Document 6YEoBQDgaZQZNQzVOELw8jd9

1 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA 2 EASTERN DIVISION 3 JOHN R. SWIFT and BARBARA SWIFT, 4 Plaintiffs, 5 CIVIL ACTION NUMBER versus 6 CV-97-AR-2430-E MONSANTO COMPANY, INC., 7 et al., 8 Defendants. 9 / 10 DEPOSITION OF DIANE HERNDON 11 The deposition of DIANE HERNDON, was 12 taken before Deborah Salers Garrett, Certified 13 Shorthand Reporter, Registered Professional 14 Reporter, as Commissioner, commencing at 10:00 15 a.m. on August 25, 1999, by the Plaintiffs, at 16 the law offices of Lightfoot, Franklin & 17 White, The Clark Building, 400 North 20th 18 Street, Birmingham, Alabama, pursuant to the 19 stipulations set forth herein. 20 Regional Reporting Service, Inc. 21 755 Walnut Street Gadsden, Alabama 35901-0755 22 23 2 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037789 1 APPEARANCES 2 For the Plaintiffs: 3 ELLEN B. MALOW, Esq. KASOWITZ, BENSON, TORRES & FRIEDMAN, LLP 4 700 Louisiana Street, Suite 2200 Houston, Texas 77002 5 For the Defendants: 6 ADAM PECK, Esq. 7 LIGHTFOOT, FRANKLIN & WHITE, LLC The Clark Building 8 400 North 20th Street Birmingham, Alabama 35203 9 MICHAEL E. KELLY, Esq. 10 SMITH, HELMS, MULLISS & MOORE P. O. Box 21927 11 Greensboro, North Carolina 27420 12 13 14 INDEX 15 Stipulations 16 Reporter's Certificate 17 Page 4 276 18 19 20 EXAMINATIONS 21 Witness: DIANE HERNDON 22 By Ms. Malow 23 Page REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037790 3 1 EXHIBITS 2 Plaintiffs' Marked Offered One 5 3 Two 23 Three 44 4 Four 52 Five 56 5 Six 61 Seven 65 6 Eight 67 Nine 73 7 Ten 75 Eleven 77 8 Twelve 84 Thirteen 98 9 Fourteen 120 Fifteen 135 10 Sixteen 147 Seventeen 148 11 Eighteen 150 Nineteen 154 12 Twenty 161 Twenty-one 169 13 Twenty-two 173 Twenty-three 176 14 Twenty-four 192 Twenty-five 202 15 Twenty-six 207 Twenty-seven 222 16 Twenty-eight 225 Twenty-nine 227 17 Thirty 236 Thirty-one 238 18 Thirty-two 240 Thirty-three 242 19 Thirty-four 245 Thirty-five 246 20 Thirty-six 257 Thirty-seven 267 21 Thirty-eight 269 Thirty-nine 271 22 No other exhibits were marked for identification, offered or attached as 23 exhibits hereto. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037791 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 4 1 STIPULATIONS 2 IT IS STIPULATED AND AGREED by the 3 parties, through their respective counsel, 4 that the deposition of DIANE HERNDON, may be 5 taken before Deborah Salers Garrett, CSR, RPR, 6 as Commissioner and Notary Public, Alabama at 7 Large, at Birmingham, Alabama, on August 25, 8 1999, at 10:00 a.m. 9 IT IS STIPULATED AND AGREED that the 10 signature to and reading of the deposition by 11 the witness is waived, the deposition to have 12 the same force and effect as if full 13 compliance were had with all laws and rules of 14 Court relating to the taking of depositions. 15 IT IS STIPULATED AND AGREED that it 16 shall not be necessary for any objections to 17 be made by counsel to any questions except as 18 to form or leading questions and that counsel 19 may make objections and assign grounds at the 20 time of trial or at the time said deposition 21 is offered in evidence or prior thereto. 22 IT IS STIPULATED AND AGREED that notice 23 of filing by the Commissioner is waived. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037792 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 5 1 STATE OF ALABAMA, BIRMINGHAM, AUGUST 25, 1999 2 3 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 4 One was marked for 5 identification.) 6 7 DIANE HERNDON, 8 after having been first duly sworn, was 9 examined and testified as follows: 10 11 EXAMINATION 12 BY MS. MALOW: 13 Q. Would you please introduce yourself? 14 A. I'm Diane Herndon with Monsanto Company. 15 Q. Diane, my name is Ellen Maiow, and I 16 represent the plaintiffs in a lawsuit 17 that has been filed against Monsanto and 18 Solutia. You understand that we are on 19 opposite sides in this case like we are 20 at the table? 21 A. Ido. 22 Q. Have you ever given a deposition before? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037793 23 A. No. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 6 1 Q. I'm sure you have had a chance to meet 2 with the lawyers. I don't want to know 3 what you talked about. But you have 4 been prepared for what we are here for 5 today, right? 6 A. We had some time yesterday to talk. 7 Q. Did you review any documents to get 8 ready for your deposition? 9 A. No. The only documents was my order of 10 deposition, and I just saw that 11 yesterday. 12 Q. Is that what has been marked as Exhibit 13 Number One? 14 A. Yeah. 15 Q. Is that yes? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Just a few rules so we can make sure the 18 process goes as smoothly as possible. 19 We have a court reporter taking down 20 everything that is said. So you need to 21 make sure you answer out loud rather SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037794 22 than shaking your head or giving an 23 incomplete answer. Will you try to do REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 7 1 that for me? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. If at any time I ask you a question that 4 you don't understand, please make sure 5 to get me to repeat it. I'll be happy 6 to do that for you. Okay? 7 A. Okay. 8 Q. If you don't do that, I'm going to 9 assume you understood the question. Is 10 that fair? 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. If at any time you need to take a break, 13 just let me know. We can do that as 14 well. 15 A. Okay. 16 Q. You also understand you have taken an 17 oath to tell the truth and that that is 18 the same oath that you would take if we 19 were down at the courthouse in front of 20 the judge and the jury? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037795 21 A. Right. 22 Q. And you understand that the penalties of 23 perjury apply? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 8 1 A. Right. 2 Q. You are presently employed by Monsanto? 3 A. Yes. 4 Q. When did you start working there? 5 A. 1987. 6 Q. What was your position when you began 7 with Monsanto? 8 A. Community relations manager. 9 Q. Have you remained in that same position 10 since 1987? 11 A. No. 12 Q. Why don't you just give me a thumbnail 13 sketch of your work history at Monsanto 14 from '87 through the present? 15 A. I probably don't have dates to go along 16 with my different responsibilities, but 17 I did community relations for a number 18 of years. That turned into community 19 relations and state government affairs SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037796 20 for a number of sites. Then the state 21 government affairs function was taken 22 over by other people. I moved in to a 23 corporate job doing corporate issues REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 9 1 management. That was sometime in the 2 early '90s. 3 I've stayed in corporate. I've 4 had some plant responsibility along with 5 a lot of corporate assignments since 6 then. My latest responsibility is a job 7 called the news desk, which sorts 8 through a lot of news stories that come 9 in each day, information from other 10 sources, and then circulates it to the 11 people who need to know about it. 12 Q. Okay. At what time or times during your 13 employment with Monsanto have you had 14 responsibility for the Anniston site? 15 A. Several years in the'90s. I believe 16 '94 to'97. 17 Q. Was that a continuous stint, or was that 18 off and on? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037797 19 A. It was continuous. 20 Q. Have you also during your time with 21 Monsanto had responsibility for 22 Illinois? 23 A. Yes. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 10 1 Q. When was that? 2 A. Now, not for all of Illinois, just the 3 Krummrich plant. We have pharmaceutical 4 and food nutrition business up in the 5 Chicago area, and I didn't have 6 responsibility for them. 7 Q. But Sauget and Krummrich? 8 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 9 Q. When was that? 10 A. I started out with community relations 11 responsibility for them when I started 12 with the company. I had state 13 government affairs I think for just one 14 year with Illinois, just for chemicals. 15 And then I've had Krummrich kind of on 16 and off, just stepping in when they 17 needed me, but other people kind of took SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037798 18 the lead through a lot of the '90s as I 19 was in other positions. 20 Q. Is your maiden name -- I might butcher 21 this -- Bartolanzo? 22 A. Yes. 23 Q. In looking at Exhibit Number One, did REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 11 1 you locate any documents that were 2 responsive to that request? 3 A. All the documents related to Anniston I 4 turned over to the Solutia people at the 5 time of the split, actually even before 6 that, when I was transitioning out. 7 Q. So prior to 1997 or sometime in 1997? 8 A. Early '97 the transition started. And 9 by the time of the split all the 10 documents were with them. 11 Q. So when Solutia spun off from Monsanto 12 you remained with Monsanto? 13 A. Right. 14 Q. And you have never been an employee of 15 Solutia? 16 A. Right. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037799 17 Q. How did you organize the documents 18 relating to Anniston when you had the 19 position for community affairs and 20 government affairs for the Anniston 21 facility? 22 A. How did I organize them? 23 Q. Yeah. How were they kept? In what REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 12 1 format did you maintain the documents? 2 A. They were in Anniston files. 3 Q. That's what I'm trying to figure out. 4 Was it an Anniston file, or did you have 5 Alabama? 6 A. No. I only had the Anniston site in 7 Alabama. So anything related to the 8 Anniston site was in the Anniston files. 9 Q. And it wasn't broken up into 10 sub-categories? 11 A. It might have been, but I don't recall 12 what the categories might have been. 13 Q. So in preparation for this deposition 14 you did not make any efforts to locate 15 any documents, correct? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037800 16 A. That's right. 17 Q. And it's your testimony that you did not 18 look at any documents to refresh your 19 recollection in preparation for the 20 deposition? 21 A. That's correct. 22 Q. Tell me about your education, just a 23 brief sketch of that. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 13 1 A. Undergraduate in journalism and MBA. 2 Q. From what university? 3 A. University of Southern Illinois was 4 where I finished it, the MBA. I started 5 at the University of Colorado Denver. 6 And I got my undergraduate at University 7 of Colorado Boulder. 8 Q. Not a bad place to be for four years. 9 A. I know. 10 Q. Let me ask you a little bit about some 11 of this work history at Monsanto. You 12 mentioned a corporate job where you said 13 there were some sort of corporate issues 14 management or something. What does that SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037801 15 mean? 16 A. Looking at issues on the horizon that 17 the company might need to deal with. 18 Q. Give me an example of the type of issues 19 you deal with. 20 A. This would go back to the early '90s. 21 So I'm trying to -- 22 Q. Were there any environmental issues that 23 you looked at? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 14 1 A. Yeah. There were environmental issues. 2 Q. Give me an example of an environmental 3 issue that you looked at. 4 A. I'm trying to think. Environmental 5 justice was one issue, as an example. 6 Q. What is environmental justice? 7 A. It was the belief that poor minority 8 communities might be unfairly 9 disadvantaged by living near chemical 10 operations or garbage facilities or 11 places like that. 12 Q. And what role did you have in looking 13 into the issue of environmental justice? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037802 14 A. Just looking at what was developing in 15 different parts of the country, what 16 companies were active in issues related 17 to the matter, that kind of thing. 18 Q. What did your investigation reveal? 19 A. I don't recall. This was early'90s. 20 Q. Did you determine in fact for example in 21 Anniston the plant is built in an area 22 where there are a large number of 23 minority people and low income people? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 15 1 A. I didn't have Anniston at the time we 2 started to look at these issues in the 3 early '90s. And I don't think I was 4 really looking at the plants at that 5 point. I was looking at what was 6 developing in different parts of the 7 country. 8 Q. Were you looking specifically at 9 Monsanto facilities? 10 A. The Krummrich site was one because east 11 St. Louis is adjacent to Sauget and has 12 a large minority population. I wasn't SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037803 13 familiar with Anniston at that point. 14 Even though I had community relations 15 earlier in my career, I didn't do it at 16 all the sites, so I wasn't familiar with 17 all the sites. 18 Q. But sitting here today in 1999 you are 19 familiar with the Anniston site, aren't 20 you? 21 A. Right. 22 Q. And you know it is in an area that is 23 made up of a large population of REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 16 1 minorities and low income families, 2 correct? 3 A. In pockets, yes. 4 Q. And is that a concern for the company, 5 that it may lead to some allegation of 6 environmental racism? 7 A. At the time I think just the community 8 that was adjacent to the site, because 9 it was mainly minority, was seen to be, 10 you know -- the possibility might be 11 raised of environmental justice. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037804 12 Q. During the time you handled community 13 relations for the Anniston facility was 14 that issue ever raised in any fashion, 15 environmental justice or environmental 16 racism? 17 A. I'm not sure what you mean. What do you 18 mean? 19 Q. Was it raised in any fashion, either by 20 anyone at the plant or any members of 21 the community? 22 A. It was an issue that -- I mean, it was 23 just kind of in the background, that REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 17 1 that was a possibility that people might 2 raise. 3 Q. And when you say in the background, do 4 you mean that was a concern that 5 Monsanto had, that that was some issue 6 that might be raised? 7 A. Right. 8 Q. And what did Monsanto -- what action did 9 Monsanto take if any to cure that issue? 10 MR. PECK: Object to the form of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037805 11 the question. 12 Q. You can answer. 13 MR. PECK: You can answer. I'm 14 just objecting to the form of 15 the question for the record. 16 A. I don't -- It wasn't something that we 17 addressed specifically. I mean, we were 18 dealing with it as a situation where we 19 needed to do some remediation. We 20 weren't dealing -- We weren't addressing 21 the issue as an issue of environmental 22 justice. 23 Q. When you are talking about dealing with REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 18 1 the situation that involved remediation, 2 are you talking about the PCB 3 contamination? 4 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 5 Q. Is that a yes? 6 A. Yes. 7 Q. How does that tie into the issue of 8 environmental justice if at all? 9 A. We needed todo remediation in an SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037806 10 adj acent community adj acent to the site, 11 and that community was primarily 12 minority residents. And given the 13 nature of environmental justice and the 14 environmental justice movement that was 15 a possibility, that someone might claim 16 that it was related to environmental 17 justice. 18 Q. Well, before you ever even dealt with 19 the remediation issue, when I asked you 20 to define what environmental justice 21 means, you explained that it is a 22 situation where you have minorities 23 living adjacent to a chemical facility REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 19 1 or a dump site or whatever you want to 2 call it, right? 3 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 4 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 5 the question. 6 Q. Is that a yes? 7 A. Yes. Well, it is a belief that 8 minorities or poor people might be SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037807 9 unfairly disadvantaged by living next -- 10 by living in close proximity to-11 whether it be a chemical plant or 12 electrical station or large facility. 13 Q. Separate and apart from the fact there 14 are PCBs that have migrated from the 15 Anniston plant that you guys are going 16 to remediate, long before you discovered 17 that, there were poor people living by 18 the plant, right? 19 A. Right. 20 Q. So understanding that this possibility 21 existed both before and after the 22 remediation efforts, for environmental 23 justice issues to be raised, what steps REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 20 1 if any did Monsanto take to cure that 2 problem? 3 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 4 the question. 5 A. Are you talking about Anniston 6 specifically or the issue in general? 7 Q. Let's deal first with Anniston SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037808 8 specifically. I mean, you know it is a 9 concern. It is a possibility that you 10 have testified the company thought of. 11 So what efforts if any did the company 12 take to remedy that situation? 13 A. Well 14 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 15 the question. 16 A. Okay. So you are talking about 17 Anniston? 18 Q. Right. 19 A. But it all kind of evolved at the same 20 time. 21 Q. What evolved at the same time? 22 A. When I took over the Anniston site, we 23 were already engaged in discussions with REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 21 1 ADEM about remediation. So it wasn't a 2 matter of something else coming first. 3 Q. So you're saying you personally, as far 4 as your involvement goes, didn't have 5 any knowledge about environmental 6 justice issues until the time the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037809 7 remediation was taking place? 8 MR. PECK: In Anniston? 9 MS. MALOW: Yeah. We are talking 10 about Anniston. 11 A. I really didn't get engaged with the 12 Anniston site until I took it over. 13 Q. And you weren't familiar with the fact 14 that the Anniston plant was located in a 15 poor neighborhood made up of minorities? 16 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 17 the question. 18 A. I really wasn't involved with that site 19 at that time. There were other people 20 that did that. 21 Q. Okay. Let's deal with once the 22 discussions were going on with ADEM 23 about the remediation. What steps if REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 22 1 any did Monsanto take to address this 2 possibility of environmental justice in 3 the Anniston area? 4 A. I guess we weren't looking at it as an 5 environmental justice issue. We knew SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037810 6 that other people might raise that. We 7 were dealing with the situation at hand 8 and how to be as fair with the residents 9 as possible and give them as many 10 options as possible as we progressed 11 with our remediation plans. 12 Q. Are you familiar with a lawyer named 13 Grover Hankins? 14 A. I've heard his name, but I don't know 15 much about him. 16 Q. In what context have you heard his name? 17 A. I don't recall. I just -- His name 18 sounds familiar. 19 Q. Have you read any articles that Grover 20 Hankins has authored regarding 21 environmental justice or environmental 22 racism issues? 23 A. I don't recall his name being associated REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 23 1 with articles I've read. 2 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 3 Two was marked for 4 identification.) SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037811 5 Q. I'm going to hand you what has been 6 marked as Exhibit Two and ask you to 7 take a look at it and tell me if you 8 have seen this document before. 9 A. No. This is -- This is a Solutia 10 document. I'm not part of Solutia. 11 Q. Have you ever seen a similar document 12 prepared with Monsanto's insignia? 13 A. It doesn't look familiar to me. 14 Q. Let me ask you just in general. I look 15 at this like pitch materials that are 16 prepared either internally or 17 externally. Have you seen similar types 18 of materials that have been prepared for 19 Monsanto? 20 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 21 the question. I've never 22 heard of "pitch materials" 23 before. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 24 1 MS. MALOW: Not like pitch in the 2 trash. 3 A. Well, I guess I don't understand what SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037812 4 you mean by pitch materials. 5 Q. What would you call these types of 6 charts and graphs that are comprised in 7 Exhibit Two? 8 A. It looks like a presentation. 9 Q. And have you ever seen any sort of 10 presentation materials on environmental 11 justice issues that were put together by 12 Monsanto or for Monsanto, either one? 13 A. Not in this form, just -- yeah. I mean, 14 people would put internal presentations 15 or -- I'm trying to even remember -- I'm 16 trying to remember -- Well, I know that 17 there -- We were trying to keep people 18 informed about the issue. I don't 19 believe that I put a presentation 20 together, but I think someone did. It 21 didn't look nearly as detailed as this 22 is. And it was just the very start of 23 the issue. And I can't recall who would REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 25 1 have put it together. But to say did we 2 ever put any presentations together on SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037813 3 environmental justice, I believe we did. 4 Q. Did or does Monsanto ever use outside 5 consultants to put together 6 presentations such as Exhibit Two? 7 A. I don't know who Solutia -- whether 8 Solutia put this together themselves or 9 not. 10 Q. My question, just so I'm clear, is about 11 Monsanto. I'm not going to ask you 12 stuff about a company you don't work 13 for. I'm just asking does Monsanto ever 14 hire outside consultants to put together 15 presentation materials? 16 A. Sure. 17 Q. Such as on issues like environmental 18 justice? 19 A. Well, occasionally, depending on what 20 they are hired to do. 21 Q. We talked specifically about Anniston, 22 and you had -- The way you answered one 23 of my questions, I need to ask you in a REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 26 1 more broad fashion. What is your SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037814 2 familiarity with the issue of 3 environmental justice for any of the 4 Monsanto facilities that you have done 5 work for over the years? 6 A. What is my understanding of 7 environmental justice? 8 Q. No. What9 MS. MALOW: Can you read back the 10 question? 11 (Requested portion of record 12 read.) 13 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 14 the question. 15 Q. Do you need me to restate it? 16 A. Yeah. 17 Q. What I'm getting at, Ms. Herndon, is 18 what experience you have had in terms of 19 any facility, Monsanto facility, where 20 environmental justice was raised as an 21 issue. 22 A. We don't -- We don't do community 23 relations with the thought of REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 27 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037815 1 environmental justice in mind. When we 2 put together community relations plans 3 at our sites, we do it with the 4 community in mind, whatever the 5 community looks like, looking at, you 6 know, what are the goals of the 7 community, how can we work together with 8 the community to help them fulfill their 9 goals. 10 MS. MALOW: Objection, 11 nonresponsive. 12 Q. My question was specific about 13 environmental justice. I'm not asking 14 you about what sort of community 15 relations plans you put together. 16 A. And I'm saying we didn't put community 17 relations plans together saying we will 18 do these community relations activities 19 because of environmental justice issues. 20 MS. MALOW: Objection, 21 nonresponsive. 22 Q. Let me come a different way and see if 23 we can get an answer to the question. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 28 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037816 1 In your experience in working with 2 Monsanto have you had any plants you 3 have dealt with where any issues of 4 environmental justice were raised? 5 A. Again, it was just a background 6 knowledge of minority communities at 7 some sites. But it wasn't planned with 8 environmental justice necessarily in 9 mind. It was just the knowledge of what 10 the issue is and the fact that some 11 people might, if they were looking at -- 12 they might look at -- You have me 13 confused. Environmental justice as an 14 issue of minorities living adjacent to a 15 chemical site, that some sites had 16 minority populations. And some people 17 might raise that as an environmental 18 justice issue. That is not to say that 19 we managed the sites because of 20 environmental justice in mind. 21 MS. MALOW: I need to object to 22 that as nonresponsive as 23 well. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 29 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037817 1 Q. Maybe I'm not coming at it clear. 2 A. Yeah. 3 Q. All I'm looking for, Ms. Herndon, is 4 during the time you have been handling 5 community relations for any Monsanto 6 facility, if any community raised the 7 issue of environmental justice. 8 A. Not that I can recall. 9 Q. Okay. It didn't come up with respect to 10 Sauget? 11 A. That people accused us of environmental 12 injustice or justice? 13 Q. Right. 14 A. Not that I can recall. 15 Q. Monsanto's a member of the Chemical 16 Manufacturers Association or CMA, right? 17 A. Right. 18 Q. Did any Monsanto representative ever sit 19 on the environmental justice task group 20 or get involved in the environmental 21 justice policies? 22 A. Uh-huh, yes. 23 Q. Who would that be? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037818 30 1 A. Kevin Cahill. 2 Q. Is he still involved in that issue? 3 A. I don't know. 4 Q. When do you know about -- What time 5 frame was he involved as far as you 6 know? 7 A. You would have to ask him. 8 Q. And what was his involvement as far as 9 you know? Was he on the environmental 10 justice task group? 11 A. I don't know. I just know he was 12 somehow involved with it. 13 Q. Did he share with you any of the 14 information that he obtained from CMA 15 regarding the environmental justice 16 issue? 17 A. I sat in on a conference call with CMA 18 and Kevin one time. And this -- I can't 19 even remember what all was discussed. 20 It seems it was more bookkeeping at the 21 time -- not bookkeeping per se, but more 22 administrative related. And after that 23 it wasn't worth my time to sit in any SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037819 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 31 1 more. But beyond that I don't know. I 2 don't know what Kevin's involvement was 3 Q. If you will flip to -- I think it is the 4 ninth page of Exhibit Two, I have a 5 question for you about that. 6 A. It starts "current litigation"? 7 Q. No. It is the one right before that, 8 environmental justice vulnerability 9 analysis. 10 A. Okay. 11 Q. Can you tell me why Anniston is listed 12 as being vulnerable to the issue of 13 environmental justice? 14 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 15 the question. It is not her 16 document. 17 A. It is not my document. 18 Q. Well, I know. But you are familiar with 19 the Anniston site, and you are familiar 20 with the concept of environmental 21 justice. Can you think of any reason 22 why it would be listed as the first site 23 under vulnerability analysis? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037820 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 32 1 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 2 the question, calls for 3 speculation. 4 Q. You can answer. 5 A. During the years I had the Anniston 6 site -- And as I've stated -- I said 7 this before. Because there was a 8 minority community adjacent to the plant 9 and we needed to do remediation in that 10 neighborhood and that neighborhood was 11 primarily minority, we knew that some 12 people might raise the issue of 13 environmental justice. 14 Q. Have you seen any sort of surveys or 15 studies that show what percentage of 16 Monsanto plants are located in low 17 income or minority neighborhoods? 18 A. I've not seen anything like that. 19 Q. At the end of this document, Exhibit 20 Two, there is -- It is actually three 21 pages from the back. There are some 22 environmental justice principles for SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037821 23 Solutia. Do you see that? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 33 1 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 2 Q. Is that a yes? 3 A. Yes. 4 Q. Do you know if Monsanto also issued some 5 environmental justice principles? 6 A. I don't recall. I don't think so, but I 7 don't recall for sure. 8 Q. Are you familiar with any award given to 9 the Sweet Valley, Cobb Town area to deal 10 with issues of environmental justice by 11 the EPA? 12 A. Oh 13 MR. PECK: You mean award of 14 money? 15 MS. MALOW: Yes. 16 A. One of those community assistance 17 grants? 18 Q. Yes. 19 A. I just know they got it. I don't know 20 much more than that. 21 Q. Do you know what the amount was? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037822 22 A. No. I don't recall. 23 Q. Were you involved in any way with REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 34 1 respect to that issue? 2 A. To them getting it? 3 Q. Well, just -- 4 A. No, I wasn't involved. 5 Q. Do you remember if in 1995 you had 6 responsibility for Anniston? In 1995, 7 March of 1995, did you have 8 responsibilities for Anniston? 9 A. I believe so. 10 Q. How about for -- Strike that. 11 Exhibit Two, that had that list of 12 plants that were vulnerable for 13 environmental justice issues. Can you 14 look at that list of plants and tell me 15 what makes those other plants vulnerable 16 for environmental justice? 17 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 18 the question, not her 19 document. 20 A. At I mentioned earlier, the Krummrich SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037823 21 plant had a minority population not too 22 far away in east St. Louis, even though 23 the Krummrich plant is in Sauget. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 35 1 Q. Okay. How about the rest? 2 MR. PECK: Same objection. 3 A. I -- I mean, I recognize the plants, but 4 I never studied anything related to 5 environmental justice with them. 6 Q. Have you been to any of the other 7 facilities listed on Exhibit Two? 8 A. Sure. I've been to the Delaware River 9 plant and Augusta. I have never been to 10 Pensacola or Decatur. 11 Q. The Delaware River plant, what sort of 12 neighborhood is that located in? 13 A. It is mostly a farming community. 14 Q. Kind of skipping around, have you ever 15 had media training? 16 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 17 Q. Is that a yes? 18 A. Yes. 19 Q. Was that paid for by Monsanto? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037824 20 A. Yes. 21 Q. Who was it through, what organization? 22 A. Fleishman Hillard. 23 Q. When did you have that training? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 36 1 A. I can't recall the exact date. 2 Q. Do you think it was in the '90s or the 3 '80s? 4 A. You know, sometime in the '80s or '90s. 5 Q. Can you narrow it down at all as to when 6 it came in relation to when you came 7 with Monsanto? 8 A. I can't. 9 Q. Have you had media training more than 10 once? 11 A. Yeah, but I can't recall -- Yes. I'll 12 just leave it at yes. 13 Q. Have you ever taught media training to 14 Monsanto employees? 15 A. I've -- It has mostly been Fleishman 16 Hillard that did our media training. We 17 had another firm early onthat did some 18 media training at our plant sites. I SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037825 19 don't recall their name either. 20 Q. Have you done any work with Fleishman 21 Hillard in connection with the Anniston 22 facility? 23 A. The only thing they did for us was a REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 37 1 search for whether there were any PR 2 firms in the area, in Anniston, and they 3 weren't able to find any firms that were 4 of any size or that we would want to 5 use. 6 Q. And I missed part of your answer. Did 7 you say in the Anniston area? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q. When was that search requested to be 10 performed? 11 A. Well, sometime during the years that I 12 had the site, so sometime between '94 13 and '97, though I can't recall the exact 14 date. 15 Q. Did you personally ask someone at 16 Fleishman Hillard to look for a PR firm 17 in the Anniston area? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037826 18 A. Yes. 19 Q. Why did you want a PR firm in the 20 Anniston area? 21 A. Because there were a lot of issues at 22 the site, and there was a lot of -- Jack 23 Mayausky was the new plant manager at REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 38 1 the time, and he was trying to get 2 around and meet different people in the 3 community. And it was taking a lot of 4 his time, and he could have used some 5 help in getting some of those meetings 6 set up. I was in St. Louis and had a 7 lot of other responsibilities besides 8 just the plants, and I -- I'm not a 9 local person. A local person would have 10 been better, but we didn't find anyone 11 skilled in the way that we could use 12 them to do that. 13 Q. What sort of skills were you looking 14 for? 15 A. Community relations, good communication. 16 That's pretty much it. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037827 17 Q. And you mentioned before you talked 18 about Mr. Mayausky being the new plant 19 manager that there were a lot of issues 20 at the Anniston site. What issues 21 existed at that time? 22 A. Well, just general community relations 23 issues. It was a site that had been REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 39 1 downsized significantly over the past 2 several years, so he was trying to 3 re-establish it as a viable small plant 4 rather than the large plant it had been 5 known as. The previous plant manager 6 had spent a lot of time reorganizing the 7 plant to get it down to a smaller size 8 and so had not had the time to spend 9 with the different community groups that 10 we usually try to encourage plant 11 managers to do. So he needed to 12 reconnect and re-establish Monsanto's 13 name in the community, those kinds of 14 things. 15 Q. How about the PCB issue? Was that one SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037828 16 of the issues you guys were dealing with 17 from a PR standpoint? 18 A. That was just starting up, and he did 19 want to get around to the community, at 20 least the adjacent communities too. 21 Q. Are you familiar with Steve Bradley? 22 A. The name is not familiar with me. 23 Q. So as far as your role with Anniston, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 40 1 you made an effort to get Fleishman 2 Hillard to find a local PR firm, and it 3 was unsuccessful, and that was the last 4 you knew about it? 5 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 6 Q. Is that a yes? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. Specifically regarding Anniston what 9 were your job duties and 10 responsibilities when you had the 11 Anniston facility? 12 A. I worked with Jack Mayausky on his 13 community relations activities related 14 to the plant, just general community SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037829 15 relations, and then with the remediation 16 team and Jack on community issues 17 related to remediation. 18 Q. And when you say the remediation team, 19 does that include Alan Faust? 20 A. Not in the early days. He came along a 21 little later. 22 Q. Who was the remediation team you were 23 working with, Jo Hanson? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 41 1 A. Yeah, Jo was there early on. 2 Q. Who else? 3 A. Robert -- I forget his last name. 4 Q. Jones? 5 A. Yeah. He was there early on. But he -- 6 He wasn't as involved as Jo and then 7 later Alan because he was the 8 environmental superintendent for the 9 plant itself. Of course, you know, Jack 10 was involved too as the plant manager. 11 Q. Anybody else? 12 A. As far as corporate people, Bob Kaley. 13 Q. And he is out of St. Louis? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037830 14 A. Right. 15 Q. And I'llget into that with you in more 16 detail later. For right now I just sort 17 of wanted an overview of what your 18 responsibility was. Does that cover it, 19 working with Jack on community relations 20 type issues and also working on the 21 remediation efforts? 22 A. From a communityrelations viewpoint. 23 Q. Okay. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 42 1 A. And with Prudential too. 2 Q. We will get into that too. We have a 3 lot to cover. At some point did you 4 take over for Beth Rusert? 5 A. Yes. 6 Q. Tell me during that transition where you 7 were taking over for Beth what 8 discussions you and Beth had regarding 9 the Anniston facility. How did she get 10 you up to speed? 11 A. I believe it was just sitting down and 12 discussing where things were. But as SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037831 13 far as the details of that, that was a 14 long time ago. I don't recall what she 15 said, what I asked. 16 Q. Do you remember her providing you with 17 any documents for you to read so you 18 would have some information about the 19 Anniston site? 20 A. It was probably just some of the clips, 21 news clips. 22 Q. How about any historical documents 23 regarding the manufacturing of PCBs? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 43 1 A. I don't recall. It doesn't ring a bell. 2 Q. Have you at some point in your career 3 with Monsanto looked at historical 4 documents regarding PCBs? 5 A. I wasn't the scientific expert on PCBs, 6 nor did I try to be. So any of the 7 scientific documents, whenever questions 8 were asked, I transferred those over to 9 the scientists in Monsanto who were 10 experts in that. 11 Q. Would that be Bob Kaley? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037832 12 A. Bob Kaley, right. 13 Q. Anybody else you would refer those 14 questions to? 15 A. Mostly just Bob. 16 Q. But in being the PR person and having to 17 address issues regarding PCBs, didn't 18 you have to have some understanding? 19 A. I had a fact sheet that you have 20 probably seen. It is a 1990 21 backgrounder. It just gives the history 22 of Monsanto's involvement with PCBs. 23 That is about as much as I could talk REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 44 1 from. Anything beyond that I would 2 refer elsewhere. 3 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 4 Three was marked for 5 identification.) 6 Q. Now, I'm handing you what has been 7 marked as Exhibit Three, which is 8 entitled "Monsanto Backgrounder" dated 9 July 1990. Is that the document you 10 just referred to? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037833 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. And the Monsanto Backgrounder was 13 background information on PCBs that you 14 had to look at to answer any questions 15 that you needed to that were not 16 scientific in nature? 17 A. That's right. And in fact, if a 18 reporter wanted it, we would give it to 19 them. 20 Q. Do you know who prepared the Monsanto 21 Backgrounder, Exhibit Three? 22 A. I don't know. I know I didn't. 23 Q. Okay. And you had no knowledge as to REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 45 1 who had input into this document, 2 Exhibit Three? 3 A. I believe Bob Kaley had input, but I 4 don't know who the author was. 5 Q. When did you first receive Exhibit 6 Three? 7 A. I don't recall. 8 Q. Do you think it was when you first got 9 responsibility for Anniston or before SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037834 10 that time? 11 A. I really don't recall. 12 Q. Have you read any of the studies that 13 are referenced in Exhibit Three, for 14 example, Dr. Renate Kimbrough's 1987 15 review of Human Health Effects of PCBs? 16 A. No. These were scientific, and I 17 wouldn't have been able to interpret 18 them. 19 Q. And there is a reference page which is 20 page seven of the documents. Have you 21 read any of those documents? 22 A. I don't believe so. 23 Q. Other than the Monsanto Backgrounder REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 46 1 which is Exhibit Three to your 2 deposition, have you examined any other 3 documents regarding PCBs in terms of 4 health effects or toxicity issues? 5 A. No. 6 You are still on page one? 7 Q. Oh, we will be moving along quickly. 8 I've actually covered some things on SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037835 9 other pages, believe it or not. We are 10 killing two birds with one stone. 11 Who was your immediate predecessor 12 for the job in Anniston? Is that Beth? 13 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 14 Q. Is that yes? 15 A. Yes. 16 Q. Did you know Beth Vanderbeck? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. Do you know where she is presently 19 residing? 20 A. I believe she is in St. Louis, but I 21 haven't seen her ina long time. 22 Q. Did she have responsibility for Anniston 23 at sometime? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 47 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. Do you know what time flame? 3 A. I believe before Beth Rusert, but I 4 don't know the years. 5 Q. Do you know what Beth Vanderbeck did 6 regarding Anniston? 7 A. I don't know. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037836 8 Q. You told me earlier that -- when we were 9 talking about the various reasons you 10 needed a local PR firm that the PCB 11 issue was just beginning at that time. 12 What issues developed regarding PCBs 13 during the time you were handling the 14 Anniston facility? 15 A. By then the PCBs had been discovered in 16 the neighborhood adjacent to the site. 17 A remediation plan was being put 18 together with ADEM. We came to the 19 realization that we were going to need 20 the property where that adjacent 21 neighborhood was located, and so we 22 started talking about a property 23 purchase program. And that involved REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 48 1 community issues at least related to 2 that community, the neighborhood. 3 Q. Before that time were you familiar with 4 the fact that the Alabama Power Company 5 had discovered high levels of PCBs on 6 what used to be a landfill owned by SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037837 7 Monsanto? 8 A. I heard about it, but that was before I 9 took the site over. 10 Q. What was your understanding in taking 11 over the site as to the discovery of 12 PCBs by Alabama Power Company? I mean, 13 did you for example talk to Jack 14 Mayausky and get some history from him 15 about that event? 16 A. I know that we had some backgrounding on 17 it way back when, but it has been long 18 enough ago that I don't remember the 19 details. I think there was a land swap 20 involved, but beyond that Idon't 21 recall. 22 Q. Do you know why it was that Monsanto 23 agreed to take back the land? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 49 1 A. I don't remember. 2 Q. Were you involved in any of the 3 negotiations between Monsanto and 4 Alabama Power? 5 A. No. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037838 6 Q. When you took over the Anniston file 7 were there press clippings in the 8 Anniston file from Beth Rusert that 9 talked about the Alabama Power Company's 10 discovery of PCBs at that west end 11 landfill site? 12 A. There may have been, but I don't recall 13 what articles were in that file. 14 Q. So let's talk about this property 15 purchase program. You mentioned you had 16 had some involvement with that issue, 17 right? 18 A. Right. 19 Q. Tell me what your role was with respect 20 to the property purchase program. 21 A. Well, again, looking at what was going 22 to need to be done with the remediation 23 and realizing that we were going to need REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 50 1 to purchase property and wanting to be 2 as fair as possible to the residents and 3 give them as many options as possible, 4 we wanted to find a firm that was well SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037839 5 experienced in conducting property 6 purchase programs, who could handle the 7 details of such a program with us. And 8 Prudential was one of the firms that we 9 solicited a proposal from. And I don't 10 recall how we came to them in the first 11 place. I know they had done some work 12 with us on a community advisory panel on 13 another site, but as far as property 14 purchase, I don't believe they had done 15 anything like that for us before. And 16 then I think there may be one or two 17 other firms, but I really don't recall 18 who they were. But Prudential seemed by 19 far the best qualified. 20 Q. Where had Prudential -- I'm going to 21 call them a CAP, that's the community 22 assistance panel or community advisory 23 panel? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 51 1 A. Right, community advisory panel. 2 Q. Where had Prudential helped Monsanto put 3 a CAP in place? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037840 4 A. At our Carondelet facility in the St. 5 Louis area. 6 Q. Were you involved with them on that CAP 7 at Carondelet? 8 A. No. Someone else was. I don't remember 9 who it was. 10 Q. Are you familiar with a relocation 11 planning committee that worked with EPA? 12 A. A Monsanto committee or who? 13 Q. Well, it is a relocation planning 14 committee, and Michael Pierle seems to 15 be a member of that committee. Are you 16 familiar with that? 17 A. Was that part of NEJAC, National 18 Environmental Justice? 19 Q. Let me show you the document and you 20 tell me if that is what it is. 21 A. I know he was involved with that group, 22 but he was -- and I believe Kevin was, 23 but I don't know if it was during these REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 52 1 years. 2 Q. This is 1996. Let me get that marked. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037841 3 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 4 Four was marked for 5 identification.) 6 Q. I've now handed you what has been marked 7 as Exhibit Four. Have you seen this 8 document before? 9 A. I don't remember it. It looks like just 10 an agenda. 11 Q. It is from Yolanda Ting with EPA, and it 12 is to the relocation planning committee, 13 which includes Michael Pierle. Is that 14 right? 15 A. Well, I know he was part of NEJAC. I 16 don't know if he was part of this 17 committee. His name is on it, but I 18 don't know for sure. 19 Q. If you will go to page two of Exhibit 20 Four, there is breakout group number 21 four listed, and it has a woman from 22 Anniston, Alabama, Ms. Cassandra 23 Roberts, and it also has Michael Pierle REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 53 1 from Monsanto Company. Are you familiar SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037842 2 with what this breakout group was 3 discussing? 4 A. No. 5 Q. Do you know Michael Lythcott? 6 A. I've heard his name before, but I don't 7 recall in what context. 8 Q. Okay. If you will flip to the sixth 9 page 10 A. Sharing our stories? 11 Q. No. It is confirmed invitees. 12 A. Okay. 13 Q. At the bottom it says planning committee 14 members, and it lists Grover Hankins of 15 the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and 16 itsaysNEJAC. Does this refresh your 17 memory -- it also has Mr. Pierle, 18 Monsanto Company, NEJAC -- that this 19 information is in connection with NEJAC? 20 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 21 the question. 22 A. Well, it is -- is this a planning 23 committee of NEJAC? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 54 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037843 1 Q. That is what I'm asking you. 2 A. Well 3 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 4 the question. 5 Q. If you know. If you don't, you don't 6 have to guess. 7 A. Okay. Good. I don't know. It doesn't 8 look like it is very well marked. 9 Q. Okay. So help me understand. What is 10 NEJAC? 11 A. It is National Environmental Justice 12 Advisory Committee. It was a committee 13 of EPA that EPA formed to look at issues 14 of environmental justice. 15 Q. And it is your understanding that 16 Mr. Pierle served on that committee? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. Did you ever have any discussion with 19 Mr. Pierle regarding any of the 20 committee meetings that he had? 21 A. I knew he was on it. And we might have 22 talked about, you know, one meeting or 23 another, but nothing stands out in my REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 55 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037844 1 mind, and I really don't recall details 2 of what happened. 3 Q. Going back to the property purchase 4 program, who established the terms of 5 the property purchase program? 6 A. There was a lot of discussion, again, 7 with the Prudential people, with the 8 plant folks, meaning mostly Jack -- I 9 think Alan might have been on board by 10 then, but I'm not sure; I'm not positive 11 about that -- and with some of the 12 remediation people about, you know, what 13 property would we need, how to go about 14 finding -- Well, we didn't want to be in 15 a position to tell people where they 16 needed to live. So we wanted to give 17 them options of where to live. 18 So the goal was at least 19 comparable if not better housing than 20 they had, and that could be anywhere 21 they wanted to go. And Prudential had a 22 process that they went through where 23 they did an inventory of the available REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 56 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037845 1 homes in Anniston, got kind of a range 2 of what the prices of available homes 3 were going for and what the -- you know, 4 what the estimate of the homes in that 5 adjacent neighborhood were worth. And 6 then they applied a multiple to that to 7 give people enough money so that they 8 could move to one of these comparable 9 homes or anywhere outside of Anniston if 10 they so chose. 11 Beyond that it was just trying to 12 think of what the community's needs 13 would be and how we could make this as 14 easy as possible for them. 15 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 16 Five was marked for 17 identification.) 18 Q. Ms. Herndon, I'm going to hand you 19 what's been marked as Exhibit Five and 20 ask you to take a look at that and tell 21 me if you are familiar with that 22 document. 23 A. Let me just take a minute. Yeah. This REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037846 57 1 I believe was the contract that 2 Prudential wanted to use. 3 Q. And that is what I was going to ask you, 4 who put Exhibit Five together. That was 5 Prudential? 6 A. Yes. 7 Q. Were there any changes made to their 8 suggested contract? 9 A. To this one? 10 Q. Well, to any version of it. 11 A. I don't remember. 12 Q. Were you involved in hammering out the 13 terms of the real estate contract, sales 14 contract? 15 A. I know I was one of the people who 16 looked at it. 17 Q. Do you recall any changes to any drafts 18 of the sales contract? 19 A. I really -- I don't remember. This is 20 years ago. 21 Q. Okay. There is a note from you on page 22 one to Mr. Cooper that says, "Please 23 review this contract for use with the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037847 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 58 1 Anniston program. We'll start making 2 offers early next week. Thanks, Diane 3 Herndon." Does that refresh your 4 recollection as to whether or not this 5 is a final version of the sales contract 6 or still in draft form? 7 A. I don't recall. I really don't know. 8 Q. Was Mr. Cooper with Prudential? 9 A. No. But I don't recall who he was with, 10 how we were using him. 11 Q. Who else would have looked at the sales 12 contract besides Monsanto people and 13 Prudential people? 14 A. I don't know. 15 Q. Did you assist Mr. Mayausky with 16 door-to-door efforts to inform the 17 community about this program? 18 A. No. Jack did that. 19 Q. Did you talk with Jack about putting 20 that program into place? 21 A. About going to door to door? We talked 22 about what the best way to let people 23 know about -- Well, first, as part of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037848 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 59 1 his community relations responsibilities 2 as plant manager, we thought he needed 3 to get around and at least know his 4 fence-line neighbors. So he did that. 5 When we put the property purchase 6 program together and I think we were 7 setting up a meeting to inform people 8 about the program and we wanted to 9 figure out the best way to make sure 10 that everyone was communicated with, we 11 figured the best way would be for him to 12 knock on doors and tell people about it, 13 so he did that. 14 Q. Whose idea was that? 15 A. I think we were just talking about, you 16 know, how this could be done, whether 17 posting notices in the church or someone 18 in the community would get to all these 19 residents, and we decided the only way 20 was just to knock on doors. I don't 21 remember if it was my idea or someone 22 else's. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037849 23 Q. How was it decided which doors he would REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 60 1 go to? 2 A. It was the doors of the people living in 3 the houses that we needed. 4 Q. That Monsanto needed for the 5 remediation? 6 A. For the remediation plan, yes. 7 Q. And what was -- what was the -- Strike 8 that. 9 What information was told to the 10 people whose doors Mr. Mayausky knocked 11 on? 12 A. Beyond just informing them about the 13 meeting, I don't know what else he might 14 have discussed with them. 15 Q. Why were you involved from the PR 16 standpoint with respect to the property 17 purchase program? 18 A. Because it involved the community, and 19 so it was -- made sense to have a public 20 affairs, community relations person 21 involved. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037850 22 Q. Why wasn't that an aspect that could be 23 handled by the plant? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 61 1 A. They mostly did. 2 Q. So what was your need to be involved? 3 A. Just as an advisor. 4 Q. Did you make my recommendations with 5 regard to remediation efforts? 6 A. No. That wasn't my job. 7 Q. What contact did you have with Brian 8 Hughes regarding the property purchase 9 program? 10 A. Brian Hughes? 11 Q. Of the Alabama Department of Public 12 Health at that time. 13 A. I don't believe I worked with him. 14 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 15 Six was marked for 16 identification.) 17 Q. Ms. Herndon, I'm going to hand you 18 what's been marked as Exhibit Six and 19 ask if you have seen that document 20 before. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037851 21 A. Oh, yeah. These I guess were the 22 third-party experts that if people had 23 any questions they could go to that REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 62 1 would be able to offer expert 2 information. 3 Q. Who put together the list of experts 4 which is marked as Exhibit Six? 5 A. It wasn't me. 6 Q. Did you have any conversations with 7 anybody regarding Dr. Brian Forrester, 8 Dr. Renate Kimbrough, or Dr. Brian 9 Hughes and their role with respect to 10 this property purchase program? 11 A. I didn't have contacts with any of these 12 people. In our discussions of who we 13 should use as third-party contacts, we 14 wanted them to be non-Monsanto people, 15 people who were familiar with PCBs, and 16 people who were good communicators. But 17 beyond that I had no input into who 18 those individuals should be because I'm 19 not familiar with who the experts in SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037852 20 this area are in Alabama. 21 Q. Were these individuals recommended by 22 Dr. Kaley? 23 A. He had a big part of it. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 63 1 Q. Who else did? 2 A. I don't know. 3 Q. And you have told me that you personally 4 have not had any contact with Dr. Brian 5 Forrester; is that right? 6 A. Not that I recall. 7 Q. And you have never had any contact with 8 Dr. Renate Kimbrough? 9 A. Not that I recall. 10 Q. And you have never had any contact with 11 Dr. Brian Hughes? And by contact, just 12 so I'm clear, I'm talking about writing, 13 e-mails, telephone calls, any contact 14 whatsoever. 15 A. I don't believe I did. 16 Q. Why did you want experts, third-party 17 experts, involved regarding the property 18 purchase program? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037853 19 A. So residents or their physicians may 20 call any of these persons. 21 Q. Right. 22 A. I believe it was more related to people 23 who would have any questions about REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 64 1 health concerns. 2 Q. Were you in attendance at any public 3 meetings where any of these experts were 4 present? 5 A. No. 6 Q. Have you had discussions with Bob Kaley 7 regarding what areas Dr. Forrester is an 8 expert in regarding PCBs? 9 A. No. I mean, his title is there, but I'm 10 not familiar with what he was an expert 11 in. 12 Q. How about have you had any discussions 13 with Bob Kaley regarding Dr. Kimbrough's 14 expertise? 15 A. I know she is an expert related to PCBs. 16 But as to what she wrote or anything 17 else, Bob's really --Bob Kaley is the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037854 18 expert on that. 19 Q. How about Dr. Brian Hughes? What 20 familiarity do you have regarding his 21 expertise? 22 A. Other than his title, I don't. 23 Q. Are you aware of the fact that REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 65 1 Drs. Forrester, Kimbrough, and Hughes 2 have all been retained and are being 3 paid as expert witnesses in this 4 litigation that we are here for today? 5 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 6 the question. It is not 7 accurate. 8 A. I didn't know that. 9 Q. Would you agree that if someone is 10 retained as an expert witness in 11 litigation by a party -- Strike that. 12 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 13 Seven was marked for 14 identification.) 15 Q. Will you please take a look at Exhibit 16 Seven and tell me if you have seen that SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037855 17 document before. 18 A. It looks familiar. 19 Q. Do you know who wrote Exhibit Seven? 20 A. I might have been involved with it, but 21 I don't recall. 22 Q. On the front page it says there R. G. 23 Kaley. Is that -- Did Dr. Kaley REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 66 1 participate in the authoring of Exhibit 2 Seven? 3 A. Again, he might have. I just don't--1 4 don't recall. 5 Q. If you need to take some time to read 6 this to answer the question, feel free. 7 What I want to know is whether or not 8 Exhibit Seven is the final terms of the 9 property purchase program or if this is 10 just one iteration of it. 11 A. I don't -- I mean, you must have the 12 final program. I really don't recall -- 13 Q. I mean, if you can't answer-- 14 A. -- what the prices started at. It looks 15 familiar. But as far as the details or SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037856 16 whether these details changed, I can't 17 recall. You probably know more than I 18 do. 19 Q. I doubt that. 20 MR. PECK: Can we take a quick 21 break? 22 (A break was taken.) 23 Q. Are you familiar with the DuPont site ; REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 67 1 Pompton Lakes? 2 A. I remember something about it, but not 3 much. 4 Q. When you were looking into different 5 property value protection firms such as 6 Prudential, do you recall having any 7 contact with a company called PHH Home 8 Equity? 9 A. Yeah, that sounds familiar. 10 Q. What contact do you recall having with 11 them? 12 A. That they might have been one of the 13 other firms that we solicited a proposal 14 from. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037857 15 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 16 Eight was marked for 17 identification.) 18 Q. Let me go ahead and just hand you this. 19 You might need to take a few minutes to 20 read this. I'm hand handing you what 21 has been marked as Exhibit Eight. Have 22 you seen this document before? 23 A. I'm sure, with my name on it, I probably REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 68 1 have seen it. 2 Q. Does it ring a bell now that you are 3 looking at it? 4 A. Let me -- Can I read it? 5 Q. Sure, absolutely. 6 A. Okay. It looks like there is more to 7 it, but that is fine. 8 Q. Have you had a chance to read Exhibit 9 Eight? 10 A. Yeah. 11 Q. Having read it and reviewing the memo 12 that Larry O'Neill sent you on March 13 16th of 1995, can you recall what work SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037858 14 you did in terms of investigating this 15 DuPont situation? 16 A. I don't think we talked to DuPont. I 17 think this was just -- I mean, it was 18 just one company's experience. 19 Q. But Larry specifically says in his memo, 20 "Call the plant manager," question mark. 21 He says "Act on this as you see fit." 22 Did you -- 23 A. I didn't call the plant manager, and I REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 69 1 don't think I talked to anyone at DuPont 2 either about this. 3 Q. How about with PHH Home Equity? Did you 4 call them and talk about it with them? 5 A. Now that you are mentioning their name, 6 I'm remembering that they are one of the 7 firms that we solicited another proposal 8 from. And I think they had just little 9 thumbnail descriptions of a few of the 10 sites where they did property purchase 11 programs. I don't recall if this was 12 one of them or not. It may very well SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037859 13 have been. 14 Q. Larry's memo also references that PHH 15 Home Equity did Monsanto company-wide 16 employee relocation programs and had 17 done some work for the Soda Springs 18 plant. Do you know what he is 19 referencing there? 20 A. This wasn't during a time that I had the 21 Soda Springs plant. I know they had 22 some issues up in Soda Springs, but I 23 wasn't the person managing them at the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 70 1 time they used PHH. 2 Q. What was the issue in Soda Springs? 3 A. They have low level radioactive slag 4 from the mining operations. 5 Q. Was there in fact a relocation of 6 neighbors in the community? 7 A. Again, that I don't know because that 8 wasn't part of the time I was involved. 9 Q. How about his reference to PHH making a 10 presentation at the Port Plastics plant 11 regarding the Bond Road landfill? Do SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037860 12 you know what that regards? 13 A. Again, someone else was managing this 14 particular issue in the Port Plastics 15 plant. So what they were doing with 16 property purchases or relocation, I 17 don't know. I don't think they did 18 anything, but again, I wasn't the person 19 involved. 20 Q. Larry's memo to you indicates that 21 regarding the DuPont situation he is 22 talking about contamination of Pompton 23 Lakes, that there appear to be quite a REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 71 1 few parallels with our Anniston plant. 2 What parallels were there between the 3 DuPont situation and the Anniston plant? 4 A. Well, I think -- And this is '95, so it 5 was probably about the time we were 6 looking into property purchase programs. 7 That it was just the fact that we were 8 looking for a property relocation 9 company, and here is a chemical 10 manufacturer that was in need of that SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037861 11 kind of skill. 12 Q. When you read the article that is 13 attached to Exhibit Eight entitled 14 DuPont and Residents Try to Resolve 15 Contamination Issue, did you see any 16 other similarities between the DuPont 17 situation and the Anniston situation? 18 A. Well, the fact that they voluntarily 19 offered to relocate people, and I know 20 we did that too. 21 Q. How about the fact that there is a 22 comment made by a resident of Pompton 23 Lakes that if she didn't think DuPont REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 72 1 was dealing fair and square with us, she 2 would be the first in a lawyer's office? 3 Was that an issue you guys wanted to 4 prevent, litigation, by buying these 5 homes? 6 A. That wasn't our motivation for buying 7 homes. 8 Q. How about the fact there were concerns 9 by the neighbors of health effects and SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037862 10 environmental issues? Was that a 11 similarity with the Anniston site? 12 A. Yes. 13 Q. How about the involvement of 14 toxicologists and doctors and doctors' 15 visits and laboratory tests? Was that a 16 similarity? 17 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 18 the question. 19 A. Yes. 20 Q. Do you have any recollection of any 21 discussions you had with any 22 representatives of PHH Home Equity 23 regarding the Anniston site? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 73 1 A. Other that soliciting a proposal from 2 them. 3 Q. That's it? 4 A. Yes. 5 Q. Have you heard of a document called 6 Getting Organized and Getting Out, a 7 Citizens Guide to Contamination, 8 Compensation and Relocation, written by SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037863 9 Lois Gibbs? 10 A. I'm familiar with Lois Gibbs somewhat, 11 and I assume what she wrote might have 12 been related to her experience at Love 13 Canal, but I'm not familiar with the 14 document. 15 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 16 Nine was marked for 17 identification.) 18 Q. Let me just mark it and see if you have 19 seen it before. Have you seen Exhibit 20 Nine before? 21 A. No. 22 Q. You don't know why it was in the PR 23 files for Anniston? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 74 1 A. I don't believe I was the one who 2 requested it, and I don't recall seeing 3 this before. 4 Q. Was there anyone else handling PR issues 5 at Monsanto during the time that this 6 property purchase program was being 7 created? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037864 8 A. No. It was during the years when I was 9 the PR, community relations corporate 10 person. 11 Q. What input did Michael Pierle have 12 regarding this property purchase 13 program? 14 A. He -- I believe a presentation was made 15 to him when all the details were 16 finalized, and he needed to approve the 17 money and needed to, you know, be 18 confident that we were acting 19 responsibly with all the provisions we 20 put into the plan. 21 Q. Do you recall Mr. Pierle providing you 22 with some information on Superfund 23 permanent relocations? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 75 1 A. I'm not sure what you mean. 2 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 3 Ten was marked for 4 identification.) 5 Q. Have you seen Exhibit Ten before? 6 A. Yeah. I mean, it looks familiar, but I SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037865 7 don't recall -- Wait a minute. 8 Q. Do you recall -- 9 A. Let me go the rest of the way through 10 it. 11 Q. Sorry. 12 A. What is this? It is hard to read. I'm 13 not sure about this last part. Did the 14 last part come from Mike too? 15 Q. I think so. There is a cover memo dated 16 October 16th from Mr. Pierle to 17 yourself, Mr. Fort, and Mr. Kaley. 18 A. Yeah. This first page about Superfund 19 relocations looks familiar. The rest of 20 it I'm not real sure about. This looks 21 like a separate memo. This is Superfund 22 relocation. It starts off in the middle 23 of a memo, page four of five. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 76 1 Q. Well, I didn't organize the documents. 2 A. Well, these two pages in the middle, I 3 don't know what they are all about. 4 Q. Let's just identify for the record the 5 two pages in the middle that you don't SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037866 6 know what they are about. At the bottom 7 they say The Lythcott Company Limited, 8 and at the top it looks like CATE 9 relocation feasibility study, September 10 26, 1995; is that correct? 11 A. That's what it says. 12 Q. But you are familiar with the document 13 which is page two of Exhibit Ten, which 14 is entitled "Superfund Permanent 15 Relocation" dated May 15th, 1995? 16 A. I believe I have seen this before. 17 Q. What was the reason or what was your 18 understanding of why Mr. Pierle provided 19 you with the Superfund Permanent 20 Relocation information? 21 A. Probably just to show where other 22 relocation programs have taken place 23 across the country. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 77 1 Q. Are you aware of any discussions 2 regarding having the Anniston site 3 handled as a Superfund site? 4 A. I know our discussions were mostly with SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037867 5 ADEM, so it was being handled as a state 6 site, state remediation site. 7 Q. Were you personally ever involved in any 8 meetings with ADEM on that issue? 9 A. No. 10 Q. Have you personally been involved in any 11 meetings with EPA on that issue? 12 A. No. 13 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 14 Eleven was marked for 15 identification.) 16 Q. Kind of backtracking, I asked you 17 earlier about Grover Hankins. I'm going 18 to hand you now what has been marked as 19 Exhibit Eleven, which looks like a memo 20 that Dr. Kaley provided, and you were 21 copied as well as Mr. Peck on this 22 document. Do you recall this document? 23 A. Oh, it talks about -- Okay. It doesn't REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 78 1 stand out in my mind. 2 Q. Do you know why it is that Dr. Kaley was 3 advising you that Grover is on line with SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037868 4 his e-mail address? 5 A. Well, it says here see tabs for specific 6 references to Anniston. So I assume 7 that is why he was sending this. 8 Q. Did you check out Grover's web site? 9 A. I don't remember. I really don't 10 remember. 11 Q. The attachment to Exhibit Eleven talks 12 about the environmental justice clinic 13 at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. 14 Did you examine any information on that 15 clinic? 16 A. This was a while ago. I don't remember 17 whether I did or not. 18 Q. Why were you and Mr. Bistline and 19 Mr. Cahill and Mr. Faust and the rest of 20 these people on Exhibit Eleven 21 interested in the environmental justice 22 clinic at the Thurgood Marshall School 23 of Law? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 79 1 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 2 the question. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037869 3 A. Well, again, there is a reference to 4 Anniston. That seems like it would be 5 the connection. I don't recall any 6 other reason why he might send it 7 around. 8 Q. You told me that you didn't call 9 DuPont's plant manager about the Pompton 10 Lakes events. Did you do anything to 11 investigate the Pompton Lakes issue 12 other than look at the article that 13 Larry gave you? 14 A. I don't think so. 15 Q. Are you familiar with the Rush City 16 property purchase program? 17 A. Yeah. 18 Q. Tell me about your involvement with 19 that. 20 A. Your phrasing of it doesn't sound 21 familiar, but I think you are referring 22 to purchasing property around the 23 Krummrich plant. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 80 1 Q. Right. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037870 2 A. And we were doing that over a number of 3 years as it became available. So it 4 wasn't an organized property purchase 5 effort. It was just buying property as 6 it became available at tax sales. 7 Sometimes it was a lot; sometimes it was 8 abandoned structures, and it went on 9 over a number of years. 10 Q. What was the time frame involved with 11 Rush City? 12 A. Again, it wasn't just Rush City. Well, 13 there was an area that was called Rush 14 City. There were a couple of other 15 little pockets on the south side of east 16 St. Louis that were closest to the 17 Sauget Industrial Complex, so it wasn't 18 just an area in Rush City. It was a few 19 other places too. 20 Q. What I was trying to figure out is what 21 was the time frame for that. 22 A. You know, I came on in '87, and I 23 believe they were doing it then. I REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 81 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037871 1 don't know when it started, but it had 2 been going on for a while, and I think 3 it just continued over the years. 4 Q. And did that arise from allegations that 5 there was PCB contamination in that 6 neighborhood as well? 7 A. There weren't allegations about that. 8 It was just a matter of trying to 9 establish more green space around our 10 site. 11 Q. When you say more green space, you mean 12 provide more distance between the plant 13 and the neighborhood? 14 A. That's right. 15 Q. In fact didn't the Illinois Attorney 16 General's office sue Monsanto about PCB 17 contamination arising out of the Sauget 18 facility? 19 A. I don't recall that. 20 Q. You don't recall that investigation and 21 nine-year lawsuit filed by the Illinois 22 Attorney General? 23 A. When did that take place? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 82 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037872 1 Q. In the '80s and '90s. You weren't 2 involved with that? Is that your 3 testimony? 4 A. What is that related to, Rush City or -- 5 Q. No. I'm talking about the fact that the 6 Illinois Attorney General sued Monsanto 7 regarding PCB contamination from the 8 Sauget facility. 9 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 10 the question. 11 Q. Are you familiar with that? 12 A. Where was the contamination? 13 Q. Around the Sauget plant, in Dead Creek. 14 A. So you are probably talking about a 15 Sauget site. 16 Q. Right. 17 A. Well, you have to be more specific. 18 Q. I thought that was a fairly large piece 19 of litigation. Are you familiar with 20 it? 21 A. I'm not familiar with the lawsuit. I'm 22 familiar with the area, the fact there 23 were a number of sites, the fact our REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 83 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037873 1 remediation guys were working with the 2 Illinois EPA on plans to study the site. 3 That is what I'm familiar with. And as 4 far as the lawsuit, our lawyers would 5 have taken care of that. I'm not 6 familiar with it. 7 Q. From a public relations standpoint, did 8 you have any involvement regarding the 9 media attention that was generated as a 10 result of that lawsuit? 11 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 12 the question. 13 A. I can't recall media attention that 14 there might have been. I mean, if you 15 have something to refresh mymemory -- 16 Q. I'm looking for it. 17 A. I don't think it was a hot issue in St. 18 Louis. 19 Q. Well, Bartolanzo, that's yourmaiden 20 name? 21 A. Bartolanzo. 22 Q. I told you I would butcher it. All 23 right. Perhaps this will refresh your REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037874 84 1 recollection. 2 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 3 Twelve was marked for 4 identification.) 5 Q. Ms. Herndon, I'm going to hand you 6 Exhibit Twelve. If you would, tell me 7 if you have seen those documents before. 8 MR. PECK: What was the question? 9 MS. MALOW: Whether she has seen 10 Exhibit Twelve before. 11 A. I guess I did. I mean, my name's on it. 12 Q. Let's identify it for the record. 13 Exhibit Twelve is a collection of media 14 coverage articles that were transmitted 15 by memo from Kevin Cahill to a whole 16 list of people, including you under your 17 maiden name, correct? 18 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 19 Q. Is that a yes? 20 A. That's a yes. 21 Q. And the topic is the Illinois Attorney 22 General Krummrich -- How do you 23 pronounce that? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037875 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 85 1 A. Krummrich. 2 Q. And it is talking about the fact that 3 the State of Illinois and Monsanto 4 reached an agreement regarding the 5 cleanup of the chemical dump that has 6 been leaking into the Mississippi River, 7 right? 8 A. The Krummrich landfill is what you are 9 referring to. That is what this is 10 referring to. 11 Q. And what's the connection between the 12 Krummrich landfill and the Sauget 13 facility? 14 A. I believe the Krummrich landfill is part 15 of the Sauget sites. Again there were a 16 number of sites that other industries 17 also used for their industrial waste 18 back in the days when that was an 19 accepted -- commonly accepted in 20 practice. 21 Q. The Sauget facility is a location where 22 Monsanto manufactured PCBs, right? 23 A. I believe so. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037876 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 86 1 Q. And in fact there were only two 2 facilities in the United States where 3 Monsanto made PCBs. One was Sauget, 4 Illinois, and the other was Anniston, 5 Alabama? 6 A. Right. 7 Q. Does this document, Exhibit Twelve, 8 refresh your recollection regarding the 9 fact that there was an action by the 10 Illinois Attorney General against 11 Monsanto for cleaning up PCB 12 contamination arising out of the Sauget 13 facility? 14 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 15 the question. 16 A. Apparently in '91 -- I'm losing track of 17 when I had the site and when I didn't. 18 But from this memo, it looks like these 19 were the years when Kevin had it. So my 20 knowledge and interest of it were just 21 in -- you know, not as someone who had 22 direct hands-on responsibility at that SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037877 23 point. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 87 1 Q. Well, why would you be copied on the 2 memo? 3 A. I don't know. As one of the people that 4 had been involved with the plant 5 earlier. 6 Q. Were you aware since -- This lawsuit by 7 the AG actually predates '91, doesn't 8 it? 9 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 10 the question. 11 Q. I mean, it starts back in the '80s. 12 A. Well 13 Q. Why don't you flip to -- If you look at 14 the bottom there is a Bate's number. It 15 is Bate's number 136172. 16 A. Okay. 17 Q. In the first paragraph, that's a 18 document that looks like it was a radio 19 news transcript excerpt from 12-4 of 20 '91, and there is a person by the name 21 of Charlie Brown that says the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037878 22 settlement ends a 1982 state lawsuit 23 accusing Monsanto of dumping chemicals REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 88 1 for almost twenty years in what is known 2 as Dead Man's Creek and contaminating 3 water supplies. 4 A. Well, that is the way it was recorded. 5 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 6 the question. 7 Q. And you had some responsibility for this 8 site prior to 1991; is that correct? 9 A. That's right. 10 Q. Were you familiar during the time you 11 were handling this site with the fact 12 that there were allegations that 13 Monsanto had contaminated Dead Man's 14 Creek? 15 A. At this point today, trying to go back 16 to the early -- the late '80s, I'm not 17 recalling much about an Attorney General 18 lawsuit. I do recall that there were a 19 lot of discussions over the years about 20 Sauget sites and the different areas SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037879 21 within the sites and studies that were 22 going on to characterize those sites and 23 discussions along those lines. So I'm REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 89 1 more familiar with the remediation side 2 of the sites than I am with the Attorney 3 General's suit at this point in time. I 4 might have been more familiar with it in 5 the late '80s, but at this point I just 6 don't recall what took place in the late 7 '80s related to a suit. 8 Q. If you will go to the second page of 9 Exhibit Twelve, there is a quote from 10 Bill Boyle, the Monsanto plant manager, 11 that says there is no question that many 12 of those products that we are talking 13 about that were manufactured back in the 14 '50s and '60s were hazardous chemicals. 15 Then he goes on to say there is no 16 public exposure. Is hereferring there 17 toPCBs? 18 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 19 the question. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037880 20 A. I can't tell from this. 21 Q. Well, if you look at the paragraph above 22 it, it is talking about finding traces 23 ofPCBs. Isn't that what the issue was, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 90 1 Ms. Herndon? 2 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 3 the question. 4 A. It is my recollection that there were a 5 number of materials in those sites, so 6 it wasn't necessarily PCBs. 7 Q. But the material that Monsanto 8 contributed was PCBs, wasn't it? 9 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 10 the question. 11 A. Well, I believe in the Krummrich 12 landfill it was just waste from the 13 Krummrich site, industrial waste. 14 Q. Which included PCBs? 15 A. I can't tell that from this. I don't 16 have knowledge of what -- I don't know. 17 I don't know. 18 Q. In dealing with remediation, you said SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037881 19 you are familiar with the remediation 20 side of this issue. Do you agree that 21 it is more expensive to remove the waste 22 than it to cap it in place? 23 MR. PECK: Object to the form of REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 91 1 the question, lack of 2 foundation. 3 A. Well, our remediation managers look at 4 -- When they characterize the site, they 5 usually have outside consultants do that 6 for them. They determine what is there 7 at what levels, what the circumstances 8 are, and what are the appropriate 9 options for remediating. And it is not 10 necessarily cost driven. It is often 11 driven by what is the best option given 12 the circumstances. 13 MS. MALOW: Objection, 14 nonresponsive. 15 Q. My question was is it more expensive to 16 remove waste such as the issue involving 17 the Krummrich landfill or to cap it in SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037882 18 place? 19 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 20 the question,lack of 21 foundation. 22 A. Well, in any remediation, removing 23 material is generally more expensive REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 92 1 than capping it. 2 Q. Asa matter of fact, that is what 3 Mr. Slowtag says on Bate's number 4 136172, correct? 5 A. That's right. 6 Q. Other than Exhibit Twelve and having 7 refreshed your recollection with Exhibit 8 Twelve, do you have any other 9 recollection of the contamination of 10 Dead Man's Creek by Monsanto? 11 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 12 the question. 13 A. They called it Dead Man's Creak, but 14 that is not the name of this area. It 15 was called Dead Creek because water no 16 longer flowed through it. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037883 17 Q. Well, call it whatever you want. 18 A. Okay. But for the record, it is an area 19 that water no longer flowed through. 20 And no, I don't recall anything else. 21 Q. Are you familiar with some health 22 studies that were performed on Krummrich 23 employees regarding dioxins? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 93 1 A. I believe the Krummrich site was 2 involved in a NIOSH study. 3 Q. What involvement did you have with that 4 study? 5 A. No involvement with the study itself. I 6 believe when the results came out we 7 informed our employees, as did any of 8 the other participants in the study. 9 Q. And how was that information relayed? 10 A. I can't remember if it was letters to 11 employees or exactly how it was done, 12 but it was -- It was either letters to 13 employees or meetings at the site. 14 Q. But you didn't have any involvement in 15 determining what the study would consist SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037884 16 of or who would participate or anything 17 like that? 18 A. No, no. 19 Q. Are you familiar with any 20 epidemiological studies performed of 21 Anni ston workers? 22 A. I believe a number of the workers had 23 blood samples drawn, but I don't know if REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 94 1 that was a part of an epidemiological 2 study. 3 Q. What time period was that? 4 A. It was sometime during the period when I 5 was involved with the site, 1994 to 6 1997. 7 Q. Was that the first time you were aware 8 of that blood was drawn from the 9 employees of the Anniston site, or was 10 that a periodic - 11 A. I don't know because I didn't have the 12 site before 1994, so I don't know if 13 that was done before. 14 Q. What was done with those results? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037885 15 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 16 the question. 17 A. They were sent out for analysis, but I'm 18 not the person that was handling them, 19 sol don't know what was involved with 20 that. 21 Q. Who was handling that? 22 A. I don't know. It was -- I don't know. 23 Q. What prompted the blood to be drawn of REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 95 1 the Anniston workers? 2 A. I think it was just for information that 3 the employees would want to have. 4 Q. Was it in connection with litigation? 5 A. I don't believe so. 6 Q. Do you remember what the results were? 7 A. No. 8 Q. When you had contacted Fleishman Hillard 9 to find a local PR firm, was one of your 10 goals to establish a certain image for 11 Monsanto in the community? 12 A. It wasn't related to image building. It 13 was purely related to communication, SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037886 14 one -- Well, part of it was I guess 15 community relations and getting Jack 16 around and helping him connect with the 17 different community groups that the 18 previous plant manager had not been able 19 to do, and then part of it was helping 20 with the general communications related 21 to the remediation issues. But again 22 nobody in the Anniston area was found. 23 Q. What was your understanding at the time REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 96 1 frame that you got involved with 2 Anniston as to Monsanto's reputation in 3 the community? 4 A. Periodically we did community attitude 5 surveys at a good number of our sites. 6 And we had done them in Anniston too. 7 But it has been a long time since I 8 looked at what those survey results 9 showed, so I wouldn't want to speculate. 10 Q. I may just have one. Do you know the 11 Adams Research group? 12 A. Yes, Bill Adams. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037887 13 Q. Is that who performed the survey during 14 the time period you have reference to? 15 A. Right. They did all of our community 16 attitude surveys on sites. 17 Q. How often was a community survey 18 performed for Anniston? 19 A. I don't know. I know we did one during 20 my watch. I don't recall whether they 21 had had one before that. We would do 22 these at plants on a rotating basis 23 because we didn't have the funds to do REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 97 1 every site every year, and it really 2 wasn't necessary to do them that 3 frequently. And usually the interval 4 was about three to four years. 5 Q. What was the rationale for conducting a 6 community survey? 7 A. Just to get a feel for level of 8 awareness of the site, whether we were 9 perceived as good neighbors, whether 10 people were familiar with our products, 11 and whether they were familiar with the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037888 12 other activities. 13 Q. Why was it important to Monsanto to be 14 perceived as a good neighbor? 15 A. Because we operated in these 16 communities, and we wanted to be part of 17 the long-term success of the community 18 alongside the success of the plant. 19 Q. Isn't one of the reasons that you want 20 to be perceived as a good neighbor to 21 impact the way litigation plays out? 22 A. No. That usually doesn't play a role. 23 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 98 1 Thirteen was marked for 2 identification.) 3 Q. Would you identify what Exhibit Thirteen 4 is for the record? 5 A. A community attitude survey for Anniston 6 conducted in January of '95. 7 Q. Was that survey conducted while you had 8 responsibility for the Anniston site? 9 A. Yes. 10 Q. Did you work with Bill Adams -- SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037889 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. -- on this issue? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. Did you have any role in formulating the 15 questions that would be used for the 16 survey? 17 A. These questions are standard questions 18 that we ask at all our sites. And it is 19 important to keep the instrument pretty 20 standard from one year to the -- one 21 interval to the next so you can compare 22 responses across time and also compare 23 plants to each other, although you can't REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 99 1 always compare plants to each other 2 because of their size and circumstances. 3 But if you keep changing the questions, 4 you are not going be able to benchmark 5 how things might be changed over time. 6 Q. But in terms of a specific plant, are 7 there ever questions that are tailored 8 to that particular plant? 9 A. Occasionally. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037890 10 Q. Do you know of any particular questions 11 that were tailored for the Anniston 12 facility? 13 A. Is there--Let me see the list of 14 questions. These all look standard. 15 Q. Do you -- Strike that. 16 After you received the results 17 from Adams Research group from the 1995 18 survey, what if anything was done by 19 Monsanto? 20 A. Let me refresh my mind about the 21 results. 22 Q. Okay. 23 A. I remember we talked about the odor REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 100 1 issue because that's related to 2 processes that were no longer in 3 operation at the site. But the 4 reputation still remained as that site 5 having an odor. And as far as what we 6 could do aboutit, about the only thing 7 was when people complained invite them 8 over to the site, give them a tour of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037891 9 the site and let them smell for 10 themselves. You know, that doesn't 11 change a whole community's attitude. 12 Q. In reviewing the executive summary and 13 good news, bad news of the Adams 14 Research group, would you say that this 15 survey was overall positive, negative, 16 or otherwise for Monsanto? 17 A. Let me read the good news, bad news. As 18 far as contributions, you know, was part 19 of the bad news because nobody recalls 20 any contributions that the plant made. 21 And if I'm recalling right, I think they 22 were kind of scatter-gun in making 23 contributions in the past. This is REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 101 1 before my time. And so I think one of 2 the things that we did -- and Jack was a 3 lot tighter about this too -- was 4 instead of giving nickels and dimes to a 5 lot of little organizations, to focus 6 the contributions more on areas where we 7 might be able to have an impact, like SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037892 8 science education, and just pick a few. 9 And I think the traveling museum was one 10 of the ones where Jack felt we could 11 have an impact. There were a few like 12 that where we could standout a little 13 more. 14 Q. And isn't that one of the 15 recommendations on page thirty-seven of 16 this 1995 survey, to target youth and 17 education? 18 A. That's an overall focus of Monsanto as a 19 whole. Science education had been kind 20 of a theme that we have supported at 21 most of our sites over the years. 22 Q. So after receiving the results of this 23 survey did you guys step up the efforts REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 102 1 in that regard? 2 A. Well, I don't remember that we changed 3 the giving levels. We just focused it 4 more. 5 Q. Meaning larger numbers were given to 6 places? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037893 7 A. To a few, a smaller number of 8 organizations. 9 Q. This survey references that there was a 10 prior survey done in 1989. Are you 11 familiar with that 1989 survey? 12 A. I'd have to look at it to recall what it 13 said. 14 Q. Although it says the plant had edged up 15 slightly since 1989, the plant's 16 standing was still below average for 17 Monsanto; is that right? 18 A. That's what it says. 19 Q. Do you recall any conversations that you 20 had with Mr. Adams regarding the results 21 of this community survey from January of 22 '95? 23 A. Not so much with Bill Adams. I do REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 103 1 recall that we did talk about it at the 2 plant. 3 Q. What discussions were had? 4 A. It was, you know, just looking at the 5 recommendations, the findings, looking SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037894 6 at what are some of the things we could 7 do. And I just mentioned the areas we 8 talked about. Odors were a big area. 9 What do we do? The odors really aren't 10 here any more. How do we change that 11 perception? The only thing we could 12 come up with is as people complained, 13 bring them out here and let them smell. 14 And focusing contributions better is the 15 other area. 16 Q. Do you remember any residents taking you 17 up on the offer to go smell for 18 themselves? 19 A. I think Robert was involved in that. I 20 think he did that a few times, but I 21 don't know who those people were. I 22 really don't know how often that 23 happened. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 104 1 Q. Had you used Adams Research before for 2 any other facility that you had worked 3 on? 4 A. Oh, yeah. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037895 5 Q. How about for any facility in Illinois? 6 A. Sure. Well, they did the whole St. 7 Louis area. So when they did St. Louis 8 they did kind of subsets around 9 Krummrich, Queeney, Carondelet, 10 headquarters, and the research center. 11 MR. PECK: Can we12 (Discussion held off record.) 13 MR. PECK: Want to stop now and 14 come back at one? 15 (A break was taken.) 16 Q. A couple of background questions that I 17 forgot to ask. Before going to work for 18 Monsanto where did you work? 19 A. Manville corporation. 20 Q. John Manville? 21 A. Well, it was called Manville Corporation 22 when I worked there. 23 Q. What did you do there? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 105 1 A. General public relations. 2 Q. How long did you work there? 3 A. Three and a half years. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037896 4 Q. How about before Manville? 5 A. Coors Ceramics, a part of the Coors 6 Brewery Company. 7 Q. Did you do PR for Coors as well? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q. Is that in Colorado? 10 A. Yes, Golden. 11 Q. And before Coors? 12 A. I was in school. 13 Q. Do you know who was Beth Vanderbeck's 14 predecessor? 15 A. On Anniston? 16 Q. Yeah. 17 A. I don't. 18 Q. Okay. We talked about a little bit your 19 contact with Jack Mayausky in connection 20 with, one, helping him establish himself 21 in the community as the new plant 22 manager in Anniston and also with 23 respect to the remediation. Other than REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 106 1 Jack Mayausky, were there any other 2 plant managers that you dealt with at SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037897 3 the Anniston facility? 4 A. No. I know Bill DeFer was the plant 5 manager before Jack, but he was gone by 6 the time I came on. 7 Q. How about Blake Hamilton? Have you had 8 any contact with him? 9 A. No. I think Jack and I left about the 10 same time. 11 Q. What contact if any have you had with 12 Kevin Cahill regarding the Anniston 13 facility? 14 A. I think when I transferred my files I 15 transferred them over to Beth, so not 16 much with Kevin. 17 Q. Kevin Cahill testified in his deposition 18 that there was one occasion where an 19 article came out -- I believe it was in 20 The Anniston Star, and rather than 21 referencing Solutia it referenced 22 Monsanto and that you and he had a 23 discussion about that. Do you recall REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 107 1 that event? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037898 2 A. Do you have the article? 3 Q. I don't have the article. I don't think 4 I do. 5 A. Was it right after I had left? 6 Q. I don't remember the timing of it. I 7 just remember that he testified that you 8 had expressed some concern about why it 9 was that the Monsanto name was being 10 used in the article and not Solutia's. 11 Does any of that ring a bell with you? 12 A. Not that specific conversation, but I 13 know that has kind of been a running 14 discussion between Monsanto and Solutia. 15 Q. Okay. And what was the concern on the 16 part of Monsanto that its name was still 17 being referenced in connection with the 18 Anniston site after the Solutia spinoff? 19 A. Because Solutia was managing the 20 remediation on-site at that point. 21 Q. And what was the concern from Monsanto's 22 perspective about the use of their name 23 in the press as opposed to Solutia's REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 108 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037899 1 name? Why did it matter to Monsanto? 2 A. Other than that we didn't own the site 3 any more and weren't responsible for the 4 remediation any more, those are pretty 5 much the reasons. 6 Q. Was it that there was some negative 7 press that Monsanto didn't want 8 associated with its name? 9 A. Well, I don't recall what the interview 10 was about or what the article was going 11 to be about, so I can't speculate 12 whether that was the case in the 13 occasion of that article. 14 Q. Just as a general proposition, you said 15 there was a running discussion between 16 Monsanto and Solutia about the fact that 17 Monsanto's name continued to appear in 18 connection with the Anniston site after 19 the spin. And my question is was there 20 a concern on Monsanto's part that their 21 name might be associated with some 22 negative publicity? 23 A. Yes. And part of the concern too is I REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 109 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037900 1 guess Monsanto's name appears on 2 lawsuits, and so the company keeps 3 coming up in the press or with people 4 that are referring to the lawsuit versus 5 Solutia, which is defending the lawsuit. 6 So the discussion is not so much image 7 as it is who has the responsibility and 8 who should be the spokesperson and which 9 company should be addressed. And it is 10 still not very clear. 11 MS. MALOW: I just need to object 12 to everything after yes as 13 nonresponsive, for the 14 record. 15 MR. PECK: I thought it was 16 responsive. 17 Q. I asked you earlier about Steve Bradley, 18 and I take it from your answer that you 19 have no knowledge whatsoever regarding 20 any work that Steve Bradley or his PR 21 firm did for the Anniston facility. Is 22 that accurate? 23 A. Right. I don't. I don't even know who REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 110 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037901 1 he is. 2 Q. And you haven't heard of the Bradley 3 Townsend public relations firm? 4 A. Uh-uh (indicating no). 5 Q. That's a no? 6 A. That's no. 7 Q. Make sure we get the record. Are you 8 familiar with a general PCB file that 9 existed at Monsanto that would have had, 10 for example, articles any time that PCBs 11 were mentioned, whether it be in 12 connection with Anniston or Sauget? 13 A. Whose file? I mean, different people 14 probably had files. Bob Kaley probably 15 had files. I probably transferred over 16 some files that had articles to the 17 Solutia folks. 18 Q. Well, I guess I was speaking more 19 generally in terms of whether or not you 20 were aware of Monsanto keeping just a 21 general PCB file. 22 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 23 the question. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037902 Ill 1 A. Again, whose file? 2 Q. It would be broken up in terms of PR 3 might have a file that deals with PCB 4 issues, and Bob Kaley might have a file 5 that deals with PCB issues. Is that 6 what you are saying? 7 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 8 the question. 9 A. Right, and from each of our own 10 perspectives. For instance, my interest 11 would be media and would probably have 12 clips in it. Bob Kaley's would be more 13 scientific, so his might have more 14 technical related articles. 15 Q. Do you know when Monsanto first 16 established a public relations 17 department? 18 A. I don't know. 19 Q. When you came to Monsanto in '87 do you 20 have any familiarity with how long that 21 department had existed that you were in? 22 A. No. 23 Q. Just from historical discussions? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037903 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 112 1 A. I can't put a date on it. I don't know. 2 Q. When was it that Monsanto first began 3 using Fleishman Hillard for any purpose? 4 A. Boy, I don't recall when we started. We 5 had a corporate contract with them, but 6 I don't remember when that was first 7 negotiated. 8 Q. What types of PR efforts was Fleishman 9 Hillard retained to handle? 10 A. General public relations, counsel to our 11 executives on whatever issues came up of 12 a corporate nature. They helped the 13 businesses when they had work that was 14 beyond the -- beyond the--when we 15 didn't have enough people to handle the 16 workload, depending on what was going on 17 at the time. And they were also 18 advisors just on a general basis. 19 Q. And you mentioned earlier that the only 20 role that they had as far as you're 21 aware of with connection to Anniston was 22 your request for them to help you find a 23 local PR agent? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037904 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 113 1 A. That's the only activity I can recall 2 them engaging in related to Anniston. 3 Q. Are you familiar with a story that was 4 done by a New York Times reporter in 5 which Fleishman Hillard was also 6 involved? I think that reporter's name, 7 if you will give me a second, is Rick 8 Bragg. 9 A. Yes. I remember working with Rick 10 Bragg. I don't remember what 11 Fleishman's role in that was, but I do 12 remember that interview. 13 Q. Tell me what your contact was with Rick 14 Bragg regarding the Anniston facility. 15 A. I don't remember exactly how the 16 interview request came in, but somehow 17 it came to me. I don't remember where 18 the first point of contact was. But I 19 remember talking to Rick Bragg, 20 determining what his interest was, 21 looking at who would be the appropriate 22 people to answer the questions and SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037905 23 address the issues that he wanted to REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 114 1 talk about, and then coordinating 2 schedules to set up the interview. 3 Q. Did you in fact determine what his 4 interest was in the Anniston site? 5 A. Yes. 6 Q. What was his interest? 7 A. It was related to the remediation and 8 the property purchase program. 9 Q. Was your contact with Rick initially 10 over the telephone or in person? 11 A. Over the phone. 12 Q. Was anyone else involved in that 13 discussion with Rick other than you and 14 Rick? 15 A. You mean the phone, the initial phone 16 conversation? 17 Q. Right. 18 A. No. That was just me and him. 19 Q. And did you in fact set up interviews 20 for him to conduct? 21 A. Yes. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037906 22 Q. Of whom? 23 A. It was one interview. He came out to REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 115 1 the Anniston site, and it was with Jack 2 Mayausky and Bob Kaley, and I was there. 3 But I wasn't one of the people being 4 interviewed. I don't remember if Alan 5 was part of the team then or not. 6 Q. Did you guys have any legal counsel 7 present for that meeting? 8 A. I don't believe so. 9 Q. And how long did that interview last? 10 A. I think a couple of hours. 11 Q. Prior to the interview, did you meet 12 with Kaley, Mayausky, and Faust to talk 13 about -- to prepare them for the 14 interview process? 15 A. Well, we had phone conference call -- at 16 least a conference call because we were 17 in different locations. And it was a 18 matter of me relaying what Rick Bragg 19 said he wanted to talk about, making 20 sure we had the right documents, and SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037907 21 that the people were prepared to handle 22 the issues that he said he wanted to 23 talk about. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 116 1 Q. Do you remember what documents if any 2 were compiledfor this interview with 3 Rick Bragg? 4 A. I remember they laid out a map for him 5 that showed the different areas where -- 6 the areas where the remediation was to 7 take place, what the remediation looked 8 like, what homes were going to be 9 affected by remediation, that kind of 10 thing. 11 Q. During the interview that Rick Bragg 12 conducted, do you -- did he ask any 13 questions regarding health effects of 14 PCBs? 15 A. I don't recall. He might have, and Bob 16 Kaley is the expert in that area. So 17 that is a question you should ask of 18 him. 19 Q. Right. I'm just trying to understand SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037908 20 your recollection, since you were in 21 attendance at the meeting, as to whether 22 or not Mr. Bragg asked questions about 23 PCB health effects. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 117 1 A. And I don't recall that specifically 2 being -- It might have been part of the 3 interview. I just don't recall. 4 Q. How about with respect to -- 5 A. If you read the article, it is probably 6 in there, but I haven't read it in a 7 long time. 8 Q. Sometimes the interview and article 9 aren't exactly the same. 10 A. That's true. 11 Q. What about questions by Mr. Bragg about 12 the characteristics of PCBs, that is, 13 their persistence in the environment? 14 A. I believe he did ask questions related 15 to that. 16 Q. Do you recall the answers that were 17 given to him regarding those questions? 18 A. I believe they were pretty much what is SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037909 19 contained in the fact sheet. 20 Q. And you know from that backgrounder and 21 from your familiarity with PCBs that 22 they are persistent in the environment. 23 That is not something that Monsanto REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 118 1 contests, is it? 2 A. Right. 3 Q. Did Mr. Bragg then write a story based 4 on those interviews? 5 A. I believe he did. 6 Q. Do you know when that came out? 7 A. No. I don't remember. 8 Q. Do you recall if the story was as you 9 expected it would be? 10 A. I think it was pretty balanced. 11 Q. Why would Bob Steyer -- 12 A. Steyer. 13 Q. -- of the St. Louis Post Dispatch need 14 to be briefed about this story that Rick 15 Bragg was doing? 16 A. Because he liked to be on top of 17 anything that Monsanto was involved in SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037910 18 He was the local, you know, St. Louis 19 reporter, which is our major St. Louis 20 newspaper, and covered Monsanto. And if 21 he got scooped by the New York Times and 22 hadn't been aware of activities that we 23 were engaged in from us -- it wasn't REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 119 1 something we had to do, but it is a 2 courtesy that we often extended to him. 3 Q. And does PD stand for Post Dispatch? 4 A. Usually. 5 Q. Do you recall Mr. Pierle questioning you 6 regarding this article that Mr. Bragg 7 was doing, asking you some questions 8 about that article? 9 A. Before or after that article? 10 Q. I think it was before. Let's see. I 11 don't have the exact date of the 12 article. 13 A. He was the vice president of 14 environmental safety and health. Given 15 that the reporter was the New York 16 Times, it wouldn't have been unusual for SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037911 17 him to want to know about maj or news 18 stories that involved any of the sites. 19 Q. Let me just give you this, and we can 20 talk about it more clearly. 21 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 22 Fourteen was marked for 23 identification.) REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 120 1 Q. Take a look at Exhibit Fourteen, and if 2 you would, identify what that is, 3 please. 4 A. It looks like it is an e-mail from Mike 5 Pierle to me, or to a number of people 6 it looks like. 7 Q. What is the date of that e-mail? 8 A. 1-22-97. 9 Q. Do you know if that is before or after 10 the story? I think it is before. 11 A. I don't recall. 12 Q. Based on -- If you want to take a minute 13 to read the whole thing, maybe you can 14 tell. 15 MR. PECK: Can I look at it? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037912 16 MS. MALOW: Sure. 17 A. It sounds like it is before. 18 Q. Okay. If you will go back to page one 19 of Exhibit Fourteen in Mr. Pierle's 20 e-mail, he asks won't this bring the PD 21 in immediately? And you have told me 22 that PD stands for Post Dispatch. 23 A. Post Dispatch. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 121 1 Q. What was your understanding of that 2 statement? 3 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 4 the question. 5 A. It sounds like he's thinking that the 6 Post Dispatch will probably do their own 7 story once they read the New York Times 8 story. 9 Q. Okay. And is that something that you as 10 the PR person at that time for Anniston 11 would have encouraged or discouraged? 12 A. Them doing a story? It is up to them to 13 do a story. I don't have control over 14 what a reporter wants to write a story SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037913 15 about. 16 Q. He is asking you as the person who has 17 responsibility for Anniston won't this 18 bring Post Dispatch in immediately. And 19 my question is what is your 20 understanding of him raising that issue 21 with you? 22 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 23 the question. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 122 1 A. Well, I'm not sure at that point if we 2 had briefed Bob Steyer about our 3 activities in Anniston. And if this 4 story was going to appear in the New 5 York Times and we hadn't given Bob 6 Steyer any background about our 7 activities out there, they would be 8 interested in wanting to do a story 9 themselves. 10 Q. Is it the case that because Monsanto is 11 based in St. Louis that they have a 12 long-standing relationship with Post 13 Dispatch and specifically Bob Steyer? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037914 14 A. Yes. 15 Q. And based on that long-standing 16 relationship you have some idea as to 17 the way he is going to write articles 18 about Monsanto? 19 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 20 the question. 21 A. We don't know how he is going to write 22 stories, but we do know he likes to 23 cover anything major the company is REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 123 1 involved in. 2 Q. And you guys don't have a concern with 3 him that it is going to have a negative 4 spin, do you? 5 A. He is usually a balanced reporter. We 6 don't always like what he writes, but at 7 least he is fair. 8 Q. He also asks you if the plant is 9 checking with the state people to find 10 out if they have been contacted. Who 11 was he referring to there? 12 MR. PECK: Object to the form of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037915 13 the question. 14 A. I don't know. I probably did at the 15 time, but I'm not sure who he is 16 referring to there. 17 Q. What is your understanding of what state 18 people would have been involved with the 19 Anni ston piant? 20 A. I can't tell from this. I mean, it is 21 probably people in the State of Alabama, 22 but that's just what I think. 23 Q. Well, by state people could it mean REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 124 1 ADEM? 2 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 3 the question. 4 A. It could mean ADEM. 5 Q. Did you answer Mr. Pierle's question 6 about whether the plant was checking 7 with ADEM to find out if they had been 8 contacted? 9 A. That's probably something that Bob Kaley 10 would have been involved with or would 11 have responded to because he had contact SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037916 12 with the state. I didn't. 13 Q. And then he also says are we prepared to 14 give the New York Times references to 15 the health officials who are watching 16 this from a public health perspective. 17 To whom does that refer? 18 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 19 the question. 20 A. Again, I can't tell from this memo 21 specifically who he is talking about. I 22 don't -- 23 Q. Well, I understand this is '97, but it REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 125 1 is two years ago. And given the fact 2 that you handled this site for a number 3 of years, aren't you familiar with what 4 public health officials were involved 5 with respect to the PCB issue? 6 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 7 the question. You are asking 8 her about some other person's 9 thinking. That is why she 10 can't answer it. SWIFT 08-25. 1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037917 11 A. That's true. 12 Q. I'm asking you to identify -- 13 A. If you are asking me who are the third 14 party experts that we referred people to 15 related to PCBs in Anniston, it was the 16 three people on the list that you showed 17 me earlier. 18 Q. Okay. Forrester -- 19 A. Whether that is who Pierle was referring 20 to or not, I can't confirm that. 21 Q. Forrester, Kimbrough, and Hughes were on 22 the list. But you are telling me you 23 can't say specifically if those are the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 126 1 three that Mr. Pierle -- 2 A. That he had in mind. 3 Q. Do you know any others besides -- 4 A. No, I don't. 5 Q. You have to let me get my whole question 6 out. 7 A. Okay. 8 Q. I know you know where I'm going, but I 9 have to make a record. Do you know of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037918 10 any individuals other than 11 Dr. Forrester, Dr. Hughes, and 12 Dr. Kimbrough that were public health 13 officials that may have had information 14 about PCBs? 15 A. Those are the ones that I'm familiar 16 with. 17 Q. Okay. He then asks you what is our 18 overall strategy. Do you know how you 19 responded to Mr. Pierle's questions 20 about the overall strategy with respect 21 to this article that Mr. Bragg was 22 doing? 23 A. Does it say further back here? Could REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 127 1 you ask the question again? 2 Q. How did you respond to Mr. Pierle's 3 question about the overall strategy you 4 had to the Bragg article? 5 A. I don't recall how I responded 6 specifically to him, but I know the 7 preparation that we did related to the 8 interview was to discuss the areas that SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037919 9 Bragg was interested in, make sure that 10 we had the material available and the 11 people available to respond to those 12 issues and questions. We did brief Bob 13 Steyer, and I don't remember whether 14 that was before or after the New York 15 Times story came out. I think it was 16 right before, several days before, but 17 that was as soon as we could coordinate 18 schedules. And that was about the 19 extent of it. 20 Q. Did Steyer do a subsequent article after 21 the Bragg article came out? 22 A. Yes. Well, I don't know if it was after 23 or before. I don't remember whether it REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 128 1 was directly after or directly before. 2 Q. Was the focus of the Steyer article the 3 same as the Bragg article? 4 A. I believe so. 5 Q. One of the things that you mention in 6 your reply to Pierle, which is on 7 Exhibit Fourteen at the bottom of the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037920 8 first page, is that in talking to the 9 intern in the Atlanta office of the New 10 York Times that she wanted to interview 11 a representative, and one of the things 12 she wanted to interview on was related 13 health effects and lawsuits. Do you see 14 that section? 15 MR. PECK: It is not -- Just for 16 the record, it is not a 17 reply. That is the way 18 e-mail works. That is the 19 original message. That is 20 the start. 21 Q. With respect to health effects, I 22 believe I asked you earlier if you 23 recalled if Mr. Bragg had asked any REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 129 1 questions at the interview that he 2 conducted, that you attended, about the 3 health effects of PCBs.Does that 4 refresh your memory? 5 A. Again, this was before the interview, so 6 I don't remember if that specifically SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037921 7 came up. In most likelihood it probably 8 did. But any responses to those kinds 9 of questions would be handled by Bob 10 Kaley. 11 Q. I understand that. And my question is 12 as we sit here now, do you have any 13 recollection of any of the answers that 14 Dr. Kaley gave to any of those 15 questions? 16 A. No, I don't remember. 17 Q. Do you recall Rick Bragg asking any 18 questions about lawsuits when he did the 19 interview? 20 A. Again, he might have. ButI can't 21 recall specifically the give and take of 22 what questions -- specific questions 23 came up. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 130 1 Q. Was the interview recorded? 2 A. No. I don't usually record media 3 interviews. 4 Q. Did you take any notes? 5 A. Yes. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037922 6 Q. Where would those notes be? 7 A. I don't know that I kept them. That is 8 usually just for my own memory, to 9 report back about what happened, and 10 then I usually pitch them. 11 Q. Are you familiar with any other e-mails 12 other than the ones that are marked as 13 Exhibit Fourteen that you wrote or 14 responded to regarding this story? 15 A. I don't recall any others. 16 Q. If you will look at your e-mail of 2-20 17 of'97, which is part of Exhibit 18 Fourteen, at the bottom, the last 19 paragraph, you indicate the reasons that 20 you wanted to brief Bob Steyer. And one 21 of the things you mention is that the 22 annual report will include several 23 footnotes about the lawsuits. What are REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 131 1 you talking about there? 2 A. If there is anything material, which 3 lawsuits might have the potential to be, 4 they need to be included in footnotes in SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037923 5 either the annual report or the ten Qs. 6 And Bob Steyer, being a very complete 7 reporter, would always read our 8 documents from cover to cover, including 9 footnotes, and sometimes found story 10 material from what he read in footnotes. 11 Q. And at the end you say I'm trying to 12 coordinate the team's schedule to pin 13 down dates. What is the team you are 14 referencing? 15 A. The same people that briefed or talked 16 to Rick Bragg. It would have been Jack 17 Mayausky, Alan -- Actually I don't know 18 if Jack came up for that or not. And 19 Bob Kaley would have been there. 20 Q. If you could, please, for me, 21 Ms. Herndon, go back to the first e-mail 22 and just tell me who each of the people 23 are that are listed as receiving this REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 132 1 e-mail. Just give me their name and 2 title at the time they received this 3 e-mail. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037924 4 A. Tom Bistline was one of our attorneys. 5 Mike Foresman was a director of 6 remediation. Garth Fort was in the 7 environmental area. I don't know what 8 his title was at that point. He did 9 public relations for a while, but I 10 don't remember that happening. Virginia 11 Weldon was the vice president of public 12 policy. She is no longer with the 13 company. Dennis Cavner I think was 14 related to operations, like possibly an 15 operating director. Scarlett Foster was 16 another woman in public affairs who 17 handled the media too. Thomas McDermott 18 was a public affairs person, and he is 19 in our Brussels office. I'm not sure if 20 he was at the time. But it looks like 21 from the e-mail that is a Brussels 22 e-mail location, so he probably was. 23 Larry O'Neill was in public affairs. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 133 1 Christy Beckmann was in public affairs. 2 Jack of course was plant manager. Alan SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037925 3 was in charge of the Anniston 4 remediation. Pat Hyland was one of the 5 environmental people. Robert Jones was 6 the environmental superintendent at the 7 plant. Rita Hartmann was involved in 8 state government affairs. I don't know 9 whether she had Anniston or not. Jo 10 Hanson was involved in the remediation. 11 Rashmi Nair I think was a toxicologist, 12 but I'm not sure about that. Bruce Eley 13 was involved in the remediation. Kevin 14 was in public affairs. 15 Q. Okay. Is Scarlett Foster still with 16 Monsanto? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. Did Scarlett ever have responsibilities 19 for Anniston? 20 A. I think she did in the early days. 21 Q. By early days, what time frame -- 22 A. When we started the community relations 23 function, which would have been in '87, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 134 1 for the first couple of years. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037926 2 Q. And how about Thomas McDermott? Is he 3 still with Monsanto? 4 A. Yes. He is still in the Brussels 5 office. 6 Q. What was the -- Larry O'Neill, what is 7 his title presently? 8 A. Retired. 9 Q. What was his title back in '97? 10 A. He has gone through a number of 11 transitions too. I don't remember if he 12 was still part of the chemical company 13 at that point. 14 Q. Was he your boss? 15 A. He was my boss just before he retired. 16 No. Well, yeah, I guess -- See, we have 17 had so many transitions at Monsanto that 18 it is hard to remember who we reported 19 to when. And there have been large 20 periods of time when we didn't really 21 have a person that we reported to. We 22 just did our jobs and let the people who 23 needed to know know what we were doing. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 135 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037927 1 The last probably six to eight months 2 that Larry was with the company he 3 managed the news desk, which I took over 4 in February when he retired. Prior to 5 that I think he headed up the 6 environmental group, public affairs 7 group. So in that capacity he would 8 have been my boss, and that might have 9 been in '97. 10 Q. The last page of Exhibit Fourteen, I'm 11 not even sure if it is connected. Is 12 that document connected with the other 13 documents? 14 A. No. 15 Q. All right. Let's mark it as something 16 else, then. 17 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 18 Fifteen was marked for 19 identification.) 20 Q. Ms. Herndon, I'm handing you Exhibit 21 Fifteen, which is entitled Anniston area 22 influentials. Have you seen that 23 document before? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 136 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037928 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. Who prepared this document? 3 A. Jack Mayausky. 4 Q. Why was it prepared? 5 A. When he first came on as plant manager 6 he started, well, first talking to the 7 people at the plant about who they 8 thought the key leaders were in the 9 community that he should get to know. 10 And then as he branched out and got more 11 people he added to the list. So this 12 was his list that he developed. 13 Q. And what was this list utilized for? 14 A. Again, community relations purposes. 15 Initially that is what it was used for, 16 as to who he should keep informed about 17 what the plant was doing. I think when 18 we were talking about Michael Elliott, 19 this was provided to him so that he 20 could decide who he wanted to interview 21 related to the potential for a community 22 advisory panel. 23 Q. And Michael Elliott is with a company REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 137 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037929 1 called Bourne Elliott? 2 A. Something like that. 3 Q. And he is someone you contacted about 4 the possibility of creating a CAP for 5 Anniston? 6 A. Right. 7 Q. We will get back to that. I just wanted 8 to make sure we had the right person in 9 mind. 10 Did you have any input at all in 11 preparing Exhibit Fifteen? 12 A. No. This was Jack's list. 13 Q. Have you met any of the people on 14 Exhibit Fifteen? 15 A. I don't believe so, no. 16 Q. Have you had any contact either in 17 writing or over the telephone, in person 18 with any of the people on Exhibit 19 Fifteen? 20 A. No, uh-uh, no. 21 Q. Okay. Do you know if Michael Elliott 22 interviewed any of the Anniston area 23 influentials in connection with the CAP? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037930 138 1 A. I know he did interview a number of 2 people. I don't recall which people 3 those were and whether or not they were 4 people from this list or not. 5 Q. Other than what -- Let me back up a 6 little bit. With respect to this 7 article that Rick Bragg did in the New 8 York Times, prior to the time you set up 9 the interviews for him, did you do any 10 investigation on Mr. Bragg? 11 A. Yeah, which is common whenever we set up 12 interviews with a reporter, just to find 13 out what their beat is, whether they 14 have a scientific background, or what 15 they usually cover, whether their 16 stories are usually balanced. 17 Q. And what did your investigation about 18 Mr. Bragg reveal? 19 A. That he was a news reporter, and I think 20 he was also kind of a slice of life 21 reporter that kind of gave the color of 22 the area. 23 Q. Did you find from your investigation SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037931 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 139 1 that he generally wrote balanced 2 articles? 3 A. I believe so. 4 Q. And is that why you were willing to 5 offer your folks to be interviewed? 6 A. I believe so. 7 Q. If you had found out otherwise, you 8 probably wouldn't have set it up, would 9 you? 10 A. We would have to evaluate. 11 Q. Are you familiar with any other stories 12 that the New York Times has contemplated 13 doing or has done regarding the Anniston 14 facility? 15 A. I'm not familiar with any others. 16 Q. How about the Wall Street Journal? Are 17 you familiar with any articles that the 18 Wall Street Journal has either talked 19 about writing or has written regarding 20 the Anniston site? 21 A. I don't recall any that they were 22 interested in. I don't think so, but I 23 can't say for sure. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037932 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 140 1 Q. In fact, Mr. Cahill has testified about 2 some contact he had with a reporter 3 named Mollenkamp from the Wall Street 4 Journal. Do you have any knowledge of 5 that? 6 A. No, and that name is not familiar to me. 7 Q. Do you know of any other media contacts 8 that you have had either in Alabama or 9 on a national level regarding the 10 Anniston site? 11 A. For the most part Jack was the media 12 contact. 13 Q. Let me ask it more directly. Did you 14 have any contacts with any reporters at 15 The Anniston Star? 16 A. Not in person. And there might have 17 been some -- For the most part, no. 18 There might have been a conversation or 19 two I think with Shawn Riley, not of 20 substance that I can recall. But for 21 the most part Jack was themedia 22 contact. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037933 23 Q. Do you recall any articles that Shawn REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 141 1 Riley wrote about the Anniston site 2 while you had jurisdiction? 3 A. He wrote a lot of the stories that 4 appeared in The Anniston Star about the 5 plant and remediation. 6 Q. Did you ever have Shawn Riley come out 7 to the site for an inspection? 8 A. I believe he did. 9 Q. Was that common practice, to have the 10 reporters come and inspect the site? 11 A. If it is going to be a reporter who is 12 going to cover the beat for a while, 13 yes. It is usually helpful for them to 14 see what they are writing about. 15 Q. Were you present at any time when any 16 reporters came to inspect the Anniston 17 site? 18 A. No. 19 Q. Have you had contact with Jonathan 20 Lifland of The Anniston Star? 21 A. No. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037934 22 Q. How about Elizabeth Pazullo? 23 A. No. I know she came after Shawn, but REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 142 1 I- 2 Q. How about Phil Sanguinetti? 3 A. That name is not familiar. 4 MR. PECK: It is familiar to me. 5 Q. Tom Spencer? 6 A. I didn't have contact with him, but his 7 name sounds familiar. Was he with The 8 Anniston Star? 9 Q. I believe so. How about Chris Waddle? 10 A. No. 11 Q. How about Brandy Ayers? 12 A. I think he was the publisher, wasn't he? 13 But I didn't have contact with him. 14 Q. Have you ever provided or instructed 15 anybody to provide documents to any of 16 The Anniston Star reporters? 17 A. When reporters were starting a beat with 18 Monsanto, it was general practice to 19 provide them background information on 20 the company as well as whatever issues SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037935 21 they were interested in. So they 22 probably received an annual report, 23 maybe an environmental report. And REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 143 1 those are the general materials that we 2 would pass along to people. 3 Q. How about the PCB backgrounder document? 4 A. That might have been part of the 5 materials, but I don't know for sure. 6 Q. Are you familiar with the GE funded 7 study that Dr. Renate Kimbrough was 8 involved in recently? 9 A. No. 10 Q. Have you had any contact with any 11 reporters from the Birmingham News 12 paper? 13 A. I don't recall that I did. Again, Jack 14 was the main media contact, and we 15 tried, you know, to have the plant 16 answer whatever media questions were 17 related to the plant rather than have 18 the calls come up to St. Louis. 19 Q. Do you know Rose Livingston? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037936 20 A. I think she was involved in some of the 21 articles from Birmingham. But I don't 22 remember much about her. 23 Q. Are you familiar with a book written by REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 144 1 Carrick Mollenkamp on big tobacco? 2 A. No. 3 Q. I may have asked this before. If I did, 4 I apologize. But other than Rick Bragg, 5 have you had any contact with any other 6 reporters from the New York Times? 7 A. No. 8 Q. Have you ever been involved regarding 9 any letters to the editor that were 10 written regarding the Anniston facility? 11 A. I don't recall. 12 Q. Are you familiar with a letter to the 13 editor written by Lonnie Coker? 14 A. Her name is not familiar. 15 Q. Or his? 16 MR. PECK: What did you say? I'm 17 sorry? 18 MS. MALOW: Isn't it a he? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037937 19 MR. PECK: I thought you said 20 somebody else's name. 21 Q. Your name was listed on a memo dated 22 April 2nd, 1997, regarding PCB inquiry 23 referral updates as being a secondary REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 145 1 contact for press, radio, TV, and media 2 inquiries. Are you aware of that? 3 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 4 Q. Is that a yes? 5 A. Yes. 6 Q. Did you in fact receive any contacts as 7 a result of you being the contact person 8 in that regard? 9 A. We occasionally get media calls or even 10 calls from the public related to PCBs, 11 since we were one of the manufacturers 12 of PCBs. 13 Q. Do you recall any phone calls that you 14 received from the public about PCBs? 15 A. Occasionally. It was usually 16 contractors that were in asituation 17 that were dealing with PCBs. And when SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037938 18 those kinds of calls came in, I just 19 sent them right over to Bob Kaley. 20 Q. And those contractors had questions 21 about what sort of protective equipment 22 they should use if they are removing 23 PCBs or things along those lines? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 146 1 A. Various questions. 2 Q. Would that be the type of question? 3 A. Yeah, but not -- Some of them were 4 related to remediation. Others were 5 just related to, you know, electrical 6 uses and current use of the product. 7 Q. Okay. How about contacts that you 8 received from press, radio, TV, or media 9 regarding PCBs? Can you recall any of 10 those? 11 A. I can't recall specific media inquiries, 12 specific calls. I know I was the 13 contact, and I know we occasionally get 14 them. If they wanted -- In they wanted 15 background, I sent them the 16 backgrounder. If they wanted more SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037939 17 information than is on the backgrounder, 18 I sends them to Kaley. 19 Q. Do you know about how many phone calls 20 or contacts you received during the time 21 period you were the secondary contact on 22 PCB inquiries? 23 A. It wasn't very frequent. It might have REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 147 1 been one or two a quarter. 2 MS. MALOW: And just for the 3 record let's go ahead and 4 mark this. 5 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 6 Sixteen was marked for 7 identification.) 8 Q. Can you identify for the record what 9 Exhibit Sixteen is? 10 A. A PCB inquiry referral update. 11 Q. Does that confirm at the bottom that you 12 were secondary contact for press, radio, 13 TV, and media? 14 A. Yes. 15 Q. Do you recall any contact that you had SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037940 16 with Connie Hancock of Channel 40 in 17 Anniston, Alabama? 18 A. Do you have something I can look at? 19 Q. Sure. 20 A. Her name is familiar. But I can't 21 remember what her interest was. 22 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 23 Seventeen was marked for REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 148 1 identification.) 2 A. I don't remember what the thirty-second 3 TV spots were about. I think we got 4 them automatically as a result of 5 something else we did. I don't remember 6 what that was. And I do remember one of 7 the philanthropic giving activities was 8 a donation to the birds of prey or -- 9 what was it called -- the World Bird 10 Sanctuary that would take birds of prey 11 around to locations around the country. 12 And since we were a contributor, part of 13 our contribution was to have them go to 14 different plant communities and put on SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037941 15 these educational shows for the children 16 in the school systems of those 17 communities. 18 Q. And just for the record, Exhibit 19 Seventeen is a letter that you wrote on 20 May 1st, 1995, to Connie Hancock 21 regarding or thanking her for her 22 assistance with respect to these TV 23 spots that aired on the channel? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 149 1 A. Right. 2 Q. And you indicate you are attaching a 3 copy of that science educationthat can 4 be narrated over footage of the birds of 5 prey flying around a gymnasium with the 6 kids enthusiastically pointing, 7 laughing, and learning? 8 A. They had a good time. The kids loved 9 that. 10 Q. All right. Were you involved with the 11 Wall Street Journal article regarding 12 the Illinois EPA issues with the 13 Krummrich piant? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037942 14 A. I remember the Wall Street Journal doing 15 a story. I was familiar with it, but I 16 don't remember whether I had the lead at 17 that time or not. 18 Q. All right. Let me give you one that you 19 were copied on and see if that refreshes 20 your recollection. 21 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 22 Eighteen was marked for 23 identification.) REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 150 1 Q. I'm going to hand Exhibit Eighteen. If 2 you could, just identify that first, and 3 take whatever time you need to read it. 4 A. It is a note from Kevin, potential Wall 5 Street Journal story on the Krummrich 6 landfill, April of '92, in '92, April of 7 '92. 8 Q. Have you had a chance to read Exhibit 9 Eighteen? 10 A. Just a minute.I'm looking at the last 11 page. 12 Q. Sorry. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037943 13 A. Okay. 14 Q. Do you recall now, having read Exhibit 15 Eighteen, receiving Kevin's memo dated 16 April 21st, 1992, about the Krummrich 17 landfill? 18 A. Yes. 19 Q. At the bottom he indicates there is 20 another reporter, Marc Levinson with 21 Newsweek, who is going to be given a 22 tour and conducting interviews at the 23 Krummrich plant and that you are REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 151 1 handling that effort. Do you recall -- 2 A. On the topic of global competition and 3 production efficiencies. 4 Q. That had nothing do with the PCB issue? 5 A. Right. 6 Q. What was your involvement if any 7 regarding Scott McMurray of the Wall 8 Street Journal's interviews regarding 9 the Krummrich facility? 10 A. I don't think I was involved in setting 11 it up. I know I was informed about it, SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037944 12 but I don't think I had any input into 13 what he saw or who he talked to or 14 anything like that. 15 Q. Are you aware of the fact there was some 16 concern as to whether or not this 17 article by McMurray was going to be 18 favorable or unfavorable? 19 A. Well, as Kevin states in this notice, at 20 the time it was unclear which way he was 21 going to go with it. I don't recall 22 anything else. 23 Q. Do you recall Mr. Potter being alerted REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 152 1 about this story? 2 A. That is very likely since he was the 3 president of the chemical group, and 4 anything related to anyof the chemical 5 company sites hewould have been 6 interested in. 7 Q. In fact didn't Larry O'Neill inform 8 Mr. Potter that he wanted to flag this 9 story for him because you all might wake 10 up j olted by a front page Wall Street SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037945 11 Journal story on problems at Krummrich? 12 A. Well, our executives hated to be 13 surprised, and it was part of our job to 14 bring these kinds of things to their 15 attention. 16 Q. Certainly if it was going to be 17 favorable, it wouldn't really shock 18 them? 19 A. Well, even if it was favorable, they 20 should have heard from us that these 21 interviews were taking place and that a 22 story was expected before they read it 23 in the morning paper. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 153 1 Q. And in fact what Mr. O'Neill informed 2 Mr. Potter is that he certainly hoped it 3 wasn't the case that they were j olted 4 awake but that many people at the plant 5 and in corporate and chemical's PR have 6 done their best to prevent or soften 7 such an occurrence. Isn't that what was 8 going on? 9 MR. PECK: Object to the form of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037946 10 the question. 11 A. That we were going to prevent an 12 occurrence of what? 13 Q. Of this article-- 14 MR. PECK: Jolting them awake. 15 A. You can't prevent a reporter from doing 16 a story. All you can do is present your 17 facts and what you know about the issues 18 they are interested in 19 Q. And wasn't part of PR's j ob to soften 20 the story, to make sure it came out in a 21 favorable light to Monsanto? 22 A. Our job is to ensure that they provide 23 the positive side of the story in REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 154 1 addition to whatever facts they are 2 interested in so that the story might 3 have more balance, especially if they 4 are talking to people who would probably 5 give them a negative impression of what 6 was going on. 7 Q. Well, I found one with your name on it 8 about this story. Let's ask you about SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037947 9 that. 10 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 11 Nineteen was marked for 12 identification.) 13 (A break was taken.) 14 Q. Have you had a chance to read the 15 collection of documents that are marked 16 at Exhibit Nineteen? 17 A. I just did. 18 Q. The first one was the one I was asking 19 you about earlier which was sort of the 20 alert memo from Larry O'Neill to 21 Mr. Potter about the fact that although 22 they try to soften the occurrence, they 23 wanted to make sure he wasn't jolted REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 155 1 awake by this front page article. Have 2 you seen that document before? 3 A. I don't recall this one, but I'm 4 familiar with the circumstances around 5 this. 6 Q. Okay. What were the circumstances 7 around it? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037948 8 A. Just that this reporter was going to do 9 a story, and we didn't know what angle 10 he was taking, and it had the potential 11 to be a front page story, and we didn't 12 want our management to be surprised. 13 Q. And it also had the potential to be a 14 negative story; is that right? 15 A. Had the potential. 16 Q. You authored a memo May 8th, 1992; is 17 that right? 18 A. Right. 19 Q. This seems to indicate that you did in 20 fact have some knowledge about this 21 potential McMurray story; is that right? 22 A. Well, looking at thiscorrespondence, at 23 that time we were still organized in REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 156 1 operating companies and then the 2 corporate cap that kind of went over the 3 companies. And Kevin I think had 4 primary responsibility for Krummrich at 5 the time, reporting to Larry O'Neill, 6 who was informing the chemical company SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037949 7 management. And this -- and I believe I 8 was copied on this because I was the 9 corporate contact from the chemical 10 company, and it was my responsibility to 11 inform executive -- corporate executives 12 about this, the potential for this 13 story. So my information would have 14 come from the chemical group, and all of 15 these people on the receiving list were 16 executives for the overall corporation. 17 Q. And yet you indicate in your May 8th, 18 '92, memo that McMurray is very evasive 19 about the angle of his story. Is that 20 just secondhand information you are 21 relaying? Is that what you are telling 22 me? 23 A. Yes. That was from Kevin. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 157 1 Q. When you get into talking about who he 2 has interviewed and what type of 3 questions he has asked, is that just 4 information you are passing along from 5 Kevin? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037950 6 A. From the chemical people. 7 Q. Do you recall now that you have read 8 these documents who he interviewed, who 9 McMurray interviewed? 10 A. I don't recall. 11 Q. Okay. Do you recall the article that 12 came out? 13 A. I think it was on the front page, but I 14 don't remember what it looked like, 15 whether it was balanced or not. 16 Q. Let's see if I can find it. I'll find 17 it at a break, and we'll come back to 18 it. I know it is here. 19 Have we now covered all of the 20 contacts you can recall that you have 21 had on any PCB related issues? 22 A. Related to Anniston? 23 Q. Well, I'm going to make it broader, just REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 158 1 any PCB related issues. So if there are 2 others regarding Sauget or some other 3 context, let me know what those are. 4 MR. PECK: Object to the form of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037951 5 the question. 6 A. Well, as I said, we would get various 7 PCB inquiries that would come in to us 8 from time to time from different 9 sources. I can't identify specifically 10 the source at this time, but I just know 11 they would come in periodically and we 12 would respond. 13 Q. Well, let me be a little more focused in 14 my question. What I'm getting at is we 15 have talked about the Rick Bragg story 16 on Anniston. We talked now about this 17 story by the Wall Street Journal guy 18 McMurray. What I'm interested in 19 knowing is if there are any other 20 contacts you have had with press 21 regarding stories about PCBs. 22 A. Ever? 23 Q. Ever. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 159 1 A. You know, there may have been, but 2 nothing is coming to mind. 3 Q. After reviewing the documents on this SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037952 4 McMurray story regarding Krummrich, do 5 you recall that as being a fairly 6 significant event at that time for the 7 company? 8 A. Any time you get a story in the New York 9 Times or the Wall Street Journal, 10 executives in the company are interested 11 in it, even stories in the St. Louis 12 Post Dispatch because it was a hometown 13 paper. And at the time a good 14 percentage of our executives lived in 15 St. Louis, that became something that we 16 would want to make sure they knew about 17 and weren't surprised about. 18 Q. Do you remember -- I got on to all of 19 this because I wanted to know if 20 Fleishman Hillard had any role regarding 21 the Rick Bragg story. Do you remember 22 that a long time ago when I asked about 23 their involvement? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 160 1 A. And I don't recall them being involved, 2 no. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037953 3 Q. And I may have been a little off. But 4 my question should have been do you 5 recall Fleishman Hillard being involved 6 with the Wall Street Journal article 7 with respect to Krummrich? 8 A. Again, if that was handled during the 9 time that Kevin was responsible for the 10 site, I don't know who he brought in to 11 help him. I know at a certain point in 12 time -- I don't know related to the Wall 13 Street Journal story, but we did some 14 work related to Sauget sites involving 15 setting up some community meetings, 16 which were part of the remediation 17 program. 18 Q. Were they also involved in helping to 19 draft a media plan for responding to the 20 Wall Street Journal story? 21 A. I don't recall that. 22 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 23 Twenty was marked for REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 161 1 identification.) SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037954 2 Q. Can you identify Plaintiffs' Exhibit 3 Twenty? 4 A. It is a memo from Kevin to Bob Peirce 5 and Marjorie Brooks of Fleishman 6 Hillard. I don't recall seeing this. 7 Q. I'm going to ask you some questions. If 8 you want to take a few minutes to read 9 it, just let me know when you are 10 finished. 11 A. Okay. 12 Q. Have you now read Exhibit Twenty? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. Does it refresh your recollection 15 regarding the role that Fleishman 16 Hillard played with respect to this Wall 17 Street Journal article that was being 18 written by Mr. McMurray? 19 A. I don't recall seeing this plan before, 20 and I'm kind of surprised at how 21 extensive it is. But then again, that 22 is probably what they were asked to do, 23 to prepare a plan, and the agency is REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 162 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037955 1 trying the cover all bases. 2 Q. According to this plan, your name is 3 referenced a couple of times as being 4 both a member of the communications team 5 and also being a person with 6 responsibility to prepare spokespersons 7 for briefing. 8 A. And I believe that's because I was the 9 corporate contact to the chemical group, 10 so whatever came out of that story, I 11 would need to communicate with senior 12 management. 13 Q. Do you recall in fact prepping any 14 spokespeople after this article came out 15 in the Wall Street Journal? 16 A. I don't recall doing that, no. 17 Q. How about this communications team 18 meeting? Did that take place when the 19 story came out? 20 A. I don't recall. I mean, there might 21 have been a debriefing, but I don't 22 recall us doing any kind of emergency 23 response. I really don't recall how the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 163 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037956 1 article turned out to remember what kind 2 of action was necessary if any. 3 Q. And you commented yourself that this 4 plan of Fleishman Hillard, which is 5 Exhibit Twenty, is a fairly extensive 6 plan, isn't it, for responding to this 7 type of story? 8 A. Very. 9 Q. I mean, this seems like an all-out 10 blitz to make sure and diffuse this 11 story. 12 A. But again, this is an agency, and this 13 is what they are paid to do. 14 Q. How often do you guys get outside 15 agencies to put together media plans 16 when you are concerned that an article 17 that is coming out in a major 18 publication may be detrimental to the 19 company? 20 A. Well, it depends on the circumstances. 21 It depends on what the relationship is 22 with the agency, and it depends on 23 whether the PR team with primary REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 164 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037957 1 responsibility has the resources to 2 handle something themselves. 3 Q. Are you aware of any similar internal 4 media plans being put together by 5 Monsanto regarding anticipated press 6 with respect to either Anniston or 7 Sauget? 8 A. Not while on my watch. I don't recall. 9 You know there might have been others on 10 other people's watches, but I can't 11 speak to that. 12 Q. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is 13 even if you guys don't hire outside PR 14 firms such as Fleishman Hillard, is a 15 practice of Monsanto to come up with a 16 media plan such as what is in Exhibit 17 Twenty to prepare for the possibly of 18 negative press? 19 A. It is not normal. In fact, with the 20 Rick Bragg article, which is the New 21 York Times article which had the same 22 potential that this might have, we 23 didn't have that kind of preparation. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037958 165 1 But we didn't ask an outside agency to 2 put together a plan either. If we had, 3 we might have come up with something 4 very much like this. 5 Q. Okay. Who is Max McCombs? 6 A. He is one of the environmental people. 7 He had responsibility for Krummrich, I 8 believe, for a certain period of time. 9 I don't recall which years. 10 Q. Was he actually located at Krummrich, or 11 was he in St. Louis? 12 A. He was St. Louis. 13 Q. But he was involved in the Dead Creak 14 issues? 15 A. In the early days. I don't know if he 16 still is. 17 Q. Do you know how much money Monsanto 18 spent paying Fleishman Hillard for all 19 this media plan with respect to this 20 Wall Street Journal story? 21 A. No, I don't. I know we had a corporate 22 contract with them, so they were on 23 retainer for any of our PR needs. But I SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037959 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 166 1 don't know whether the Krummrich work 2 was part of that contract or whether it 3 was a separate contract or work over and 4 above what the corporate contract 5 entailed. 6 Q. Do you know what the annual budget was 7 for monies allocated for outside PR 8 efforts such as Fleishman Hillard during 9 the years you had the Anniston site? 10 A. No. I don't know what our contract with 11 Fleishman Hillard -- what the amount 12 was. That wasn't part of my 13 responsibility. 14 Q. Did you ever have responsibilities for 15 budget when you had the Anniston site? 16 A. Corporate PR budget, no. 17 Q. Who had that responsibility? 18 A. It would have been people more senior 19 than me in public affairs. 20 Q. Who would have been the equivalent of 21 Christy Beckmann over at Monsanto that 22 would have had that responsibility? 23 A. From '94 to '97? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037960 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 167 1 Q. (Counsel nods head affirmatively.) 2 A. Dan Bishop was the overall corporate PR 3 director. I don't know that -- He 4 retired at a certain point, and I don't 5 recall which year that was, because he 6 had cancer and subsequently passed away. 7 But he was probably the person who 8 negotiated the corporate contract, and 9 it could very well have been during 10 those years. 11 Q. Okay. I guess my question is a little 12 bit broader than that. Who would have 13 had responsibility for determining what 14 the budget was for philanthropic giving 15 for the Anniston site? 16 A. Well, the Monsanto Fund president was 17 John Mason, who is now retired. And he 18 reported to a board of people that 19 governed the Monsanto Fund. And the 20 Monsanto Fund gave corporate donations 21 to certain causes, be they cultural, 22 entertainment, science and education. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037961 23 But a portion of the fund was reserved REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 168 1 for plant site community relations. 2 Q. Did you ever sit on the Monsanto Fund? 3 A. No. 4 Q. As part of your responsibility for PR 5 efforts for Anniston, would you see the 6 numbers that were allocated to the 7 Anniston site? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q. Do you know why it is that those numbers 10 increased from year to year? 11 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 12 the question. 13 A. It is my memory -- and I can't remember 14 what the amounts were, but I think they 15 stayed pretty consistent. 16 Q. Okay. Let's see. 17 A. Again, you know, the community relations 18 plan underwent some overhaul in the late 19 Beth Rusert days and my early days, just 20 to focus it better, get it more in line 21 with the kinds of donations that the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037962 22 corporation wanted to be known for, 23 i.e., science, education. So I don't REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 169 1 know if the amount changed as a result 2 of that. I don't recall that. But I 3 don't remember there being big jumps. 4 Q. Okay. Let's take a look at it. 5 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 6 Twenty-one was marked for 7 identification.) 8 Q. I'm going to hand you what has been 9 marked as Exhibit Twenty-one. Can you 10 identify that document? 11 A. Fund budgets by location, 1994. 12 Q. If you will, keep looking through and 13 tell me what others years we have fund 14 budgets by location. 15 A. '95, '96, '97, '98, and '99. 16 Q. And you had responsibility for Anniston 17 from '94 to '97? 18 A. Early '97. I started transitioning out 19 as the split started to take effect. 20 Q. Okay. So in '94 the budget for Anniston SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037963 21 was 24,800, is that correct? 22 A. That's what it says. 23 Q. Okay. And the next page, which is the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 170 1 '95 budget, shows that it more than 2 doubled to 54,575? 3 A. Which seems more in line with the size 4 plant it was. The 24,000 seems awfully 5 low, so again that might have just been 6 part of the overhaul of getting that 7 site in line with our other sites. 8 Q. And then if you look at '96, it goes up 9 again to 72,400. Do you have an 10 explanation for why that increase took 11 place? 12 A. No. I don't recall. And then it looks 13 like in '97 it is back down to sixty. 14 Was there a one-time donation made in 15 '96 that might have resulted in a boost? 16 Q. You don't get to ask me questions. 17 A. Well, okay. I don't know, then. 18 Q. All right. If you look at the very last 19 page -- SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037964 20 A. It looks like in '98 it is back down to 21 forty-one. 22 Q. But look at the very last page. In 1999 23 it is up to $189,000. Does that seem a REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 171 1 little bit out of line? 2 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 3 the question, no foundation. 4 A. This is during the Solutia years, so I 5 don't know what this is about. 6 Q. Okay. But clearly that is significantly 7 higher than any of the years prior to 8 1999? 9 A. Well, yes. But there is probably a 10 reason. But I'm not part of Solutia, so 11 I don't know what that reason might have 12 been. 13 Q. In fact in 1999 the only location that 14 received more monies is the St. Louis 15 headquarters; isn't that right? 16 A. It looks that way. 17 Q. Look at the bottom. There are some 18 things that says matching plus fund plus SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037965 19 plants. Do you know what each of those 20 categories represents? 21 A. No. I mean, I would just be speculating 22 if I said. 23 Q. Okay. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 172 1 A. Monsanto does have a matching giving 2 program where employees can give 3 donations to -- 4 Q. Like United Way? 5 A. Well, yeah. I don't know if United Way 6 is part of the match program because 7 United Way funds are given directly to 8 the communities as well as corporate, 9 but at least to universities to a range 10 of areas where employees could do it. 11 So that is probably what matching is 12 about. And I don't know what they mean 13 by breaking fund apart from plants, 14 because it was all part of the Monsanto 15 Fund. 16 Q. That was the part that was confusing. 17 A. They might have broken away the plant SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037966 18 from that, but I couldn't say. 19 Q. Okay. Let me show you -- 20 A. Even the matching gifts would have been 21 part of the Monsanto Fund. 22 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 23 Twenty-two was marked for REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 173 1 identification.) 2 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Twenty-two for 3 the record? 4 A. It is a memo from Marilyn Hartnett to -- 5 Oh, it's is to Marilyn Hartnett. 6 Q. From Bill DeFer? 7 A. S. A. Gardner. I'm not sure who that 8 is. Oh, from Bill DeFer, yes. I don't 9 know who -- this is a part -- 10 Q. That is dated January 6, '94? 11 A. Right. 12 Q. And it regards the 1994 Monsanto Fund 13 budget? 14 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 15 Q. Is that a yes? 16 A. Yes. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037967 17 Q. And that seems to be DeFer's listing of 18 the allocation of the monies for the 19 1994 year, and he says that request for 20 $24,800 is level with the '93 budget? 21 A. That is what he says. 22 Q. That is contrary to your concern that 23 the 24,800 seemed to be low. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 174 1 A. It seemed to be low for the size of 2 plant that it was in relation to the 3 amounts given at other sites. 4 Q. But apparently according to the plant 5 manager, Bill DeFer, the '94 fund budget 6 request was in line with the previous 7 year? 8 A. But it might have been out of line with 9 other Monsanto sites in '93 as well. 10 Q. Okay. Fair enough. 11 Have you heard the phrase 12 "environmental philanthropy"? 13 A. It might have referred to environmental 14 giving. 15 Q. Is there a reason that the term that was SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037968 16 used by Monsanto or the term that is 17 used is philanthropic giving as opposed 18 to environmental philanthropy? 19 A. I'm not sure what the distinction is. 20 Q. Do you know Lisa Drake? 21 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 22 Q. Who is she? 23 A. She is one of the public affairs people REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 175 1 with the agricultural group in Monsanto. 2 Q. Are you familiar with the fact that she 3 recommended to Larry O'Neill that that 4 phrase not be used because it implies 5 that Monsanto's business practices are 6 not sustainable and that they have to 7 give money away in order to get 8 environmental credit? 9 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 10 the question. 11 A. I'm not familiar with her saying that. 12 I know we formed an environmental giving 13 team because we had a lot of pockets in 14 Monsanto that was giving contributions SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037969 15 to different groups at different times, 16 and it was formed so we could coordinate 17 efforts better. 18 Q. Did you receive copies of public and 19 government affairs marketing service 20 budgets? 21 A. Marketing? 22 Q. Yes. 23 A. I don't think so. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 176 1 Q. Let me show you one. This is not the 2 year you are on it, but you can tell me 3 if you have seen a document like it. 4 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 5 Twenty-three was marked for 6 identification.) 7 A. Public and government affairs, marketing 8 services, 1999 budget. 9 Q. Have you seen a similar document for 10 prior years? 11 A. It seems like just an overall department 12 budget. 13 Q. Right. That is why I'm trying to figure SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037970 14 out whether or not, with you being in 15 that department, you would be privy to 16 those type of documents. 17 A. Usually we would just get a breakout for 18 our own group to see where we stood 19 related to budget, so we could be sure 20 we didn't go over budget. I usually 21 didn't see the overall corporate budget 22 for public affairs. 23 Q. So what group would you have been in at REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. Ill 1 the time you had Anniston as part of 2 your responsibility? 3 A. Public affairs. 4 Q. And that is separate from public and 5 government affairs? 6 A. Well, it -- at the time I had the 7 Anniston plant it was separate. The 8 government affairs group was a different 9 set of people that handled either state 10 government affairs or federal government 11 affairs. And marketing services would 12 have been the people that supported the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037971 13 products, the businesses, rather than 14 the operations. 15 Q. I understand from taking Ms. Rusert's 16 deposition that you were involved in 17 trying to establish a CAP at the 18 Anniston site. Is that accurate? 19 A. Right. 20 Q. In connection with that, how many 21 different companies did you either get 22 information from or contact to establish 23 this CAP? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 178 1 A. I know Michael Elliott was one of them, 2 and I don't remember who else I might 3 have talked to. 4 Q. Let me ask you this: What is the 5 purpose of CAP? 6 A. It is a group of citizens that are 7 representative of the community in which 8 you are doing business that are kind of 9 your window into the community for 10 questions, concerns. And it is also a 11 sounding board for the company. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037972 12 Q. And do you know the history of CAPs, 13 that is, how it is that the chemical 14 industry started to get involved in 15 establishing CAPs? 16 A. Pretty much. 17 Q. What is that history? 18 A. The EPA right-to-know laws went into 19 effect I think in'88, the summer of 20 '88. And so manufacturers were 21 disclosing to their communities 22 information about their emissions and 23 discharges for the first time. As part REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 179 1 of that effort, communities became more 2 interested in the plants in their 3 neighborhoods. So a number of 4 activities took place to educate 5 communities, including open houses to 6 let them behind the fence and show them 7 what was going on and what kind of 8 products were made. And out of that 9 effort came community advisory panels as 10 a way to continuously keep the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037973 11 communities informed about the 12 activities of the plant. 13 Q. I was provided with a fairly voluminous 14 stack of documents -- believe it or not, 15 these are not all of them -- about CAPs 16 that came from all sources such as other 17 chemical companies like Dow and -- I 18 mean, just bunches and bunches. Are you 19 the person that gathered up all that 20 information on CAPs? 21 A. I probably wasn't the only one. 22 MR. PECK: That was Beth Rusert's 23 file. You asked her for it, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 180 1 so it got thrown in when you 2 deposed her. 3 MS. MALOW: No. Beth Rusert 4 brought that one little 5 Bourne Elliott document. 6 MR. PECK: You asked her for it. 7 You said where did it come 8 from. She said it came from 9 my CAP file. You said I want SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037974 10 the CAP file. So that is 11 what you got. She may have 12 inherited some of that from 13 others. 14 THE WITNESS: I mean, forming CAPs 15 was kind of an evolution. We 16 started with our first one I 17 believe in 1989 and went from 18 there. 19 Q. Which site was that first one 20 established? 21 A. That was the Krummrich site. 22 Q. What was the reason the Krummrich site 23 was selected to form a CAP? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 181 1 A. We wanted to get started. The plant 2 manager there was eager to try it out. 3 They were willing. It seemed like a 4 good plant to begin the learning 5 process. 6 Q. In fact, wasn't it because the Krummrich 7 site by 1989 was already involved in 8 this investigation by the Illinois AG? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037975 9 A. That wasn't the foremost reason for 10 beginning a CAP. It was a chemical 11 plant that had a diverse community 12 living north of the Sauget industrial 13 area. It was more than just Monsanto. 14 And it was soon after the right-to-know 15 laws went into effect, so there were 16 issues of emissions that we wanted to 17 explain more fully, and we also wanted 18 to find out more of what was on the 19 minds of the community. 20 Q. Let's get back to the history, because 21 in reading these materials, there is 22 some indication that the Chemical 23 Manufacturers Association, of which REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 182 1 Monsanto and Solutia are both members, 2 has what is known as responsible care. 3 Isn't that right? 4 A. Right. 5 Q. And responsible care was an effort by 6 the Chemical Manufacturers Association 7 to bolster the image of chemical SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037976 8 companies. Isn't that right? 9 A. Right. 10 Q. And the reality of it is that there were 11 a lot of lawsuits and incidents, 12 including Bhopal, India, and the 13 Phillips explosion, and ARCO explosion 14 and Monsanto's own problems. And those 15 were the kinds of things that were 16 creating a negative image for the 17 chemical industry. 18 A. Right. 19 Q. And the reality of it is responsible 20 care and the concept of CAPs grew out of 21 trying to fix that image. Isn't that 22 what was going on? 23 A. That wasn't -- From our point of view, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 183 1 community advisory panels were the next 2 step in developing a relationship with 3 the community, particularly around the 4 right-to-know laws and what the 5 community was going to want to know 6 about these new numbers they were SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037977 7 delivering to them that had never been 8 measured or made public before. So, 9 yes, it was promoted by CMA, but it 10 wasn't an image-building tool from our 11 point of view. It was a tool to have 12 better relationships with the 13 communities with which we did business. 14 Q. So are you saying that you disagree with 15 the literature that has been published 16 by CMA that CAPs are a way to gain trust 17 because of the poor reputation of 18 chemical companies? 19 A. CMA put an overall program together. 20 Community advisory panels were part of 21 it. Advertising was a part of it. We 22 did a lot of things on our own and in 23 fact were more aggressive than the CMA REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 184 1 was in what we did with our plant 2 communities. For instance, the ninety 3 percent air emission reduction program 4 of toxic air emissions, we did that 5 actually at the same time we reported SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037978 6 our first release of emissions. And 7 that was revolutionary for a chemical 8 company to do. It was a lot more 9 aggressive than CMA or many member 10 companies had envisioned and in fact 11 forced other companies to follow its 12 lead. 13 MS. MALOW: I need to object to 14 that as nonresponsive. 15 Q. The question was whether or not you 16 disagree with the literature that CMA 17 has published that one of the purposes 18 of a CAP is to gain the trust of the 19 public because of the poor reputation of 20 chemical companies. 21 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 22 the question, asked and 23 answered. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 185 1 A. They had their own motivations for what 2 they were trying to accomplish, and that 3 was one of their strategies, I suppose. 4 We had our own. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037979 5 Q. Isn't it the case that responsible care 6 is actually mandatory for all CMA 7 members? 8 A. Yes. You have to sign a contract as 9 part of being a member of CMA. 10 Q. And don't CMA members also have 11 mandatory self-audits they need to 12 complete? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. Are you familiar with self-audits that 15 have been done by Monsanto? 16 A. I believe we did them, but I don't 17 recall -- I don't remember who did them 18 or what kinds of scores we gave 19 ourselves. 20 Q. Where are those self-audits kept? Is 21 there a file on self-auditing? 22 A. I don't have it. I don't know who does. 23 Q. Who would be responsible for that? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 186 1 A. Whoever the responsible care coordinator 2 is. And at Monsanto I'm not sure who 3 that is any more. We are not nearly as SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037980 4 involved with CMA as we used to be. 5 Q. Who was it in the past, let's say in the 6 1994 time frame? 7 A. I believe Mike Pierle was the primary 8 contact -- Well, Bob Potter sat on the 9 board for a while. But as far as the 10 responsible care program, I believe that 11 was Mike Pierle. 12 Q. Are there certain protocols that CMA 13 requires its members to follow? 14 A. Related to responsible care? 15 Q. Yes. 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Are you familiar withthose? 18 A. I was at one time. It has been a while. 19 Q. Is a CAP a way for industry to 20 circumvent regulatory pressure by 21 creating local goodwill to be drawn on 22 during permit application processes? 23 A. It is not a way to circumvent the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 187 1 regulatory process at all. 2 Q. Who referred you to Bourne Elliott? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037981 3 A. I believe it was Diane Sheridan, and I 4 think I got her name from someone else. 5 Q. And Diane Sheridan is a facilitator that 6 acts for certain CAPs; is that right? 7 A. Yes. I think she was out of Texas, and 8 I don't recall who she facilitated for. 9 Q. Did you ever meet Ms. Sheridan? 10 A. I spoke with her on the phone. I don't 11 think I met her in person. 12 Q. What did she tell you regarding 13 Elliott's firm? 14 A. I think it was a center for conflict 15 management and just that he had a lot of 16 experience in this area, that he has 17 created CAPs for other companies and has 18 facilitated them, the fact that he was 19 in Georgia which wasn't that far away 20 from Anniston, so he would be somewhat 21 local to the area, and that he seemed to 22 fit the qualifications we were looking 23 for and be in the right geographic REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 188 1 location. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037982 2 Q. What was it that made you decide you 3 wanted to create a CAP for the Anniston 4 site? 5 A. As I said before, we were trying to 6 create community advisory panels at 7 whatever sites seemed appropriate. It 8 was an evolution. We didn't start them 9 all at once. We started with one and 10 kind of grew from there. We didn't have 11 a mandate that we had to have a CAP in 12 place at every site, and we really just 13 took sites on a one-by-one basis looking 14 at their circumstances and as we had the 15 time to work with the sites to develop 16 them. 17 Q. And was there anything in particular 18 going on at the Anniston site at the 19 time frame you contacted Michael Elliott 20 that made it the right timing to look at 21 Anniston? 22 A. Well, I was fairly new to having that 23 plant as part of my community relations REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 189 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037983 1 responsibilities, so it was something 2 that I wanted to at least investigate. 3 And as far as what was happening at the 4 time, yes, the remediation was underway 5 and the litigation had started as well. 6 Q. And in general is it preferable to have 7 a CAP in place before litigation ensues? 8 A. You can't control what is going to 9 happen with litigation. It is helpful 10 to have community advisory panels in 11 place at sites for a number of reasons, 12 which I have mentioned before. 13 Q. In fact doesn't the literature talk 14 about the fact that if you have a CAP in 15 place that it may prevent litigation? 16 A. I don't believe that's necessarily the 17 case. 18 Q. Was there ever any criticisms leveled on 19 you or anyone at the public relations 20 department for not getting this CAP in 21 piace at Anniston? 22 A. At different points in time people -- 23 more senior peopleof the Mike Pierle REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 190 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037984 1 level would ask which sites do we have 2 CAPs at, which ones don't we, and have 3 we looked at the sites that didn't have 4 them as to whether we could start them 5 or not. Again, you know, it wasn't a 6 matter of them saying you must have CAPs 7 at every site by a certain time. For 8 some locations it just wasn't 9 appropriate to have a CAP. And I'm not 10 sure where Anniston fell in that. 11 Q. Well, the reality of it is the CAP never 12 got put in place at Anniston, right? 13 A. Right. 14 Q. And you were the person that was trying 15 to get the CAP established? 16 A. Right. 17 Q. And what I need to know is whether or 18 not any criticism was ever leveled at 19 you not getting that CAP established. 20 A. No, because of the reasons we couldn't 21 establish a CAP. 22 Q. Which were what? 23 A. That a number of the people that Michael REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 191 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037985 1 Elliott interviewed as potential members 2 of the CAP were either litigants or had 3 relatives or friends who were litigants 4 or potential litigants, and that very 5 much complicated the ability to form a 6 CAP, so we decided to put it on hold. 7 Q. Okay. Let me back up and ask you a 8 little bit more about Michael Elliott's 9 role. Had you ever used or had Monsanto 10 ever used Elliott's firm for any other 11 facility? 12 A. Not that I'm aware of. 13 Q. Was the contact with Michael Elliott the 14 only time that you are aware of that a 15 CAP was considered for the Anniston 16 site, meaning either before or after 17 your contact with Michael? 18 A. I really don't recall whether it was 19 looked at before my watch. I know they 20 didn't have one when I took the site on. 21 Q. And since you've left that 22 responsibility are you aware of there 23 ever being a CAP in place? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037986 192 1 A. I don't know. Since I left I don't know 2 what happened. 3 Q. Do you know when in time it was that you 4 first contacted Michael Elliott? 5 A. The exact date? 6 Q. Time frame. 7 A. I know it was during '94 to '97. 8 Q. Okay. Let me see if I can find 9 something that might help. 10 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 11 Twenty-four was marked for 12 identification.) 13 Q. Can you identify Plaintiffs'Exhibit 14 Twenty-four please? 15 A. Proposal from -- Or I guess it is a 16 bill, rather, from Bourne Elliott 17 Associates to me for -- It says for 18 personal services and expenses related 19 to community advisory panel. 20 Q. Why don't you go ahead and look through 21 the collection of documents that are 22 marked as Exhibit Twenty-four and 23 identify the rest of the documents. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037987 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 193 1 A. Okay. 2 Q. Have you now looked at all of Exhibit 3 Twenty-four? 4 A. Yes. 5 Q. You have identified for me the first 6 page is a bill from Bourne Elliott. Can 7 you identify the remaining documents for 8 the record? 9 A. There is a cover note from me to Jo 10 Hanson, who is paying the bills related 11 to the remediation, and this was part of 12 the work for the site. So it was 13 submitting the bill to her for payment. 14 And then the contract for Michael 15 Elliott to Monsanto for doing 16 preliminary work on a CAP and then just 17 background on the southeast negotiation 18 Network and his resume. 19 Q. And based on Mr. Elliott's letter to you 20 of May 8 where he sent you his resume 21 brochure, does that help put in 22 perspective when it was that that 23 contact was made? Would it have been SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037988 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 194 1 sometime in April or May of '95? 2 A. Wait. This is a bill from '96. 3 Q. Right. His letter -- 4 A. I see, May 8th, '95. 5 Q. And he references there is going to be a 6 meeting on May 30th. 7 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 8 Q. Did that meeting take place? 9 A. Yeah. I believe he came out to the site 10 once at that meeting that I participated 11 in. And it was just a preliminary 12 meeting with us to kind of lay out the 13 community issues, the issues that we had 14 going on at the time. And then he went 15 about interviewing different community 16 leaders, and you might have that 17 document. And then I think the next 18 time I saw him was at his office, and it 19 was Jack Mayausky and myself, and it was 20 to kind of get the results of what he 21 had found so far. 22 Q. Let's back up to that May 30th meeting. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037989 23 Who else was present other than REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 195 1 Mr. Elliott and yourself? 2 A. I don't recall. Alan Faust might have 3 been there to talk about the remediation 4 program, but I don't recall for sure. 5 Q. And was that meeting held at the 6 Anniston plant? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. And what issues did you apprise 9 Mr. Elliott of or did anybody in that 10 meeting apprise him of? 11 A. General community background and also 12 the remediation issues that we were 13 beginning. 14 Q. Was there a discussion with Mr. Elliott 15 about PCB health effects or PCB 16 environmental contamination? 17 A. The environmental contamination and the 18 remediation program that we had 19 underway. 20 Q. Was one of the things that you wanted 21 him to interview potential CAP members SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037990 22 about health effects of PCBs or concerns 23 the community had regarding that issue? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 196 1 A. I'm trying to remember the nature of the 2 interviews. It was trying to assess who 3 are the community leaders and who would 4 make potentially good CAP members. 5 Health effects might have been part of 6 it. I don't remember. 7 Q. Your note, which is page two of Exhibit 8 Twenty-four, I can't read your 9 handwriting. Can you read that for me? 10 A. "Here is Michael Elliott's last bill for 11 the community advisory panel work he did 12 for us. The project is on hold, but 13 Pierle and Redding are eager for all 14 sites to have CAPs, so it might be 15 reactivated again in some form." 16 Q. Okay. I know who Michael Pierle. Who 17 is Redding? 18 A. Nick Redding was vice chairman of the 19 company, and he had overall 20 environmental responsibility. He was SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037991 21 over Mike. Mike had more of the 22 day-to-day dealing with the 23 environmental matters, but Nick was the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 197 1 executive over a number of areas, 2 environmental being one. 3 Q. Is Mr. Redding still with Monsanto? 4 A. No. He is retired. 5 Q. Is he still living in the St. Louis 6 area? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. This indicates to Jo, your message, that 9 the project is on hold. Is that again 10 based on the fact that the contacts that 11 Mr. Elliott did make revealed there was 12 -- there were people involved in 13 litigation and he didn't think it was 14 going to work? 15 A. That's right. 16 Q. Okay. And so there was still this 17 desire, though, to maybereactivate this 18 idea with respect to Anniston, you said, 19 in some form? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037992 20 A. Well, as I said before, we put it on 21 hold. We didn't totally give up on the 22 idea. At some point we might be able to 23 do it. Again, it is a good idea for REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 198 1 plants to have CAPs if it is 2 appropriate. At that point in time it 3 wasn't appropriate, but it may be 4 sometime in the future. 5 Q. If you will look at the third page on 6 one of Mr. Elliott's invoices he 7 indicates at the bottom that as we 8 discussed on February 21st we will not 9 proceed with the formation of the 10 community advisory panel until such time 11 as the issues associated with PCBs can 12 be addressed within the context of a 13 panel or until such issues become less 14 relevant to the functioning of a panel. 15 Did I read that correctly? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Based on that statement it is apparent 18 that the issue of PCBs was one of the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037993 19 reasons that you wanted to form the CAP. 20 Is that right? 21 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 22 the question. 23 A. We wanted to form a community advisory REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 199 1 panel because we wanted to know what was 2 on the community's mind, and PCBs might 3 have been a part of what was on their 4 mind. But it might be been a number of 5 things. We just wouldn't know until the 6 CAP was functioning. 7 Q. Do you recall, based on your discussions 8 with Mr. Elliott on February 21st, why 9 it was that this issue of PCBs could not 10 be addressed within the context of the 11 panel? 12 A. Because of the litigation. 13 Q. Okay. 14 A. And the fact there were even some people 15 we couldn't even approach because they 16 were litigants and represented by an 17 attorney who wouldn't allow us to SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037994 18 contact them. 19 Q. Right. Because you know, ethically you 20 are not allowed to talk to someone that 21 is represented by counsel, right? 22 A. Right. 23 MR. PECK: Lawyers can't talk to REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 200 1 people that are represented 2 by counsel. Clients do it 3 all the time. 4 MS. MALOW: Well, you are not 5 supposed to do that either. 6 MR. PECK: I disagree with that. 7 There is a world of people 8 suing each other who talk to 9 each other. 10 Q. He references five point four hours of 11 personal services, and he says summarize 12 outcomes of community assessment and 13 stakeholder interviews. What is a 14 stakeholder interview? 15 A. That's where he talked to members of the 16 community that were potential CAP SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037995 17 members or could lead us to other people 18 to interview that may be potential CAP 19 members and just kind of giving us an 20 overview of, you know, what transpired 21 in those interviews, what the highlights 22 were. 23 Q. I don't see that we actually got the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 201 1 interviews that he conducted. Were 2 there in fact notes provided to you or 3 summaries of interviews provided to you 4 that Mr. Elliott's conducted? 5 A. They weren't -- We never got a full 6 transcript of what transpired during the 7 interviews. I think we had a list of 8 who he talked to, more in the form of a 9 grid, who he talked to, the date he 10 talked to them, whether they referred 11 him to anyone else. And that was pretty 12 much it as far as documents from him. 13 MS. MALOW: Do you guys have that? 14 MR. PECK: You have everything we 15 have. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037996 16 MS. MALOW: Okay. 17 MR. KELLY: I don't recall seeing 18 notes of his. 19 MR. PECK: I recall notes of Diane 20 talking to them but that is 21 all. That is in there too. 22 MS. MALOW: I don't see that 23 either. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 202 1 MR. PECK: I mean, I have seen 2 notes. I didn't read them 3 because I have a hard time 4 with her handwriting too, but 5 I thought that is what they 6 were. 7 MS. MALOW: Maybe we can figure it 8 out here. Let me ask you 9 what this one is. 10 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 11 Twenty-five was marked for 12 identification.) 13 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Twenty-five? 14 A. Yeah. This is pretty much what we got SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037997 15 from him. It is from Michael Elliott, 16 and it is the people that he had 17 identified as wanting to interview. And 18 some he was able to talk to. That is 19 where the contact date is. And the ones 20 that are blank I don't think he was able 21 to meet with or talk to or hadn't gotten 22 to. 23 Q. Okay. Where did this list come from? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 203 1 Who compiled this list of names? 2 A. I'm pretty that sure it was Michael 3 Elliott. 4 Q. And do you know how it was that he went 5 about compiling this list? 6 A. Yeah. He talked to the plant staff at 7 the plant to find out who they thought 8 the community leaders were and then in 9 those interviews, the ones he was able 10 to conduct, he would ask those people 11 who they thought the community leaders 12 were. And it didn't have to be a person 13 like the mayor. It was more like who SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037998 14 were the stakeholders in the community. 15 So it could have been from any walk of 16 life or any kind of agency, and that is 17 how the list was put together. 18 Q. Do you know, based on Exhibit 19 Twenty-five, how many of these people 20 were environmental activists versus 21 pro-industry types? 22 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 23 the question. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 204 1 A. I don't recall what the backgrounds were 2 of the people. I mean, it says 3 association here, but that's about all I 4 know. 5 Q. Do you know why it is that you are on 6 the list? 7 A. Well, it has the initial date that we 8 met with him, so I guess he considered 9 me as one of the people he talked with 10 at Monsanto related to the community 11 advisory panel project. 12 Q. But you wouldn't be the type of person SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0037999 13 that should be on the CAP? 14 A. No. But that -- A lot of -- A number of 15 the people here were plant staff. I 16 think Robert Jones was on the list. He 17 wouldn't necessarily be on the CAP 18 either, but he would be able to identify 19 who the community leaders were. I 20 wouldn't be able to identify who the 21 community leaders, but he did talk to me 22 about the CAP at our initial meeting. 23 Q. You are telling me that other than REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 205 1 Exhibit Twenty-five you didn't get any 2 materials from Mr. Elliott as to 3 specifics regarding the meetings that he 4 did conduct? 5 A. No. You know, I think he went over that 6 verbally when we met with him, not 7 necessarily in a lot of detail. It was 8 generalized. But this is all I remember 9 getting from him. 10 Q. Let me see if I can jog your memory. If 11 you will look at the second page, it SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038000 12 looks like he had a meeting with a 13 gentleman named Phillip Corn, who owned 14 Com Construction. Do you remember 15 anything that he may have indicated 16 Mr. Com and he discussed? 17 A. No. 18 Q. Okay. As you sit here now, do you have 19 any recollection of any information that 20 he related to you, he being Mr. Elliott, 21 about his discussions with any of these 22 individuals on Exhibit Twenty-five? 23 A. Nothing in particular comes to mind, you REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 206 1 know. I know he said a number of the 2 people he wanted to talk to he wasn't 3 able to or that our lawyers informed him 4 he couldn't talk to because of the 5 notice we got as to who the latest list 6 of litigants were. But as far as 7 specific discussions with these people, 8 I don't recall. 9 Q. And I have crossed-checked that with 10 Exhibit Fifteen, which we went over SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038001 11 earlier, which is the Anniston area 12 influentials, and it appears that some 13 of the people are on here and some 14 aren't. Do you know if there is any 15 connection between Exhibit Fifteen and 16 Exhibit Twenty-five? 17 A. I'm pretty sure that Jack provided that 18 list to Michael Elliott, but Michael 19 Elliott also got a number of his 20 recommendations from the plant staff. 21 So why he chose who he chose to put on 22 this list, I don't know. 23 Q. When you say Jack provided that list, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 207 1 you are referring to Exhibit Fifteen? 2 A. That's right. 3 (A break was taken.) 4 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 5 Twenty-six was marked for 6 identification.) 7 Q. I'm handing you what has been marked as 8 Exhibit Twenty-six. If you could, take 9 a look at that and identify it for us. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038002 10 A. It is an agenda. 11 Q. Is that your handwriting? 12 A. Yes. I'm trying to figure out what it 13 was. Okay. 14 Q. Have you now looked at Exhibit 15 Twenty-six? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Can you identify what those handwritten 18 notes are referencing? 19 A. Yeah. They look like my notes relating 20 to a meeting with Michael Elliott about 21 forming a CAP for the Anniston site. 22 Q. Now, do you know when in relation to the 23 meeting those notes were made? Was that REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 208 1 before, after, or during? 2 A. The agenda was probably done before the 3 meeting, but I can't say how far. It 4 might have been that morning and then 5 the notes -- most of the notes seem to 6 be from the meeting with him. 7 Q. Okay. Let's start with the last page, 8 which is your letter dated May 17, 1995, SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038003 9 to Mr. Elliott which basically just 10 tells him you are looking forward to 11 your visit with him on May 30th. You 12 also indicate you are attaching a 13 brochure regarding the Anniston plant. 14 And I was going to just see if I can 15 determine if it is the same brochure 16 that I have. Do you remember the title 17 of the brochure, by any chance? Does 18 that look-- 19 A. No. That is Solutia. As I recall, 20 probably the brochure we gave him was 21 like--what were the years. It seemed 22 to be pretty early on in my career with 23 Monsanto that we identified a need that REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 209 1 a lot of plants had for a community 2 brochure. Very few of them had one. I 3 can't think of any of them that had it. 4 A few of them might have. It was just 5 to talk about the plants. None of them 6 had a budget to do that. So we set 7 about a way to try to figure out how to SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038004 8 do community brochures for all the sites 9 in the most cost-effective manner. 10 So what we did was contract out of 11 the corporate budget to pay for a common 12 design that all the plants could use 13 with specific areas for copy blocks that 14 the plants would then fill in with their 15 own copy. And the areas included the 16 products made at the site, the history 17 of the site, the safety programs at the 18 site, the environmental programs at the 19 site, and then maybe some Monsanto 20 background about the corporation. And 21 that Monsanto background was standard in 22 all of them. The other copy they 23 tailored to their own circumstances. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 210 1 They provided photos. So some had to go 2 out and take their own photos, and some 3 just did it with their own personal 4 cameras. 5 And then we printed the brochures 6 all at once. And I think they split the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038005 7 cost with us, with corporate. So it was 8 a pretty cost-effective way to get a lot 9 of brochures done at once, and I think 10 that is the brochure, even though it was 11 out of date by'95. 12 Q. Do you know when that brochure for 13 Anniston was first developed? 14 A. Like I said, I believe it was sometime 15 in the late'80s. 16 Q. Okay. And then you also explain in your 17 letter of May 17th, '95, that during the 18 visit Jack Mayausky was going to give 19 him some background on past and current 20 operations as well as the current PCB 21 remedial issue. 22 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 23 Q. Can you recall from the meeting -- and REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 211 1 perhaps your notes can refresh your 2 memory -- as to what specific 3 information you gave Mr. Elliott about 4 the PCB remedial issue? 5 A. I think it was just the background on SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038006 6 what was going on with the area adjacent 7 to the plant and the fact that we were 8 probably -- we probably already had a 9 plan with ADEM by then that we were 10 going to be executing. I don't remember 11 whether the property purchase program 12 was in effect. I don't remember what 13 the dates of the property purchase 14 program were. But just kind of laying 15 out the issues. 16 Q. Okay. And then you say you are going to 17 review what we, meaning Monsanto, hopes 18 to get out of the CAP at the facility. 19 Do you recall what it was that Monsanto 20 wanted to get out of the CAP at the 21 facility that was discussed at the 22 meeting? 23 A. Most likely what we wanted to get out of REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 212 1 any community advisory panel is to 2 understand what the questions and/or 3 concerns of the community might be. So 4 it is kind of a window into the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038007 5 community. 6 Q. All right. And then you ask about, you 7 know, the process of forming a CAP, 8 reasonable expectations of members, 9 timetable, and costs, right? 10 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 11 Q. Yes? 12 A. Yes. 13 Q. Go back to the first page of Exhibit 14 Twenty-six, which are your handwritten 15 notes. Under background one of the 16 items is PCB off site issues. Is this 17 also related to the remediation aspect? 18 A. Right. 19 Q. Do you -- Strike that. 20 What was your understanding at 21 this time frame as to how far or how 22 widespread the contamination was off 23 site, what areas it included? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 213 1 A. At this point in time I don't remember 2 how far along the testing program was. 3 I know we had remedial issues in the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038008 4 area adjacent to the site. But I don't 5 know that -- I don't remember how much. 6 Q. Do you recall what the levels were of 7 PCBs that had been found off site either 8 on property of residents or in ditches 9 or streams? 10 MR. PECK: At that time? 11 MS. MALOW: Yes. 12 A. I know they varied. 13 Q. Were there in fact high levels that had 14 been found off site? 15 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 16 the question. 17 A. I believe in a couple of locations there 18 were high levels found. 19 Q. And then on page one of Exhibit 20 Twenty-six, at the bottom you say 21 conflict resolution versus public 22 participation. What does that mean? 23 A. I don't know what I meant. I don't REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 214 1 remember. 2 Q. Well, in terms of a CAP what role does a SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038009 3 CAP play with represent to conflicts 4 resolution, just as a general 5 proposition? 6 A. It doesn't really play a role for 7 conflict resolution. Again, if issues 8 are identified by the CAP as being of 9 concern to the community, they would 10 bring that to the attention of the 11 company. That would in turn give the 12 company an opportunity, where we might 13 not otherwise have known that an issue 14 existed, to communicate whatever the 15 issue was to the community and what we 16 were doing about it. But I don't know 17 why I wrote conflict resolution. 18 Q. Okay. On the next page it looks like 19 you list out some documents in that 20 second paragraph, the PCB backgrounder, 21 EAR? 22 A. Environmental annual review. 23 Q. Environmental what? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 215 1 A. Annual review. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038010 2 Q. And The Anniston Star clips. Do you 3 recall specifically what press clips 4 were provided to Mr. Elliott? 5 A. Probably some recent ones. I don't 6 recall which ones those were. 7 Q. The timetables or time frames that are 8 listed with respect to community leaders 9 and plant managers, what do those 10 represent? 11 A. I think that was the amount of time that 12 he was going to need to spend with each 13 of those parties. 14 Q. Okay. And is it three hours a month 15 or -- 16 A. Yes, per month. 17 Q. Is that for a period of several months 18 or just in a given month he needed three 19 hours? 20 A. I think it was over some length of time, 21 and I don't know what that lengths would 22 have been. 23 Q. Okay. If you will, skip down where it REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 216 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038011 1 says next steps, talk with Robert Jones. 2 Does that say wage person? 3 A. Yes. 4 Q. Who is a wage person? 5 A. That would be an hourly employee. And 6 Robert Jones being the superintendent 7 would have been a member of the 8 management, and then another person 9 would have been an hourly person so you 10 would get two perspectives of who you 11 thought the community leaders were. 12 Q. It says under that section issues of 13 interest, do you -- what issues of 14 interest did Mr. Elliott identify once 15 he did his interviews of these various 16 folks? 17 A. I don't recall what these people said in 18 the individual interviews. 19 Q. And rather than specifically recalling 20 that, just in general did he identify 21 for you guys some issues of interest 22 based on his interviews that he 23 conducted? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 217 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038012 1 A. I think PCBs were an issue of interest. 2 I don't know that I would say of 3 concern. It probably depended on whom 4 he talked to. But beyond that I don't 5 know. 6 Q. All right. And then toward the bottom 7 you have some numbers that I guess are 8 just estimates on the cost. One of the 9 things you reference is that part of the 10 expense is research which will be useful 11 in itself. What research was he 12 suggesting to conduct? 13 A. Well, I think just in his interviews 14 with community leaders that information 15 in itself would have given us kind of a 16 feeling for what the community's level 17 of interest and what their issues are. 18 So in and of itself, if we didn't go 19 forward with the full CAP, these 20 interviews would have provided useful 21 information. 22 Q. And that brings me to a good question. 23 Did y'all take any of theinformation he REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 218 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038013 1 gathered and use it for any purpose 2 aside from the CAP which we know didn't 3 get established? 4 A. I think -- You know, going back to that 5 list, there weren't really that many 6 interviews he was able to conduct. One, 7 two, three, four -- and Jerry Brown is a 8 Monsanto person, so that probably 9 doesn't count. One, two, three four, 10 five, six, seven -- that doesn't count 11 -- eight -- Robert doesn't count. 12 Jack's doesn't count -- nine, ten, 13 eleven. No, he was a no. I'm not sure 14 what that was. So ten or eleven. You 15 know, out of some thirty or forty names 16 that he has here, so he really wasn't 17 able to get that far. 18 What was your question again? 19 Q. My question was whether or not you guys 20 were able to take any of the information 21 that Michael Elliott obtained through 22 this process and use it despite the fact 23 that the CAP was never established? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038014 219 1 A. I don't recall what if anything we did 2 with the information. It wasn't 3 anything earth-breaking. 4 Q. At the very end there you say need to 5 okay with lawyers. Why is that? 6 A. The overall plan probably just to make 7 sure we don't get crosswise with the 8 litigation. 9 Q. Who is Eric Brimer? 10 A. You know, I saw that there, and I was 11 trying to remember. I don't remember. 12 Q. Okay. Did you ever attend any ADEM 13 sessions with Robert Jones? 14 A. No. 15 Q. Well, I'm reading this wrong. It was 16 Jack. Did you obtain information from 17 Jack Mayausky or Robert or anyone else 18 at the Anniston site regarding their 19 meetings with ADEM on the remediation 20 issues? 21 A. Occasionally when they had meetings or 22 after they would have meetings, when we 23 were getting together to talk about, you SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038015 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 220 1 know, whatever the issues in front of us 2 were, they would give kind of a recap of 3 what had happened in previous meetings, 4 not only with ADEM but any other 5 meetings they might have had. 6 Q. Did Diane Sheridan provide you with 7 information on CAPs? 8 A. It looks like you are looking at 9 something. 10 Q. I'm just wondering if it went to you or 11 if you remember getting stuff 12 specifically from Diane Sheridan. I'm 13 not trying to trick you. 14 A. I do remember I talked with her on the 15 phone. I don't remember if she sent 16 anything at that point. 17 Q. Was the only reason that the CAP did not 18 get formed in Anniston due to the issue 19 of litigants, or were there any others 20 reasons? 21 A. We were just running into a dead end. 22 We just couldn't recruit from the 23 community to have a proper SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038016 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 221 1 representation that we needed because of 2 the litigation. 3 Q. Were you involved in establishing a CAP 4 for the Krummrich site? 5 A. Yes. 6 Q. Is that CAP -- Did that CAP get 7 established? 8 A. Yes, in '89. 9 Q. Is it still in place? 10 A. Yes, as far as I know. It is Solutia 11 now, so I guess I can't say that 12 definitively, but I believe it is. At 13 least it was before the split. 14 Q. What outside consulting firm assisted 15 with that CAP? 16 A. They were our first one, and I think the 17 firm that we talked to in the early days 18 was Pat Delbridge and Associates out of 19 Toronto, because there weren't that many 20 people doing it at that point. They 21 were kind of the leaders. I don't 22 remember if they had hands-on experience SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038017 23 in helping us out or if we just kind of REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 222 1 followed the guidelines they were 2 setting out. But I know they were about 3 the only firm out there doing this kind 4 of thing. 5 Q. The agenda with respect to the Sauget 6 site and the utilization of a CAP in 7 that area, part of the objective was to 8 minimize negative attention; is that 9 right? 10 A. Is that something that you are reading 11 from? I don't know. I mean, the idea 12 behind a CAP is to understand what is on 13 the minds of the community members. In 14 fact, I think they had a member of the 15 media on the CAP, so if anything it was 16 fair game for him to print. So I don't 17 recall that that was one of the goals. 18 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 19 Twenty-seven was marked for 20 identification.) 21 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Twenty-seven? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038018 22 A. An agenda to start development of a 23 public and community relations strategy REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 223 1 for Sauget sites remediation and 2 determine how best to continue the 3 process of strategy development and 4 execution. 5 Q. And you're listed on there as being part 6 of the public affairs group; is that 7 right? 8 A. That's what it looks like. 9 Q. And under strategy development it lists 10 an objective. What does that say? 11 A. To complete remediation of Sauget sites 12 with open, positive community relations, 13 constructive communications, and a 14 minimum of negative attention. 15 Now, this looks like it is to try 16 to establish a community advisory panel 17 specific to Sauget sites remediation. 18 That would have been separate and apart 19 from the community advisory panel for 20 the plant which we did establish in '89. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038019 21 Q. This would have been more targeted to-22 A. The remediation. So it would have been 23 issue specific. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 224 1 Q. Are you familiar with literature from 2 ATSDR on community assistance programs? 3 A. Not specifically. 4 Q. Okay. Did Anniston have an LEPC? 5 A. Tih-huh (indicating yes). Oh, wait a 6 minute. I think they did. 7 Q. A local emergency planning committee, is 8 an LEPC also a suggestion or mandate by 9 CMA? 10 A. No. It is a requirement of EPA related 11 to the community right-to-know laws that 12 every community form a committee or plan 13 a committee. 14 Q. And there was one in place in Anniston? 15 A. I believe so. You know, it was required 16 by law, so I'm sure they had it in some 17 fashion. In some locations it was the 18 Emergency Management Agency that was 19 already in place. In other situations SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038020 20 it was a newly formed committee to 21 comply with those laws. 22 MR. PECK: When you say Anniston, 23 do you mean Anniston city? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 225 1 MS. MALOW: I mean the Anniston 2 plant. 3 THE WITNESS: No. It is the city. 4 It is not something Monsanto 5 would have formed. It is a 6 requirement of the community. 7 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 8 Twenty-eight was marked for 9 identification.) 10 Q. I'm going to hand you Exhibit 11 Twenty-eight. If you want to take a few 12 minutes to review those, I can then ask 13 you some questions about it. 14 A. Okay. 15 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Twenty-eight 16 for the record? 17 A. The first page is a cover note from me 18 to Jack Mayausky about next steps with SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038021 19 the community advisory panel. The next 20 couple of pages are communications from 21 Michael Elliott to me about his progress 22 of the CAP, his suggested makeup of the 23 CAP, and some discussion of who a REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 226 1 facilitator maybe should be and then a 2 cover note from him that I guess 3 accompanied this communication to me. 4 Q. And actually the cover note, the back 5 says there are seven pages, and that 6 other document is two, so they may not 7 be connected. I don't know. 8 With respect to this issue of 9 identifying who the facilitator should 10 be, it seems to indicate from both 11 Mr. Elliott's letter as well as your 12 note to Jack Mayausky that there was 13 some suggestion that a plant person be 14 used as the facilitator. Isn't that 15 unusual in a CAP? 16 A. Uh-uh (indicating no). It is not 17 unusual. Some plants have plant staff SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038022 18 as a facilitator. It depends on the 19 skills of the people on the staff, 20 whether anybody is appropriate or not, 21 whether they can take kind of -- well, 22 play a facilitator role to make sure 23 that everyone is heard from and no one REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 227 1 personality dominates. Sometimes it is 2 useful to have an outside person do it, 3 one, because they are trained in 4 facilitation, and two, because the 5 Monsanto member who participates in this 6 are freer to participate. If you are a 7 facilitator you really can't 8 participate, can't interject yourself 9 into the conversation if you are playing 10 a facilitator role. 11 Q. Isn't there also the idea that a 12 facilitator should be a neutral person? 13 A. Usually, yes. And a plant person is of 14 course able to play that role. But you 15 have to be aware that if they play that 16 role they are taken out of the SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038023 17 conversation. Again, that is the reason 18 for an outside facilitator. 19 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 20 Twenty-nine was marked for 21 identification.) 22 Q. You want to take a minute to look at 23 Exhibit Twenty-nine? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 228 1 A. Okay. 2 Q. Can you identify what Exhibit 3 Twenty-nine is? 4 A. The first two pages are my notes. And 5 it seems to be -- it is not identified 6 very well. 7 Q. It looks like notes relating to the 8 overview of issues, but correct me if 9 I'm wrong. I'm just guessing. 10 A. Yeah. And I--it seems -- It might be 11 related to Anniston, but really it could 12 be -- Coldwater Mountain, is that -- 13 Okay. That is Anniston, then. 14 Q. Okay. Let me ask you. On this overview 15 of issues, which is the last page of SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038024 16 Exhibit Twenty-nine, who prepared that? 17 A. I'm not sure who prepared this document. 18 It looks like it could have been 19 something from Michael Elliott's 20 interviews, but I'm not sure about that. 21 Q. Do you recall preparing it? 22 A. I don't recall. 23 Q. At the bottom there is a section on REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 229 1 PCBs, and the first bullet point is old 2 persistent problem. What does that 3 mean? 4 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 5 the question. 6 A. I can't speculate. I don't remember. 7 Q. I'm not asking you to speculate. You 8 were involved in this meeting on 9 February 21st, 1996, were you not? 10 A. Yes. 11 Q. So based on your participation and your 12 conversations with Mr. Elliott, what was 13 the context of this bullet point of old 14 persistent problem? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038025 15 A. And I don't recall what was meant by 16 that line. I don't remember. 17 Q. Okay. Is it your understanding that 18 PCBs were a long-standing problem for 19 this Anniston site? 20 A. I don't remember that it was a long-term 21 concern for the community, but I don't 22 remember the context this was in. 23 Again, I had the site from '94 to '97, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 230 1 so -- These are notes apparently of what 2 the community said to us. 3 Q. And I'm just trying to get your best 4 recollection of what was relayed to you 5 based on Mr. Elliott's work that he did 6 in talking to the various people in the 7 community. 8 A. I know, and I don't recall anything more 9 about this. 10 Q. How about with respect to the bullet 11 point under PCBs that says general 12 pollution of waterways? Do you know 13 what that references? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038026 14 A. Well, by '96 15 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 16 the question. 17 A. -- there was probably a good number of 18 articles about the remediation and 19 testing of different waterways, and so 20 people probably had some level of 21 knowledge about that. 22 Q. Okay. The next one says uncertainty and 23 fear over how widespread, and then it REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 231 1 has a comma and says possible impact. 2 Do your recall what that discussion was 3 about? 4 A. You know, again, it is notes from the 5 community apparently, I guess. And it 6 is related to PCBs, so how -- people 7 were wondering how widespread the PCBs 8 were and what the possible impact might 9 be. 10 Q. Did Mr. Elliott go into any of the 11 possible impacts that they were 12 concerned about in the community? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038027 13 A. I don't recall at this point. 14 Q. The last section under PCBs says past 15 mistake, and the word "mistake" is in 16 quotes, but what will Monsanto do about 17 it now. What is your understanding or 18 your recollection of that discussion? 19 A. I'm not recalling a discussion, so I'm 20 just looking at what the statement says. 21 And that's certainly a legitimate 22 thought that people in the community 23 might have. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 232 1 Q. Did you guys formulate, either with 2 Mr. Elliott or separate and apart from 3 Mr. Elliott a plan for how Monsanto was 4 going to handle the issue, knowing that 5 was an issue for the community? 6 A. I know as part ofjust, you know, Jack's 7 general community relations activities, 8 when he would have conversations with 9 different community leaders, he would 10 let them know what the status of the 11 remediation was. So he would keep them SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038028 12 informed over time about what was 13 transpiring. And you know, as far as 14 communication about specific issues and 15 the effects of communities, that was 16 done on an ongoing basis depending on 17 what point in the remediation we were 18 at. 19 Q. If you will go back to the first page of 20 Exhibit Twenty-nine, there is a phone 21 number at top. Do you know whose phone 22 number that is? 23 A. I don't remember. I guess we could call REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 233 1 it and find out. 2 Q. If you skip down it says incineration 3 issue different. What is that 4 regarding? 5 A. I saw that too. And I couldn't 6 remember. That is what made me think 7 maybe it wasn't Anniston because I don't 8 remember them having an incinerator. 9 Make they did and I'm just not 10 remembering that. I don't know what SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038029 11 this different upper, middle class -- I 12 just don't recall. 13 Q. What does MTC stand for? 14 A. Monsanto, that is our stock ticker. 15 Okay. Adam was pointing out on the last 16 page the nerve gas incinerator, which 17 wasn't ours, but it was a community 18 issue that was of interest to the 19 community. I'm not sure why it is in my 20 notes related to our site and our 21 issues, but I guess that is something 22 that was in people's minds. 23 Q. And if you will skip down, it says a few REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 234 1 MTC issues of concern. One of them is 2 impact on ground water, landfills, how 3 do aquifers work. Can you recall any 4 further information on that issue? 5 A. Not really. 6 Q. And then you have written down in your 7 notes PCB question, what does that refer 8 to? 9 A. Beyond that, I don't know. I don't SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038030 10 remember the specifics. 11 Q. Then go to the next page of your 12 handwritten notes. I just can't --I 13 don't know what your abbreviations stand 14 for. It says get -- 15 A. People. 16 Q. -- people interested in PCBs? 17 A. Oh, yes. I guess because we aren't able 18 to approach people that were close 19 enough to the PCB issue to know what it 20 was always about, because often they 21 were litigants or knew people who were 22 litigants, then we wouldn't have 23 representation on the panel of anyone REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 235 1 who was familiar with PCB issues. And 2 if you ignore that issue the community 3 advisory panel is of limited value. 4 Q. Okay. And then the next comment just 5 says PCB specific, can't -- and I don't 6 know what that means. Do you? 7 A. It looks like I started to write more 8 and then just cut off. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038031 9 Q. Does it jog your memory about anything? 10 A. No. 11 Q. But the bottom line was if you couldn't 12 get people on the panel to talk about 13 the bigger issue of PCBs, the panel was 14 never going to work? 15 A. Right. 16 Q. Do you know John Mitchell? 17 A. Yeah. 18 Q. Is he with Prudential? 19 A. Right. 20 Q. Did Prudential make a pitch to handle 21 this CAP for you guys in Anniston? I 22 have some documentation from the 23 Prudential Community Interaction REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 236 1 Consulting Group. 2 A. For a community advisory panel? 3 Q. I'm trying to figure out is that related 4 to a CAP or is that related more to the 5 property purchase program? 6 A. I remember they worked with us on the 7 property purchase program. I can't SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038032 8 remember whether we talked to them about 9 a CAP. If we did, it would have been 10 before we engaged Michael Elliott. 11 Q. Do you remember a company named Yonce 12 and Associates? 13 A. Are they a local Anniston firm? 14 Q. They are actually in Birmingham. 15 A. Are they like a PR agency? 16 Q. Let me you show you this. 17 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 18 Thirty was marked for 19 identification.) 20 A. I'm trying to remember. Okay. They are 21 a PR agency, communications organization 22 management. 23 Q. What was your contact or why did you REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 237 1 contact Yonce and Associates? 2 A. I think this was a firm that Fleishman 3 Hillard identified as being a potential 4 PR agency. But we decided Birmingham 5 was just too far away. I did contact 6 them to find out if they had community SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038033 7 relations capabilities, and it looks 8 like they did, but we decided they 9 wouldn't be familiar enough with the 10 Anniston community. 11 Q. Well, I think you just said you think it 12 was Fleishman Hillard that referred you 13 to Yonce? 14 A. I believe so. 15 Q. In Mr. Yonce's letter to you of March 16 19th, '96, which we have marked as 17 Exhibit Thirty, he indicates before we 18 begin any kind of media campaign we 19 learn who the influentials are? 20 A. Yeah. And I don't recall why they would 21 have said that because that wasn't our 22 interest in using a PR firm. 23 Q. But based on his letter it seems to REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 238 1 indicate there was some thought at least 2 on his part that there was a media 3 campaign that you guys wanted to start. 4 A. Apparently on his part, but I don't 5 recall it on our part. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038034 6 Q. And it is your testimony that your 7 desire to get Fleishman Hillard to 8 provide you with local PR firms had 9 absolutely nothing to do with trying to 10 start a media campaign? 11 A. We weren't in that mode. We weren't 12 trying to gain visibility for ourselves 13 or get acquainted. It was more to help 14 Jack with the community meetings that 15 needed to take place and just with 16 general community relations. 17 Q. So Yonce and Associates had nothing do 18 with a CAP, correct? 19 A. Right. 20 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 21 Thirty-one was marked for 22 identification.) 23 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Thirty-one? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 239 1 A. Community interaction consulting 2 agreement with Prudential. 3 Q. Does this pertain to the property 4 purchase program? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038035 5 A. It looks like it. 6 Q. Okay. And at the bottom it says signed 7 agreement, P five change initialed, 8 8-11-95. Is that your handwriting? 9 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 10 Q. Is that a yes? 11 A. Yes, which I guess is page five. 12 Q. And there is a little--it looks like 13 on page five, under section F there are 14 some words missing, and then there is a 15 handwritten note that sayings "out." Do 16 you know what that is about? 17 A. I don't know that. I'm not sure. 18 Q. Do you know why it is that Monsanto 19 wanted to keep confidential the 20 information that it shared with 21 Prudential Interaction Consulting? 22 A. Is that in here someplace? 23 Q. No. It is actually a separate letter REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 240 1 from Mr. Bistline. 2 A. Is that a copy of the document? 3 Q. I can give you a copy of that. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038036 4 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 5 Thirty-two was marked for 6 identification.) 7 Q. Have you seen Exhibit Thirty-two before? 8 A. It looks like just a general 9 confidentiality agreement that we have 10 with a number of our contractors. 11 Q. Just for the record -- 12 A. It is a letter to John Mitchell from Tom 13 Bistline, who was the assistant general 14 counsel for Monsanto at the time. 15 Q. And it is your testimony that in general 16 when you guys hired consultants you 17 request that there be a confidentiality 18 agreement? 19 A. That's right. 20 Q. And what is the reason for that? 21 A. There might be competitive information 22 that might be disclosed that we wouldn't 23 want to have made public. There could REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 241 1 be a variety of reasons. 2 Q. How about with respect to buying SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038037 3 property in a neighborhood? What 4 confidentiality issues would be of 5 concern? 6 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 7 the question. 8 A. I really don't know. Most of our 9 dealings with them, the information 10 would have been confidential. I don't 11 know. 12 Q. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out 13 why. You are just buying property in 14 the neighborhood. You can't explain 15 that for me? 16 A. (Witness shakes head negatively.) 17 Q. Is that a no? 18 A. That's a no. Sorry. 19 Q. Okay. Did you guys also use Prudential 20 community consulting services -- Let me 21 start that over. 22 Did Monsanto use Prudential 23 community consulting services to REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 242 1 establish the Carondelet CAP? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038038 2 A. Yes. I wasn't part of that, but I know 3 we did. 4 Q. Did you share with Jack Mayausky 5 information about the Carondelet CAP? 6 A. I believe so, as much as I knew. 7 Q. Let me show you this. 8 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 9 Thirty-three was marked for 10 identification.) 11 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Thirty-three? 12 A. It looks likes a note to Jack from me. 13 Q. I can't--It looks likes it is maybe 14 3-14 of'95 on the top. 15 A. That looks right. 16 Q. And this is I guess before the time that 17 you actually got in touch with Michael 18 Elliott, based on the last paragraph. 19 A. Let me read it. This was rather 20 elaborate. Okay. 21 Q. So it is accurate that this memo from 22 you to Jack would have taken place 23 before -- would have been written before REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 243 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038039 1 you talked to Mr. Elliott? 2 A. Right. 3 Q. And the question I have for you relates 4 to the second to last paragraph, where 5 you indicate that at Anniston you don't 6 have the luxury of taking nine months 7 just to establish bylaws, a number of 8 these steps will have to be compressed, 9 like the community choosing panel 10 members. What do you mean by that? Why 11 don't they have the luxury of taking 12 nine months? 13 A. Well, first of all, this was very 14 unusual in the formation of a CAP to 15 have this long of a lead time before the 16 plant even held their first meeting. A 17 certain amount of research was 18 necessary, but nine months' worth or 19 maybe even a year before they held their 20 first meeting, it was just -- it is not 21 the usual case. 22 Q. By them are you talking about 23 Carondelet? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 244 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038040 1 A. Carondelet and Prudential. And I think 2 at the time we were interested in 3 getting a CAP up and running because of 4 the issues that the plant faced, that 5 they wanted -- it would have been very 6 helpful to understand what the 7 community's interests, concerns, and 8 questions were. 9 Q. Meaning the remediation was on -- 10 A. Well, any issues. We just didn't know 11 because we didn't have a CAP in place, 12 and it would have been helpful for a lot 13 of reasons. We had the Adams research, 14 but we didn't really have any ongoing -- 15 except for Jack's conversations with 16 different community leaders, but we 17 didn't really have an ongoing formal 18 group that we could discuss what was on 19 their minds with. 20 Q. And one of the key events that was 21 taking place during that time frame was 22 the remediation? 23 A. Right. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 245 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038041 1 Q. One of the things I was going to ask you 2 is it talks about the fact that with 3 respect to the Carondelet facility, that 4 another community survey was done by 5 Prudential that was more detailed than 6 the Adams Research survey. Did you guys 7 do that for Anniston? 8 A. That is the process that Michael Elliott 9 was starting. 10 Q. By a community survey, is that separate 11 and apart from his interview process? 12 A. No. I believe that is what the research 13 meant. 14 Q. I think you told me before that you 15 thought it was Diane Sheridan that may 16 have given you Elliott's name. I need 17 to show you this and see if you know 18 where this came from. 19 (Plaintiffs'Exhibit Number 20 Thirty-four was marked for 21 identification.) 22 Q. Exhibit Thirty-four is a resource list. 23 If you will go to I guess the third REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038042 246 1 page, it lists Southeast Negotiation 2 Network. I was just trying to figure 3 out where this document -- Actually, it 4 answers it at the top. It says Diane 5 Sheridan on the fax line. 6 A. And it says to Beth Rusert. 7 Q. Yes, but on that specific page it has 8 Diane's name, so that confirms it. Is 9 that right? 10 A. Yes. 11 Q. All right. 12 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 13 Thirty-five was marked for 14 identification.) 15 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Thirty-five? 16 A. It looks like a presentation. 17 Q. Do you recall who prepared these 18 presentation materials? 19 A. This looks like a presentation -- We had 20 a -- kind of a mini conference. I think 21 it was only one day or maybe two half 22 days with plant managers and/or the 23 communication person if they had one SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038043 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 247 1 from various sites. And part of what 2 was discussed was community advisory 3 panels. And I don't remember what else 4 we put into that agenda. I think Beth 5 Rusert prepared this, but I couldn't 6 swear to that. 7 Q. Were you present at the meeting at which 8 this presentation was given? 9 A. Yes. 10 Q. Where did that presentation take place? 11 A. It was in St. Louis. I think it was at 12 our headquarters in a meeting room on 13 campus. 14 Q. And what was the purpose of this 15 presentation? 16 A. It was to share stories about community 17 advisory panels from those of us who had 18 them in place. It was to help introduce 19 them. One of the problems at some of 20 the plants that had them for a long 21 period of time is trying to keep 22 attendance going. The CAP members got 23 bored after a while and attendance SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038044 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 248 1 would wane. So there was some thought 2 as to how we keep these invigorated, so 3 sharing stories among the plants about 4 what kind of agenda items they covered, 5 could even have some people from other 6 companies come in and talk about their 7 experiences with CAPs. There was a 8 speaker -- I don't know from what 9 company -- who talked about a small site 10 that maybe wouldn't warrant a CAP but 11 how they would make sure that they had 12 some kind of ongoing dialogue with the 13 community that was appropriate to their 14 circumstances. And all this was also to 15 help facilities that didn't have CAPs 16 get ideas of maybe what they could do. 17 Q. If you will go to -- at the bottom it is 18 Bate's number 137343. 19 A. Okay. 20 Q. It is thestrength and weaknesses of 21 community advisory panels. 22 A. Yes. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038045 23 Q. If you will look on the weaknesses side, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 249 1 is one of the weaknesses that a CAP can 2 create the perception that a facility is 3 attempting to manipulate the community 4 opinion? 5 A. That is what it says under weaknesses. 6 Q. Just so the record is clear, what we 7 have marked as Exhibit Thirty-five is 8 entitled Community Dialogue, Community 9 Advisory Panels? 10 A. That's right. 11 Q. And then if you will go to the next 12 page, which is entitled Community 13 Advisory Panels Can Add Value By, it 14 says providing some insurance. What 15 does that mean? 16 A. I'm not really sure. I can't speculate. 17 Q. And you don't have a recollection as to 18 what insurance CAPs can provide to 19 companies like Monsanto? 20 A. I would rather not speculate. 21 Q. And I'm not asking you to speculate. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038046 22 I'm asking you based on your attendance 23 at this meeting if you recall. If you REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 250 1 don't, that's fine. 2 And if you will continue on a few 3 more pages, a page called anecdotes. 4 And listed on there is the Anniston, 5 Alabama facility; is that right? 6 A. Right. 7 Q. Do you recall what anecdotes were told 8 about the Anniston site? 9 A. I'm not really sure who presented this. 10 I know I didn't, but I believe it was 11 just our experience with trying to form 12 a CAP and not being able to. Again, it 13 was to give a range of experiences with 14 CAPs, some that worked extremely well, 15 the Chocolate Bayou CAP, and some that 16 we ran into roadblocks and couldn't get 17 going. 18 Q. If you will go all the way toward the 19 back, there is a section on anecdotes. 20 And it is the second to last page, and SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038047 21 let me know when you get there. It 22 references Anniston, Alabama. Are you 23 there? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 251 1 A. Uh-huh (indicating yes). 2 Q. Is that a yes? 3 A. Yes. 4 Q. It says Anniston, Alabama is an example 5 of a site without a CAP. As I'm sure 6 you are aware Anniston is experiencing 7 some challenges. What was being 8 referenced there? 9 A. I believe that was related to the 10 remediation. 11 Q. What challenges were they experiencing? 12 A. That we couldn't form a CAP because of 13 the litigation related to the 14 remediation. 15 Q. And then it says I'm not here to 16 second-guess past decision. Hindsight 17 is always twenty-twenty. But if a CAP 18 had been in place before things became 19 difficult, it might have been easier for SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038048 20 the plant to continue a dialogue with 21 the community. 22 A. Yes. 23 Q. What does that mean? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 252 1 A. We couldn't form a CAP because of not 2 being able to have appropriate 3 representation on the CAP because of 4 litigation related to the PCB 5 remediation. If we had had a CAP in 6 place before these issues arose, we 7 would have known what the issues, 8 concerns, questions of the community 9 might be. Now, whether or not we were 10 able to continue talking to people who 11 were members of the CAP if they were 12 involved in the litigation, I don't 13 know. 14 Q. Again, doesn't this get back to the idea 15 that you put a CAP in place to prevent 16 litigation? 17 A. No. I disagree with that. 18 Q. It goes on to say while a CAP would not SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038049 19 have solved Anniston's problems, having 20 an open dialogue in place would have 21 certainly been beneficial. 22 A. Right. Again, so that we would know 23 what questions were on people's minds, REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 253 1 what issues they were interested in or 2 concerned about or would want to know 3 more about before we were kind of shut 4 down by the litigation. 5 Q. In fact, the literature on CAPs when it 6 talks about timing says it is best to 7 form of a CAP before a screw-up. Isn't 8 that what the literature says? 9 MR. PECK: Before a what? 10 MS. MALOW: A screw-up. 11 A. What literature are you referring to? 12 Q. All the CAP literature that your lawyer 13 provided to us about CAPs. 14 MR. PECK: I object to the form of 15 the question. If you have a 16 document, show it to her. 17 Q. You can answer. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038050 18 A. The reason for forming a CAP is to give 19 you a window into what the community is 20 thinking, what their concerns are, what 21 their questions are, what their issues 22 are. 23 Q. It has nothing to do with screw-ups that REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 254 1 chemical companies make? 2 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 3 the question. 4 A. You know, I can't answer in general 5 terms, you know. 6 Q. Other thank Mr. Elliott speaking with 7 Mr. Mayausky and Mr. Jones and Mr. Brown 8 and yourself, do you know of any other 9 plant contacts that he had? 10 A. Did you say Jones? 11 Q. Yes. Faust maybe as well. 12 A. I don't know. All the Monsanto people 13 were on that grid about who he talked 14 to. 15 Q. Okay. Did Mr. Elliott ever talk with 16 anyone in St. Louis other than you, such SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038051 17 as like Bob Kaley or anybody else? 18 A. I don't believe so, but I can't say for 19 sure. I was his main contact. 20 Q. Are you familiar with a company called 21 Meridian? There was some documentation 22 from a company called Meridian. 23 A. I don't know. I'd have to have more REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 255 1 information. 2 Q. How about Ann Green? 3 MR. PECK: Who? 4 MS. MALOW: Ann Green. 5 Q. Does that ring a bell? 6 A. Same thing. I'd need to have something 7 to jog my memory. It doesn't come to 8 mind. 9 Q. Okay. Were you involved in putting 10 together any of the community relations 11 programs for Anniston? 12 A. From the years that I took the site on, 13 it was something that was worked out 14 with the plant, so it wasn't something I 15 drafted on my own. They were the ones SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038052 16 that were closer to the community, with 17 knowledge of the community, so it was a 18 j oint effort in working up their 19 programs. 20 Q. Was there already at the time you took 21 over the site an existing community 22 relations plan in place? 23 A. Yes. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 256 1 Q. Do you recall what changes if any you 2 made to that community relations plan 3 once you got the site? 4 A. I don't remember. I think Beth had done 5 one the year before I took it over, but 6 I don't remember what if anything 7 changed other than maybe tightening up 8 the fund budget. And I think Beth might 9 have even started that. 10 Q. Were you also involved with a community 11 relations plan for the Krummrich plant? 12 A. Yes, again, in cooperation with the 13 plant. 14 Q. So is the situation such that -- SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038053 15 A. Now, wait. No, wait a minute. I would 16 have been involved in forming their 17 community relations plan during the 18 years I had responsibility for the 19 plant, so not always. 20 Q. Not ongoing? 21 A. Right. 22 Q. Were these community relations plans 23 filled out, then, by the plant manager REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 257 1 and then shared with you? 2 A. CTsually. We would sit down and talk 3 about it after they had done a first 4 draft. 5 Q. For some reason, I have '96 and '98 but 6 not '94 or '95. Let me show you '96. 7 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 8 Thirty-six was marked for 9 identification.) 10 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Thirty-six? 11 A. Anniston 1996 community relations plan. 12 Q. And the number one goal? 13 A. Enhance two-way communication with local SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038054 14 community. 15 Q. And part of doing that was to form this 16 citizen advisory panel? 17 A. Right. 18 Q. Okay. How do the community relations 19 plans differ from plant to plant? 20 A. Again, it just depends on the size of 21 the plant, the kinds of community they 22 are in. Some of them are in industrial 23 complexes with few neighbors. Some have REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 258 1 neighbors right on the fence lines. 2 Some have issues specific to the plant 3 that they need to communicate. Some 4 play a larger, more visible role in 5 their communities or should because they 6 are large and a big part of the 7 community. That is how it would vary. 8 Q. Are you familiar with any significant 9 changes that were made during the years 10 you had responsibility for Anniston with 11 respect to the community relations plan? 12 A. This looks about right. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038055 13 Q. And unfortunately I don't have the 14 others to show you to compare. I was 15 just trying to get your best 16 recollection of any significant changes 17 that you can recall. 18 A. I don't recall anything other than 19 tightening up the fund budget from 20 giving away nickels and dimes to a lot 21 of groups to something more focused. 22 Q. Have you had any responsibilities for 23 dealing with lobbyists regarding the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 259 1 Anniston site? 2 A. I didn't have state government affairs 3 for Anniston or Alabama at all. 4 Q. That just knocks out a whole section. 5 A. Good. 6 Q. You don't know who Dave Robertson is of 7 Environmental Guidance Corporation? 8 A. No. 9 Q. While you had responsibility for 10 Anniston, did you ever have any contact 11 with local public officials in Anniston? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038056 12 A. No. 13 Q. Did you have any contacts with any 14 Alabama state government officials? 15 A. No. 16 Q. Who was handling that arm of it? 17 A. Jack mostly. Well, Jack -- 18 Q. Kevin Cahill does that now. But how 19 about prior to Kevin? 20 A. As far as state government officials, if 21 you mean politicians it would have been 22 the state government affairs person. 23 And I don't rewall who that was at the REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 260 1 time. It wasn't me. As far as local 2 politicians, Jack did a lot of the 3 company contact with them. 4 Q. Are you familiar with any information 5 breakfast meetings that were conducted 6 with Monsanto retirees at the Anniston 7 site? 8 A. I don't remember. 9 Q. Are you familiar with any plans that 10 were made to enhance the west Anniston SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038057 11 community by Monsanto? 12 A. To enhance it? What do you mean by 13 that? 14 Q. To make improvements? 15 A. I don't recall. 16 Q. When you get these community relations 17 plans from the plant managers, are there 18 various drafts of them before they are 19 put in final form? 20 A. If there are things that don't look 21 right or areas that don't look like they 22 have been covered. And we talk about 23 resourcing, you know, who is going to be REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 261 1 in charge of this program and that 2 program. If the plant manager says I 3 will handle all of them, it is, no, you 4 can't handle all of them. You just make 5 sure the responsibilities are spread 6 among the whole staff. That is the kind 7 of discussion we usually hold. So there 8 might be changes. 9 Q. What happens to the drafts? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038058 10 A. Probably pitched. 11 Q. Have you ever heard of a company called 12 IBT, Industrial Bio Test? 13 A. Yes, I've heard of it. 14 Q. What have you heard about them? 15 A. I know they were a lab that did some 16 testing, but these are -- those are 17 kinds of issues that when we get 18 inquiries about them, I would send them 19 to Kaley, because he was a lot more 20 familiar with them than I was. 21 Q. Are you aware of any criminal 22 investigation regarding IBT? 23 A. I know there were some allegations made REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 262 1 related to IBT, but I don't recall what 2 our involvement was or what the outcome 3 was. 4 Q. Do you recall any press regarding those 5 events? 6 A. In general or during my Anniston years? 7 Q. At any time in your employment with 8 Monsanto. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038059 9 A. There would be occasions when different 10 activists would raise accusations 11 against the company, and IBT was one of 12 the accusations that they would raise. 13 And again, any response to an issue like 14 that I would defer to Bob. 15 Q. Are you aware of any enforcement actions 16 regarding the Anniston facility? 17 A. I know we were working with ADEM on the 18 remediation plan. I think the plan that 19 we eventually put in place was one 20 that--Well, whether that was an 21 enforcement action, I can't swear to 22 because I don't remember. 23 Q. Are you aware of the incident involving REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 263 1 a benzine release where EPA fined the 2 Anniston site? 3 A. What date was that? 4 Q. It was '94. 5 A. Vaguely, but not enough to recall the 6 details. 7 Q. Were you involved with respect to any SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038060 8 press that came out of that event? 9 A. I believe it was handled by the plant. 10 I don't recall having -- 11 Q. Ms. Rusert testified she had some 12 involvement with that. I was just 13 trying to figure out if you had any 14 additional involvement. 15 A. No. 16 MR. PECK: I don't think she would 17 have been involved. 18 Q. Are you aware, just sitting here now in 19 1999, of any health effects or illnesses 20 that PCBs have been alleged to cause? 21 A. No. Other than chloracne, which is a 22 skin condition. 23 Q. Are you aware of how the Environmental REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 264 1 Protection Agency classifies PCBs? 2 A. I'm not sure what the current 3 classification is. 4 Q. At some point in time were you familiar 5 with the classifications? 6 A. I think it was a possible carcinogen. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038061 7 Q. Or probable? 8 A. I'm not sure which it was. 9 Q. Have you had any discussions with Bob 10 Kaley about whether or not PCBs can 11 cause cancer? 12 A. I know from our fact sheet and the 13 scientific studies that Kaley and the 14 other scientists have looked at, people 15 exposed to PCBs were not at risk of 16 increased health effects other that 17 chloracne. 18 Q. Have you seen all the studies, both 19 positive and negative, in that regard? 20 A. I have not read the studies. I'm not a 21 toxicologist. I'm relying on the 22 scientists for that. 23 Q. Back to the property purchase program. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 265 1 There were some public meetings held and 2 some different testing that was done by 3 the Alabama Department of Public Health. 4 Are you familiar with that testing? 5 A. No. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038062 6 Q. Are you familiar with a visit that 7 Dr. Kaley and Renate Kimbrough made to 8 Brian Hughes regarding health risks of 9 PCBs? 10 MR. PECK: Object to the form of 11 the question. 12 A. I wasn't there, so I don't know, you 13 know, what meeting was held or what was 14 discussed. 15 Q. What involvement if any did you have 16 regarding the blood and fat sampling of 17 residents of the Anniston area? 18 A. I wasn't involved in sampling, the 19 program. 20 Q. What about the dust sampling that was 21 done in the homes of the residents? 22 A. I was aware that was taking place, but I 23 wasn't involved. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 266 1 Q. Were you told the results of any of 2 those samplings? 3 A. I believe I heard what they were, but I 4 don't recall what those results were SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038063 5 now. 6 Q. Do you know which local legislators or 7 state officials worked with Brian Hughes 8 on those issues? 9 A. No. 10 Q. Have you had any contact or 11 communications with AlaChem? 12 A. It is not familiar to me. 13 Q. Were you involved at all in the lake 14 settlement that took place in June? 15 A. No. 16 Q. Are you familiar with that litigation? 17 A. The early days of it, but I left -- 18 well, before it hit and hadn't gotten 19 very far long. 20 Q. What was your involvement with it in the 21 early days? 22 A. I just had knowledge it was taking 23 place. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 267 1 Q. And you had heard that it settled? 2 A. I think I did hear that it had settled, 3 but I don't recall -- and I don't know SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038064 4 any of the details because by then it 5 was being managed by Solutia. 6 Q. Were you involved at all in a geriatric 7 and infant day care proposal? 8 A. Do you have anything -- 9 Q. Yeah. 10 MR. PECK: That is a fairly 11 current issue. 12 Q. I don't think she does. 13 A. It didn't sound familiar. 14 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 15 Thirty-seven was marked for 16 identification.) 17 Q. Have you seen Exhibit Thirty-seven 18 before? 19 A. No. 20 Q. All right. That's just -- For the 21 record, it is a memo from Woody 22 Richardson of UAB School of Business to 23 Steve Bradley dated February 16th, 1999 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 268 1 regarding a geriatric and infant day 2 care facility study. You don't have any SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038065 3 knowledge of that? 4 A. No. 5 Q. Okay. Did you have any involvement at 6 all with the Solutia Education 7 Connection program? 8 A. No. 9 Q. During the time that you had Anniston 10 was there any sort of philanthropic 11 program regarding theschools and the 12 Anniston community? 13 A. Well, we had the wild birds sanctuary 14 visit. We sponsored the traveling 15 museum that would go around to different 16 schools, that taught different science 17 issues. That's all I recall right now. 18 That's all I remember. 19 Q. I asked your earlier about Michael 20 Lythcott. Do you -- Let me show you 21 something. 22 A. I thought we were through with the first 23 stack of files. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 269 1 Q. It is not in any order any more. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038066 2 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 3 Thirty-eight was marked for 4 identification.) 5 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Thirty-eight? 6 A. A memo from John Mitchell to Tom 7 Bistline dated May 6 of '97. 8 Q. And the attachment is an article from 9 the LA Times regarding Michael Lythcott? 10 A. Okay. 11 Q. It appears from the article that 12 Mr. Lythcott gets involved when there 13 are relocations of communities. Does 14 any of that jog your memory with respect 15 to your involvement with the property 16 purchase program? 17 MR. PECK: His involvement, you 18 mean? 19 MS. MALOW: Why they were looking 20 at Mr. Lythcott at all. 21 A. His name is familiar. I don't remember 22 what his involvement might have been. 23 Does it say in this? REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 270 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038067 1 Q. This is just an article. Have you ever 2 had any contact with Michael Lythcott? 3 A. I don't recall. I don't think so. 4 Again, his name is familiar, but I'm not 5 sure what he did. 6 Q. Well, I can ask Ms. Rusert, since her 7 name is on that one. I'll need to save 8 one for Beth. 9 Are you familiar with an article 10 that appeared in Sierra magazine 11 entitled Pandora's Poison? 12 A. Yes. 13 Q. Did you receive any inquiries regarding 14 that article? 15 A. Yes. 16 Q. Tell me about that. 17 A. The reporter, I think it was Eric 18 Coppolino, sent us a number of questions 19 related to PCBs, and we responded. And 20 then some time went by, and then a huge 21 story appeared with not much of our 22 information included in it. It was very 23 negative. REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 271 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038068 1 Q. Were you -- Did you play any role in the 2 letter that Michael Pierle wrote in 3 response to that article. 4 A. I think there was a number of us that 5 were involved in whatever follow-up was 6 done. I believe I was part of that. 7 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit Number 8 Thirty-nine was marked for 9 identification.) 10 MR. PECK: How are we doing, 11 because -- 12 MS. MALOW: We are not going to 13 finish. 14 MR. PECK: If you can finish 15 this -- this topic,I have 16 somebody standing by to take 17 you to airport. 18 Q. Can you identify Exhibit Thirty-nine? 19 A. It is a letter from Mike Pierle to the 20 editor in chief of Sierra magazine 21 related to the article. 22 Q. Okay. And then the next page looks like 23 something from GE. Do you know what REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 272 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038069 1 that is about? I guess it is the third 2 page actually. 3 A. It looks like -- 4 Q. Maybe that is GE's response? 5 A. That is what it looks like to me. 6 Q. And then there is a Monsanto statement 7 that perhaps Beth participated in, the 8 next page that says all media inquiries 9 should be reported to Diane Herndon at 10 Monsanto? 11 A. Yeah. And I think this was really all 12 we put together, just this short 13 statement. 14 Q. Then the next two pages are a press 15 release from Sierra Club? 16 A. Right. 17 Q. And I guess the rest of it is the actual 18 article? 19 A. Yeah. That is what it looks like. 20 Q. If you will look toward the back, there 21 are two pages that look like they come 22 from someone's ESHA. Do you know what 23 those are, dated 9-9 of'96. Those REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038070 273 1 might not have anything to do with this. 2 They may have just accidentally got 3 attached. 4 A. I don't think it had anything to do with 5 the article. 6 Q. Do you know what those last two pages 7 are? 8 MR. PECK: It shouldn't be 9 attached. 10 MS. MALOW: I'm the attacher, so 11 watch it. Okay. Let's take 12 them off. We will cover that 13 next round. 14 Q. So let's go back to Mr. Pierle's letter, 15 which is page one of Exhibit 16 Thirty-nine. I guess what I'm trying 17 to figure out is whether or not you 18 assisted in the preparation of his 19 letter to the editor of Sierra magazine. 20 A. I believe I did assist. But like I 21 said, there were other people involved 22 as well. 23 Q. What role did you play in drafting this SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038071 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 274 1 letter? 2 A. It is hard to recall at this point what 3 was discussed. A likely role for me 4 would have been to keep it short, 5 because often our scientists would have 6 been inclined to do a lengthy response, 7 which wouldn't work with the media. 8 Q. And why is it that you guys have from GE 9 their response? 10 A. If I recall, they were implicated in the 11 story too. 12 Q. Did you have any discussions with 13 anybody at GE regarding this article in 14 the Sierra magazine? 15 A. I believe so, but I don't recall what 16 was discussed. And Steve Ramsey is 17 their ES&H guy for GE,comparable to 18 MikePierle. 19 Q. Do you know Mr. Ramsey? 20 A. No. I have heard his name. 21 Q. Were there any meetings held with 22 representatives of Monsanto and GE 23 either in person or on the phone? SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038072 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 275 1 A. Related to this article? 2 Q. Yeah. 3 A. Not that I recall. Not meetings, I 4 mean. 5 Q. How about discussions? 6 A. Yeah. Someone might have talked to the 7 GE person once the article came out, but 8 I don't recall what was discussed during 9 that conversation. It wasn't a formal 10 meeting. It wasn't a planning session 11 or anything like that. 12 Q. And GE was a customer of Monsanto's that 13 used PCBs, right? 14 A. That's right. 15 MS. MALOW: You want to break? 16 MR. PECK: Yeah. 17 (At 4:50 p.m. the deposition 18 of Diane Herndon was 19 continued to an unspecified 20 date and time.) 21 22 SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038073 23 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. 276 1 I do hereby certify that the witness 2 whose attached deposition was taken before me 3 was by me first duly cautioned and sworn to 4 tell nothing but the truth in the cause 5 aforesaid; that the testimony contained herein 6 was by me reduced to writing in the presence 7 of said witnesses by means of stenography and 8 afterwards transcribed by means of computer 9 aided transcription. The foregoing is a true 10 and accurate transcript of the whole of the 11 testimony given by said witness, as aforesaid. 12 I do further certify that I am not 13 connected by blood or marriage with any of the 14 parties or their attorneys or agents and that 15 I am not an employee of any of them, nor 16 interested in the matter of controversy. 17 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 18 my hand and affixed my notarial seal at 19 Gadsden, Alabama, County of Etowah, this 9th 20 day of September 1999. 21 ________________________________________ Deborah Salers Garrett SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038074 22 Certified Shorthand Reporter Registered Professional Reporter 23 Notary Public, Alabama-at-Large My Commission expires: 3-7-2001 REGIONAL REPORTING SERVICE, INC. SWIFT 08-25-1999 Herndon, Diane.PRT.txt[8/22/2017 4:30:18 PM] HARTOLDMON0038075