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Hmttstfltt >tar www.annistonstar.com Alabama's largest home-owned newspapei Eddie Moles/The Anniston Star Sylvester Harris, manager of Model City Mortuary, remembers when people ate fish caught in Choccolocco Creek. Today, the fish cannot be eaten because they are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls. Hidden in the soil By Jonathan Llfland Star Staff Writer Sylvester Harris just wants to have a normal, healthy garden instead of warnings. The graying Sweet Valley businessman remembers vine-ripe tomatoes, a neighborhood of kids playing in the water and eating fish caught in Choccolocco Creek. Fish caught from the creek Residents seek now carry a "do not consume" advisory from the state health department because of excess answers for PCB levels of an odorless, tasteless chemical that waits in the ground -- a hidden, manmade contamination menace. That chemical, a mixture of 209 individual components -- known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs -- is on the Environmental Protection Agency's probable carcinogen list. And it was produced by the ton from 1929 to 1971 at the west Anniston plant now known as Solutia. The Monsanto Co., which became Solutia in 1997' ceased production locally before much was known about the oily substance. Only later was it found that high doses of the chemical caused cancer in laboratory animals. A total of 1.5 billion pounds of it was pro duced nationwide at places like the Monsanto plant. Lawsuits have been launched alleging adverse effects to health and property from PCB contamina tion. In one case, property owners on Logan Martin Lake have claimed damages for depreciation. In anoth er case, which originated in the Calhoun County Circuit Court, the Alabama Supreme Court has issued an indefinite stay, a result of scores of legal maneuverings by attorneys for and against Solutia. Even Judge Joel Laird, who is set to preside over the local trial, does not know when, or if, the case will begin in Anniston. He does know that this will likely be the most time-consuming, complicated trial he's ever had, he said. Human studies to look at the permanent health effects from exposure to PCBs lave remained incon clusive, despite mountains of scientific evidence both Please ee Soil Page 5A WATER PCB-SD0000003605 Soil: Solutia responsible for planning, implementing andfunding repairs to soil these same problems." Faith allowed residents to know about the problems of their commu nity. and faith wfll get them through in. said Rev. Thomas Long, pastor at Glen Addie and St. John's United Methodist churches in Annislnn. The fish advisory was the first warning area residents hod about the danger from (he plant, a sign from above to .watch out for their health, he men tioned. "I feel that wc. us a community, have been cheated out ofour proper ty and our health," he said. "We jum want our property cleaned up. The Fish told us the story, ami Monsumo is not listening." Jonathan Litlanorpia Anniiton Star David Baker, president of Community Against Pollution, says If a person lives In Weet Anniston long enough. The PCBs will effect him or her. From Page 1A and Health departments at Solatia's pose an imminent threat to human 5l Louis headquarters. health and the environment," accord supporting and doubting the results from folks exposed to high levels of PCBs. Skin, liver, nose and lung problems have been documented from exposure, while developmental and neurological problems are cur rently under study. Science, however, has failed to sway the mind of Harris, 61, director of the Model City Mortuary. He was tested recently for PCB content and was found to have more than 35 parts per million or it in his blood. The allowable standard set by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is 20 parts per million, Harris javs he doesn't have any. "Our feelings are that there is no strong evidence that PCBs cause cancer,'1 he said. L|We don't argue that high doses in animal studies have shown a positive correlation for cancer. Our position is that if you have sufficient studies of human beings who were exposed to PCBs, you can learn more than with animal studies." Studies, indeed, are mixed when reviewing the health effects from prolonged PCB exposure. Nearly a down such analyses. h*vc split near ly evenly on finding problems. One constant, however, has been a find ing that PCBs accumulate in human fatty tissue and stay around through ing to the agency's most recent sum mary. Solutia will be responsible for planning, implementing and funding the various steps of repair, which is expected to continue for years, according to the ADEM document. The state group is responsible for overseeing the actions andreviewing the company's plans. Still some west Anniston resi dents consider PCBs a modern-day phantom with uncertain effects alter a lifetime of exposure. If anybody was exposed to the chemical, it was Oklu Blankenship, she proudly claimed. She owned land and lived downstream from (he health problems, but, like his friends out one's life after exposure. and former neighbors, he worries if The hugest study of PCBs, pub century. She cleared clogs from the any of his customers were brought in lished in March, examined mare drainage creek, a waterway that later > before their time because of expo than 7,000 workers exposed at a turned out to be an escape route for I sure to air-, water- or soil-borne PCB plant in New York. The investiga PCBs. particles. . tion, sponsored by General Electric `Tin 63 years old and I've proba If you ask him to tell you what -- which has litigation and concerns bly dug more drrl than anyone happened to the communities of about PCBs similar to Solutia's -- around here," Ms. Blankenship said. Cobbtown, Montrose and found no direct correlation between "If I've ever had anything from it, it Sweetwater, he'll just say that exposure and cancer. doesn't show, I'm just going to keep they're gone, marked now by shiny Several questions, including the doing what I'm doing." steel fences, barbed on top, and length and rate of exposure of Ihe Her blood remains untested for t freshly dug earth that covers a great study's subjects, have led to some the chemical, but her hank account portion of the area around the plant "People, seems like all they can do is mow their lawn and go in their house," Harris said. "We used to speculation that the report is far from conclusive. The EPA. for example, has suggested that it will not remove PCBs from its probable carcinogen has been padded with payments she i accepted from Solatia for nine of her j properties closest in the plant. I Instead of moving away, however, drink right out of the spring and play in the ditch. Atl that's gone." Solutia acknowledges producing ihe chemical, a highly effective insu lator prized Tor its heat resistance. The material was used under the trade name Arochlor in eleclricnl items such as appliances, lighting fixtures, transformers and capaci tors, as well as other tilings. Some PCBs are. probably still in use. said Stephen Safe, a PCB expert and professor at Texas A&M University.- While relatively safe when used in a closed system such as an electrical unit, PCBs are hard to get out of the environment and can linger for hundreds of years. "It never seems to go away ifyou don't bum U," he said. "PCBs don't degrade over time, so they do pre sent a long-term problem. If there's still a chance for exposure, I'd want something done about it." Eliminating the chemical is a long, expensive process: It requites either that the contaminated soil be collected and shipped to a hazardous list because of the new information. "We feel there are enough limita tions in the newest studies that it doesn't change our mind," said Elmer Akin, chief of ibe Office of Technical Service* for the Waste Management Division for the Atlanta ERA offices. "There are still a great number of reasons why we feel people should be concerned about PCBs," he said. "We're trying to find what level is harmful, and that's a difficult issue to resolve. There is evidence that the blood levels (in Anniston) are higher than background levels; whether those result in disease, that's the 564,000 question." Different concentrations of chlo rine were used Fot various applica tions of the chemical, and additional investigation found that the higher chlorine content, the more likely the chemical was to remain in the envi ronment and the more likely it was to expose people who might happen upon a contaminated area. Most serious exposures to those she still lives in the neighborhood. And she's not alone. Tn fad, sortie families have moved in since the remediation began. "It's kind of scary in see those fences -- why would they pul thiwc up if it wax safe," said Nina Ramey, who recently moved to the area from Jacksonville, along with her three young children. `They keep testing the soil and that worries me. But as far as I'm concerned, (hey said it's already been cleared." Some residents are infuriated waiting on a solution from llic courts, said David Baker, president of the an environmental group form ing under the name of Community Against Pollution. Stalling the legal I system holds the city hostage while I people around him age and get sick, * he said. "If you live here long enough, you're going to be affected by it" Baker said. 'This is not a myth; peo ple around here have been exposed-1 still don't know if it's safe -- we're worried that our children will have waste incinerator site or that the land residents who didn't work at the be capped in sealed landfills, which plant was either from air or water prevents the chemical from spread exposure. The chemical bonds with ing. sod and remains in sediment beds in The company has spent more waterways decades after the initial than $30 million in efforts to remedy contamination. Locally, the sediment PCB contamination in Anniston by beds under Snow Creek and cleaning up problem sites and buy Choccolocco Creek are contaminat ing contaminated property, accord ed. ing to Kevin Cahill, a Solutia And when fish feed from the spokesman. The company paid creek bottom, they can accumulate approximately SIT million to relo the chemical, passing it up the food cate die Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, which was near the plant A S3 million settlement was handed chain including to humans. For dial reason, the Alabama Department of Public Health has down last year for the Mars Hill issued fish advisories because of Baptist Church, also close by. PCBs for all species of Bah liom the Solutia has Located storage sites Choccolocco Creek and catfish over for affected soil on its property, and one pound in the Coosa River from to stop PCBs from being washed Cherokee County through Calhoun into local waterways, it has blocked and Talladega counties, into St. several drainage routes and con Clair, Shelby and Coosa counties structed detention ponds to hold downstream. runoff water. ' While the company is taking cor rective measures, however, Soiling scientists maintain that the adverse health effects attributed to PCBs are Efforts to repair the environmen tal damage have been led by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which has worked closely with Solutia to overstated. "The weight of the evidence says that PCBs don't cause anything clean up or contain the contamina tion on the property surrounding the plant more than skin problems," said Bob Kaley, director of the Environmental Affairs and Environmental Safety ADEM's position has been that, "although PCB exposures have occurred, the site does not'currentiy WATER PCB-SD0000003606