Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

PCB contamination is severe and widespread, originating from a Monsanto plant in Anniston, Alabama and a GE plant in Rome, Georgia. PCB remediation is necessary to bring environmental justice to the Coosa watershed and ensure a safe place for Alabamians to drink, fish and enjoy recreational activities.

Anniston became the site of the world’s first commercial manufacturer of PCBs in 1929 when Swann Chemical Company began operations. In 1935, the facility was purchased by Monsanto, who continued to produce and dump PCBs until 1971, a year after making improvements to a landfill that was still deemed inadequate. Millions of pounds of PCBs were released into the environment. Internal documents released as a result of legal action taken against Monsanto in the 1990s show that the chemical giant knew of the contamination for decades and systematically hid evidence from the public to protect their business. The public did not find out about the potential health risks until 1993 when a citizen caught a deformed fish in Choccolocco Creek, which led to a state investigation and class action lawsuit.

Monsanto was forced by the EPA in 2002 to dig up the top 12 inches of soil at several homes in Anniston, but little has been done for Choccolocco Creek, Snow Creek and the Coosa. Monsanto dredged 1,000 tons of heavily contaminated sediment from the 11th Street ditch and from 100 feet of Snow Creek immediately downstream of Monsanto’s waste and storm run-off points. PCB soil contamination may be significant all the way down to Jordan Lake, just above Wetumpka.

Currently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is working with the EPA to outline a plan to fix the problems associated with PCB contamination. The USFWS is on the third of six steps of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Rehabilitation (NRDAR) plan to determine injuries to plant and animal life on Choccolocco Creek. They hope to reach a recorded decision by 2013 for Choccolocco Creek. It may take many more years to assess the total damage to the Coosa.

Recent studies suggest mercury pollution was also commonplace at the Monsanto plant.

The Long History of PCBs in the Coosa

The first commercial manufacturer of PCBs, Swann Chemical Company, began operations in Anniston in 1929. In 1935, Monsanto purchased the Anniston PCB facility from Swann. PCBs were produced at the plant until Monsanto suspended PCB production there in 1971. In 1977 Monsanto stopped producing the chemical altogether, as it was made illegal by Congress. Currently, the area is an EPA Superfund site. Solutia, Inc., a Monsanto spinoff, now produces polyphenyl compounds in the plant.

Monsanto had known of PCBs deadly effects well before they stopped operations. In 1966, Monsanto hired a Mississippi State University biologist to test areas around the factory. He placed fish in cloth containers at different parts of nearby creeks and found that “all 25 fish lost equilibrium and turned on their sides in 10 seconds and all were dead in 3 ½ minutes.” He urged Monsanto to clean up Snow Creek and to stop dumping untreated waste there- a warning that went ignored, even as state officials found PCB levels as high as 940 times the federal level of concern in yard soils, 200 times that level in dust inside homes and 2,000 times that level in Monsanto’s drainage ditches.

Later that year Monsanto’s board approved a $2.9 million expansion of PCB operations in Anniston as well as Sauget, Illinois with a unanimous vote. The Anniston plant was leaking 50,000 pounds of PCBs into Snow Creek annually despite burying over 1 million pounds in antiquated landfills without catch basins, settling ponds or carbon filters. Internal memos uncovered in late 1990’s litigation found that Monsanto managers were becoming increasingly worried about the contamination leaking to the public around 1968.

In Choccolocco Creek in 1969, Monsanto found a blacktail shiner with 37,800 parts per million (ppm) of PCB, 7,560 times the legal maximum of 5 ppm. GE, in a memo, persuaded Monsanto to continue manufacturing PCBs so that they could continue purchasing them. In 1970 Monsanto’s daily PCB losses were fluctuating between 16 and 250 pounds, while they had promised the Food and Drug Administration to reduce emissions to 0.1 pounds per day. That year Monsanto purchased 50 hogs that had been grazing near the plant, shot the hogs and buried them. The hogs had PCB levels as high as 19,000 ppm, which by today’s standards is 90,000 times the legal maximum in some states. At the end of 1970, managers installed a sump, a carbon bed and a new limestone pit to trap the PCBs. Yet in 1971 they closed the facility as they faced as much as $1 billion in additional pollution control costs.

Monsanto managed, with its political clout, to thwart attempts at a cleanup launched by the EPA in the early 1970’s, by the Soil Conservation Society in 1983 and by the state of Alabama in 1985. The latter attempt was blocked by then-attorney general Don Siegelman, a man who helped Monsanto again in a letter to President Clinton in 2000, 4 years before a trial against Governor Siegelman began that would eventually send him to jail for bribery and mail fraud. According to the Environmental Defense Fund scorecard, in 1990 Calhoun County ranked among the worst 20% of all U.S. Counties in terms of an average person’s added cancer risk, and worst 30% of U.S. Counties in terms of major chemical releases. In 2000, the EPA found that 70 percent of the PCB- polluted spots being studied in Anniston have unsafe levels of lead, from 400 to 3,080 ppm.

In 1993 residents of Anniston got their first glimpse of troubles linked to Monsanto and their PCBs. Citizens began discovering largemouth bass with blistered scales in the nearby Choccolocco Creek. Tests confirmed that these fish had extremely high levels of PCBs. In 1995, the Alabama Department of Public Health concluded that exposure to soil and sediment from Choccolocco Creek, Snow Creek, and both ends of the Monsanto facility presented a public health hazard.

In 1996, Mars Hill Missionary Baptist Church and residents of Anniston, filed suit against Monsanto. In 1998 Monsanto settled with Mars Hill awarding them $2.5 million and a new church van. A high-profile class action lawsuit ended with a $700 million day in court for Monsanto. In 1999, Citizens Against Pollution filed a letter with the EPA asking for action in regard to PCB contamination in Anniston. In 2000, the EPA initiated the process to qualify Anniston as a Superfund clean-up site.

As of 2002, all species of fish in Choccolocco Creek remain under PCB advisory. Bass and catfish that inhabit at least five popular fishing spots on the middle Coosa River continue to have elevated levels of PCBs, according to data collected by both ADEM and Monsanto. In 2002, the government proposed a consent decree with Solutia and Pharmacia for PCB investigation and cleanup in the Anniston area. On July 24, 2002, Alabama’s governor, Don Siegelman issued a letter saying the federal government should allow the Gadsden circuit court judge to rule on the plaintiffs demand for cleanup. Siegelman wrote: “As is too often the case, [the decree] protects the powerful and connected corporation at the expense of the citizens in the area.” The decree would prevent Anniston from being listed on Superfund’s National Priorities List of the most contaminated sites in the country. Once again Siegelman had helped Monsanto.

Monsanto was forced by the EPA in 2002 to dig up the top 12 inches of soil at several homes in Anniston, but little has been done for Choccolocco Creek, Snow Creek and the Coosa. Monsanto dredged 1,000 tons of heavily contaminated sediment from the 11th Street ditch and from 100 feet of Snow Creek immediately downstream of Monsanto’s waste and storm run-off points. Based on the timing of dam construction on the Coosa, PCB soil contamination may be significant all the way down to Jordan Lake, just above Wetumpka.

Currently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is working with the EPA to outline a plan to fix the problems associated with PCB contamination. The USFWS is on the third of six steps of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Rehabilitation (NRDAR) plan to determine injuries to plant and animal life on Choccolocco Creek. The EPA is looking at the impact on humans. They hope to reach a recorded decision by 2013 for Choccolocco Creek. It may take many more years to assess the total damage to the Coosa.