced to decide between giving in to the demands of the protesters and losing the support of pro-WTI corporate interests groups or ignoring the demands of his constituents and risking his reputation. Outcomes: The 1991 protests against Governor Voinovich drew massive media attention. At first, the “weenie on waste” protests were covered by local newspapers, but coverage of the East Liverpool incinerator issue soon became national. Newspapers featured tongue-in-cheek headlines such as “Weenie-wielding women whack Voinovich on waste.” Under pressure from the protesters, Governor Voinovich issued a moratorium preventing new incinerators from being constructed in Ohio. However, this did nothing to target the existing WTI incinerator already in operation. The issue of the East Liverpool incinerator even drew the attention of the Clinton administration. The “weenie on waste” protest was ultimately unsuccessful, however. Although the protests did draw local and national media attention, neither Governor Voinovich nor President Clinton acted to shut down the WTI incinerator. In 1997 the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued a hazardous waste permit for the incinerator, making legal action against the project difficult. The “weenie on waste” protests were part of a larger effort against the WTI incinerator in East Liverpool. Prior to the dilemma action against Governor Voinovich, the anti-incinerator activists held multiple local protests in 1991. One such protest was attended by the actor Martin Sheen to draw national media attention to the cause. The protesters also boycotted multiple EPA hearings on the project and blocked the gates of the WTI incinerator, stalling its operations for a few days. Although so far, activists have not been successful in their fight against the WTI incinerator, in 2020, the project is faced with a federal lawsuit by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for hazardous chemical emissions.