Document KGZ44VDeZLnV5Qq7k46LYYmow

THE SAD, SHORT-LEGGED SHEEP SAGA-PAGE TWO FREE AMHERST/NORTHAMPTON/GREENFIELD /Monsanto's Bottom Kid 'For decades, the 1 Monsanto Company ; has dumped chemical wastes into kettiehoies on its Springfield property. For the first time, this report documents evidence of ^continuing un^rafer and even "rt1evCcr\n<TOticut fc&erlas ar ult of that practice. ............................. ....................................... --?-- ^ By Paul Bush and DonvUichak Copyright 1981 Since 1977, the Monsanto Company of St. Louis has spent millions reminding us that "Without Chemicals, Life Itself Would Be Impossible." During a 20-year period ending in about 1972, the same company dumped several thousand tons of liquid chemical waste into kettiehoies on its Springfield, Massachusetts, plaint property, contaminating local groundwater, the Chicopee River and, in all likelihood, the Connecticut River. Many of those chemicals buried in Springfield are considered "hazardous waste" by state and federal authorities, who have never tested the waters for specific pollutants reportedly dumped by the company. As a result, the local environment has been chemically contaminated, and hazardous chemicals may have traveled surface and ground waters throughout southwestern Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. Research for this story was sponsored in part by the Fundfor Investigative Journalism in Washington, D.C. jBush and Michak photo xI oday, rusting, coroded drums are breaking through the walls of Monsanto's south west dump, i The swampy wetland that reaches the base j>/ the wall is disclored and covered with particulates. THE ALTERNATIVE IN THE PIONEER VALLEY VOL IX NO.IO OCTOBER 21,1981 36 PAGES Donn Young photo Monsanto is the fourth largest chemical company in the United States, earning $255 million in profits last year on sales of $6.6 billion. The company is the largest domestic manufacturer of aspirin, produces "Lasso," the best-selling agricultural herbicide in America, and is responsible for the development of "Astroturf" synthetic lawn. Until 1976, it was the only domestic manufacturer of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. The company also produces 2,4,5-T, an ingredient of the controversial Agent Orange defoliant. Monsanto is divided into four major divisions which together operate 64 plants in theU.S. and 86 in other countries. Two of the largest plants in its Plastics and Resins Division are located on the banks of the Chicopee River in Springfield. The Springfield and Bircham Bend Plants form a giant chemical complex of 99 buildings, storage tanks and other structures that sprawl over 328 acres, primarily in the neighborhood called Indian Orchard. More than 100,000 people live within five miles of See Monsanto Page 6 j | The Co-Co's: Their appealing, unaffected fun-rock leaves those "girl group" comparisons in the dust. By Brett Milano. Page 12 (Continuedfrompage 1) the plants, which are among the largest employers in the city, as well as nearby Chicopee and Ludlow. Area native Richard J. Mahoney, who began working at the Springfield Plant in 1965, was recently appointed President of 1 the Monsanto Company. The Springfield plant employs about 1,500 workers and produces plastic resins and films like that used in I automobile safety glass. Although Mon1 santo has a relatively good reputation for | safety, it has apparently routinely 1 mismanaged its hazardous byproducts in ' Springfield, with a resultant impact on a i much larger area. The company's deeds ; raise serious questions at a time when the need for strict environmental regulation is | the subject of national debate. "While not wishing to downplay the seriousness of the hazardous waste site problem or the need to enact properly focused legislation, our own studies indicate that the magnitude of this problem has been greatly exaggerated, both as to the number of sites and the cost of corrective action." --Testimony on Behalf of the Chemical Manufacturers Assoc. Given by Dr. Louis Fernandez, Vice-Chairman of Monsanto Company, Before the Senate Finance Committee on September 11, 1980. ["Superfund" Hearingsj Chemical plants create some products that companies never advertise. Process waste, spent solvents and contaminated cooling water are disposed of as quietly and cheaply as possible. Until very recently. Only, company employees knew where such wastes were routinely buried. Employers rarely told workers of the hazards associated with many of the most common chemical wastes. Arkey Dederian worked in the "yard gang'' at Monsanto for at least four of his 18 years with the company. According to Dederian and other Monsanto employees, the yard gang of up to 30 men was responsible for collecting process waste froir any of the buildings _in, the Sprii.. .Id complex. Much of the waste was contained in barrels that the crew hauled to an area the company calls its "landfilling operations," but which some of its past and present employees call "the sinkholes." "T>- -<; was a big goddamn hole and we just dumping, you know, over the side,' aid Dederian. "We used to call it the lake. All white and green and purple. That was our job all day long. We used to make rounds of every building that had any kind of effluent. It was a continuous thing, they kept using the drums over and over. They'd bring them back to the buildings, the residues from the chemicals would go back into the drums and then out to the dump again. "PVC, monomers, all kind of junk was doing in there...bottom of kettles, and stuff that's already been used. A chemical like toluene or methyl ethyl ketone ftom Research. Butadiene. Acetone. Alcohol. All arly maps of Monsanto's ESpringfield property show the "wet dump" kettlehole was originally deep enough to cut into the water table. One expert believes the bottom of the hole may have been sixfeet below the water table. that left-over junk's been thrown in there. That's no good for you. It's all bad. 1 was thinking, Christ, it's got tp be getting into the water, where the hell is it going to go? If there's anybody down there with a well, Jesus he's in trouble. "It was like a lake we were dumping so much. They've been dumping there until the time 1 got laid off in 1973, because when I was a guard 1 used to go up there and patrol, and I'd see guys still dumping during the day. But 1 wonder how many ba>" 's are up there. I bet you, conservatively s ,ng, there must be 10,000 55-gallon dru..is up there. Twenty, 30 years. . . .But see this guy on the back of the payloader would keep it covered with sand so it looks good." The guy on the back of the payloader Was Clem Dulski. He was'Monsanto',* vyequipment operator in SpringfieL ,om 1947 until the day before he retired, November 30, 1969. "Monsanto figured it was a good place to get rid of their liquid," Dulski recalled. "There was a deep hole and all I had to do was push in the sand. It was a hole a hundred feet deep, and I filled it by the time I left." Dtilski's estimate of the depth of the sinkhole may be exaggerated. Maps made before Monsanto's dumping in the 1930s indicate ketdeholes on company property 30 feet deep. But Dulski vividly remembers filling them up. "Three trucks and a dumpster would haul all day long. Just as soon as a truck dumped its load I'd push it 6A VALLEY ADVOCATE OCTOBER 21,1981 over the side. We did it in tiers and I'd push it and it would drop maybe six or-eight feet. I'd get sand from the hillside and I'd bury it. And then another truck would come, and then another and another." Sometimes barrels were dumped along with the wastes. "With a 55-gallon drum you've got a bunghole that big," said Dulski as he made a circle with thumb and forefinger, "and say the stuff has solidified, how the hell's it going to run out? The company gave the men cutters but, when its 90 degrees out, who the hell is going to pound a drum with a hammer and chisel to open it up? So they'd throw it over the side and I'd come around and bury it." Monsanto also gave its workers protective clothing. According to Dederian, some of the waste handlers didn't use the equipment, "but I'd wear mine--the rubber gloves, rubber boots and rubber apron." Dulski, whose job also involved "pushing ash out of the burning pit" located near the sinkhole dump, was supplied with a respirator he sometimes wore. Nevertheless, remembers Dederian, "Nobody told us it was dangerous. Nobody told us at the time it was toxic. Some guys were breaking out in rashes and stuff but the company covered it. I must have protected myself pretty good because d'm still around. But a lot of my buddies are gone." Drums and solidified plastics were not the only solid wastes dumped into- the holes. According to Harry Carlson, a retired Monsanto superintendent, a 5,000-gallon tank truck was also buried on 'company erial view of the Monsanto plant: ANear the top is the Chicopee River. The white area along the blink of the river is effluent being dumped by Monsanto. To the left is the Bircham Bend Trailer Park. land. "That tdhker was used to transport the bad stuff," explained Carlson. "As I understood it, it was a white and green tanker and it was kind of leaky. They had been using the thing for years for crap. It was leaking so bad they couldn't take it up on the highway, and they had to get rid of it on their own property. " , Monsanto's dumps were a playground for local children, according to neighbors of the chemical plants. Dulski complained how kids would steal metal debris, while Dederian remembered being warned as a company security guard to keep children out of the area. One neighbor, Helen Guzowski, said her children would come home after playing in the company's liquids. "I can remember they'd get it on their feet and I'd have to throw away their shoes," she said. Her son, Bob Guzowski, now living in New Mexico, recalled i '.g in "the dry stuff," dumped in what Ik . ..nembered as "a slight valley." "There were small white beads, bottles of white powder, cardboard drums and piles ofplastic," he said. Children still get into the swampy area on company property "-ar the Bircham Bend Trailer Park. "O ih," offered a trailer park resident, "the., climb under the fence at the corner." Clem Dulski retired 13 years ago. "They dumped barrels for maybe two of three years after I quit," before outside wastedisposal contractors were hired, he says. "When I quit they told me to cover it really good. When they got to the top and there was only a little land left, I covered it with five or six feet of fill. And that was the end of that." Unfortunately that was not. the end of that. How could Dulski, according to his own figures, spread one to three feet of sand every day on the company's buried waste, and take .22 years to fill a hole originally 30 feet deep? "Whatever they dumped in there," said Harry Carlson, "kept going down and down." Monsanto's product lines have generated huge amounts of chemical waste dtmng the company's 43 years of operation in Springfield. In documents submitted 'to a congressional committee, the company admitted disposing 108,500 tons of chemical "process waste" on its Springfield plant grounds, and 1,000 tons at Bircham Bend. These figures by no means include all of the process waste generated by the complex, nor do they include ordinary plant garbage. In fact, Monsanto officials apparently do nof know the total amount of chemical Waste produced since the company purchased the Fiberloid and Shawinigan Resins facilities in 1938. In its report to the committee, Monsanto left blank spaces where it was asked to provide details going back' to 1949. The Congressional questionnaire came from the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, ' formerly chaired by Rep. Bob Eckhardt (D-Texas). The Eckhardt. Committee requested information from Monsanto and 52 other chemical companies about how much chemical process waste they; had produced, and how and where it was disposed of. The survey sought information on 44 separate categories of metals, organic, and inorganic materials, but it covered only some of, the chemicals likely to be used by a major mined generating and disposing of every category of waste listed by the question naire, but did not volunteer information about unidentified waste streams. Monsanto told the Eckhardt Committee the waste generated at its Springfield plant had been disposed of on company property by "mixed industrial landfill, drummed waste landfill, pits, ponds and lagoons, incineration, and other uncategorized methods." The wastes included heavy metals, PCBs, PBBs, asbestos, solvents like trichloroethylene, and other chemicals. Much of the material the company described has been identified by EPA as "priority toxic pollutants." Their toxic effects range from central nervous system damage to cancer. Heavy metals, for example, produce a wide range of health effects. Arsenic causes abnormalities in human chromosomes and birth defects in animals. Antimony adversely affects reproduction and child development, as well as specific body sites like the lungs, skin and the cardiovascular system. Lead alters blood chemistry and can cause neurological disorders. Cadmium damages the liver andkidneys and softens the bones. The metals also bio-accumulate, or build up in humans and freshwater fish. Most of the waste Monsanto reported is recognized as "hazardous waste" under federal law. "Hazardous waste" is any waste which can "cause, or significantly contribute to, an increase in death, or an increase in serious irreversible or in capacitating illness, or pose a substantial hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, trans ported or disposed of, or otherwise managed."' Company spokesman Paul Bureau of the Springfield plant was interviewed last year for a related story ("Poisons in the Valley," June 25, 1980). "I can't tell you specifically what's in there," Bureau said in response to a question about, what chemicals may have been buried on company land. Bureau said Monsanto probably buried wastes like "scrap plastic--the hard type, pellets, sheet stock, and fabricated materials from tests, like refrigerator door liner." Monsanto workers, however, tell a dif ferent story. Employees like Dederian, Dulski and Carlson remember waste dumped that Monsanto did not report to the Eckhardt Committee. From 1948 to 1975, for example, the company made polyvinyl chloride from vinyl chloride monomer. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is'a widely used resin for plastic pipe, vinyl flooring, house siding and phonograph records. Since it was not unusual for the production process to go out of control in the 2,500-gallon reactor "kettles," the ruined batch would be taken out with other-PVC wastes to the on-site dump. "Every time we'd lose a kettle," said former Monsanto employee Eric Wengstrom "they'd dump it." Vinyl chloride monomer (or VCM) causes cancer in huipans, including a very rare form of liver cancer, called angiosarcoma. EPA has shown the level of VCM in polyvinyl chloride sludge can reach 3,000 parts per million. Some VCM is also routinely "entrapped" by PVC resin pellets. Government studies have shown that, when disposed of in the presence of other agents (Continued on next page) NURSES NEEDED RNs, LPNs and Nurses Aides needed immediately for staff or private duty assignments in hospitals. _ nursing homes or private homes. Full or part-time. One year experience necessary. Nursing students welcome. Call Today. 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In results submitted to Building, and by 1978, alt traces of the Dr, Richard Foose, "and some will go the company, Haley and Aldrich., Inc. southwest dump are gone. The kettleholes under it." "Under normal circumstances," reported "a strong chemical odor" and "a (Continuedfrom previouspage) become indistinguishable from the air. adds Dr. Edward Kaynor of' the strong oily odor" from two holes dug in the One particular company document Massachusetts Water Resource Center (at lowest part of plant property, the swampy verifies the location and size of the dumps. UMass, Amherst), "it would be a fair bet ground adjoining the trailer park in the such as salts, vinyl chloride may become Prepared by a surveyor for Monsanto in more water-soluble. When disposed of with ` April, 1961, it's titled "Plan Showing certain other chemicals, the effective Present and Propose Waste Disposal Areas concentration of VCM may also be in (sic)." The map was discovered in a creased. EPA has concluded the con Springfield City document vault, and it is centration of VCM in water should be zero--or none--based on the assumption that there is no safe exposure level to unknown how it got there and unlikely even Monsanto was aware it exists. Under the heading "Present Waste Disposal Areas," carcinogens. Occupational Safety and the kettleholes are separately marked "wet" Health Administration regulations allow no more than one part per million in the work place atmosphere. and "dry." The southwest dump is described as a five-and-a-half acre "Propose Dry Waste Disposal Area (sic)." At a corner In a material safety data sheet distributed by Monsanto, PVC is termed "a suspected -carcinogen," but the company recommends is a small rectangle labeled "Burning Pit." The Monsanto complex in Indian Orchard is built on soil technically classified as that anything as close as Monsanto in terms of grouiidwater would be getting into the Chicopee....One can say almost automatically that groundwater within a few hundred yards of a stream invariably gets into the stream. Obviously, any pollution in the Chicopee is affecting the mainstream." The Chicopee, according to Kaynor, "is the largest contributor to the Connecticut, it's a major tributary." The Chicopee drains into the Connecticut River eight miles west of the Monsanto complex. Chemical wastes dumped by the company into the Chicopee have been linked to Connecticut River pollution before. In southwest section. .'7* In January, 1980, orange leachate was found oozing from an embanknjent where a stream that passes through Monsanto, land empties into the Chicopee Riyer. City, of ficials described the leachate atypical of landfills but could not say Tfair certain whether it originated at Monsanto. No other dumps have been reported in the immediate area. Today, rusting and corroded drums are breaking through the walls of Monsanto's southwest dump. Crushed and broken barrels--some labeled "Monsanto Com pany"--are partially visible, along with rolls "incineration or landfill" as acceptable methods of waste disposal. VCM and PVC wastes buried in landfills have caused chemical contamination problems. Last year an elementary school near the Islip Town Landfill on Long Island was closed after traces of VCM were found in air samples taken at the school. Earlier, VCM was discovered in six gas vents drilled in the New York landfill. Children have always made playgrounds out of the Monsanto dumps. "Oh yeah/' said a neighbor, 'they climb under the fence at the corner/' of hard, discolored plastic and miscellaneous plant garbage. The swampy wetland that reaches the base of the wall is stained, and particulates have accumulated among clumps of weeds growing in the marsh. Oily grey film floats on the surface of the water, which is covered in Spots by a foamy, slightly pink substance. Recent chemical tests of water collected near the southwest dump and elsewhere An examination of local, state and federal government records concerning Monsanto's Springfield operations has revealed con siderably more information about the company's waste disposal practices than was supplied to the House subcommittee. Many of the documents uncovered m our search are official Monsanto submissions to various agencies, on company letterheads and bearing the corporate logo. The records show Monsanto disposed of much of its chemical waste on the "south plot," an undeveloped section of plant property. A railroad line divides the area and separates two major dumping spots. The southwest dump included "pits, ponds and lagoons," a five-and-a-half acre landfill and a burning pit. The other dump actually consisted of kettleholes on higher ground east of the railroad tracks. Kettleholes, or what the workers call "sinkholes," are geologic depressions formed by retreating around the complex also suggest con tamination. The Easthampton, Mass., consulting engineering firm of Tighe and Bond found surprisingly high amounts of certain metals and chemicals in two Samples taken near the exposed drums. Of five chemicals tested, all were above levels allowed in drinking water, some by as much as 50,000 times. Tests were also run on two water samples taken from a culvert at the edge of Monsanto's property. The samples showed very high levels of chloride. According to lab director John Lambert, the high iron readings in the first set of samples "could be from decomposing barrels or it could be from some kind of chemical material." The high chloride levels exhibited by the second set "indicates contamination is coming from the dump area," according to consulting engineer Tom Coutere. "It's not caused by man's normal activities," he added. glaciers thousands of years ago, and are common near the Chicopee River. Company docv ts show that one kettlehole, 100 feet . and 300 feet long, was used as a "We are living in a fool's paradise if we think industry io anything until it's forced to. " "wet dump" for liquids, and the other, 80 feet across at its widest point and 250 feet long, as a "dry dump." Dozens of city, state and federal officials I inter ed for this story say they are not awa. of the dumps. The Monsanto ! --Leo J. Weaver ofMonsanto's Envinor Chem Systems, Inc., qubted by David Zwick and Marcy Benstock in Water Wasteland, Nader Study Group Report. dumpsites were not listed by any of the many hazardous waste site surveys con- , ducted since 1979 by various Massachusetts agencies. Nor do the company's sinkholes appear on EPA's "quick look" roster of potential hazardous waste sites. (Monsanto may have informed the federal agency under new "Superfund" regulations, but the EPA Office of Uncontrolled Waste Sites in Boston has not released any information to the states and has refused to allow us to inspect Monsanto'S submission, despite our Freedom of Information Act request.) No map of Monsanto's landfill operations is filed at the Springfield Health Depart ment, despite a 1973 state law. No records of the company's overall disposal practices are held by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering, although state inspectors regularly visit the plants. Similarly, Monsanto failed to list its southwest dump and misreported the size of the kettleholes in its mandatory Resource Conservation and Recovery Act report to EPA last year. If state and federal authorities had found the personnel, resources and political will to uncover Monsanto's dumpsites, they would have found clues in their own files. Eight sets of aerial photographs were taken between 1952 and 1980 for the U.S. Geologic Service, the Soil Conservation Service and the Mass. Department of Public Works. The photos of Indian Orchard provide a history of Monsanto's operations over the last 29 years, graphically showing the original condition, operation and closing of the disposal sites. In 1952, forest still covered mosf of the south plot. A network of dirt roads cuts the land, including several that lead to the kettleholes, edged by large clearings. Ten x years later dumping was in full swing. Trees in the southwest area are replaced by what appears from the air to be a rectangular formation of dikes. (Burying barrels in layers and covering the cells to form walls is a common industrial landfill practice.) Black smoke blowing north from a south west dump corner suggest the company's burning pit was in use. In photos taken in May, 1965, liquids are visible in the "wet" kettlehole, and ponds or lagoons can be Hinckley-Windsor, or sand and gravel. The area was probably formed either as un derwater deposits or as a beach on the shrinking shore of pre-historic Lake Hitch cock, six to 12 thousand years ago. Soil borings reveal the sandy composition of the land, a characteristic which allows water and other liquids to pass rapidly through the soil. A 1978 state soil survey warned: "These soils are limited for most sanitary waste disposal facilities by the rapid per meability of the substratum." Early maps show the "wet dump" ket tlehole was originally deep enough to cut into the water table. One expert believes the bottom of the hole may have been as much as six feet below the water table. A detailed map of the area made for the Works Projects Administration during the 1930s indicates water in one of the kettleholes. Once thousands of gallons of liquid waste have been dumped into a hole which in tercepts groundwater, chemical contimination can spread through aquifers to points unknown--perhaps even entering public water supplies, surface waters used for fishing and recreation, etc. Since there have been no groundwater studies in the Indian Orchard area, it is difficult to determine precisely the distance and direction contaminants would flow from Monsanto. Polluted waters may simply have flowed directly north into the Chicopee River, or they may have followed a stream south around the Bircham Bend Trailer Park before meeting the river. Chemicals trapped in lower levels of groundwater may also have traveled considerable distances into northern Connecticut by moving along the region's bedrock. A 1980 groundwater availability map describes the bedrock under Monsanto property as "sedimentary rocks, such as sandstone, siltsone and shale that contain and transmit water in open fractures, pore spaces and bedding planes." Bush and Michak photo 1963 a federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare conference on the lower Connecticut River basin identified Monsanto as one of the "chief contributors to river pollution." The conference report concluded "sewage and industrial wastes from Massachusetts endangers the health and welfare of persons in Connecticut." Four years later,'a second HEW conference found Monsanto was still "not in com pliance with the recommendations of the Secretary" from 1963. Last July, EPA listed the Chicopee as one of 34 rivers and streams most seriously polluted by toxic chemicals. According to the government, the Chicopee may be so seriously contaminated by industrial discharges that it may require clean-up beyond pollution requirements already on the books. Many of the chemicals the agency believes are in the river are known or suspected carcinogens, including various heavy metals and PCBs. Monsanto reported disposing many of the same toxic chemicals on itsproperty. Neither federal agency, HEW or EPA, suspected Monsanto of contaminating the rivers with polluted groundwater as well as with permitted industrial discharges. But evidence of chemical contamination is not hard to find. The first indication of sub-soil con tamination on company property appeared on May 14, 1941. During a series of ground borings taken along what is now Grochmal Avertue, a field worker for the city engineering department found "some gelatinous material" in four separate locations, some as deep as 16 feet. In three cases the material was discovered below the water table. Three of the borings were near the Bircham Bend Plant, the fourth was at the Springfield facility, between the ket tleholes and the river. Consulting engineers hired by Monsanto "What you've got there," Lester Brown said in an interview at his Washington, D.C., office, "is an imminent threat to the environment under RCRA." Brown is Special Assistant to the House Sub committee on Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, chaired by Connecticut Rep. Toby Moffett. "RCRA" is the federal government's new hazardous waste law, which Brown helped to shape as an aide to the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations chairman Bob Eckhardt. It was Eckhardt's committee to which Monsanto reported its "mixed disposal methods," and Brown was angry about the company's failure to' supply the committee with complete descriptions of its past practices. He noted that a section of the law allows EPA to sue of "take such action as necessary" to end "an imminent and substantial endangerment to health of the environment" arising from hazardous waste disposal. If EPA were to sue Monsanto because of its sinkhole dumping, it has legal pre cedent. Last year, EPA sued two chemical companies for groundwater con tamination from PVC sludges and river contamination by many of the same chemicals that Monsanto has dumped. It is increasingly unlikely, however, that EPA will sue Monsanto for violations of federal law. Ronald Reagan's recently appointed EPA Administrator, Anne Gorsuch, announced her intention last summer to completely restructure the agency's independent Enforcement Division. Critics charge Gorsuch has effectively dismantled the office in a move whicl "spells the end to civil or criminal litigatior by EPA in all but the most extreme cases.' In a related development, Reagan appointee Carol Dinkins to head the Justice Depart ment's Hazardous Waste Section, whicl prosecuted many of EPA's toughest case: against corporate polluters. Dinkins, wh< formerly practiced law in John Connally' Houston firm, was described by th< Washington Post as "one of the staunches (Continued on next pagi 8A VALLEY ADVOCATE OCTOBER 21,1981 / Item England Language Institute 25 Main Street Northampton, MA 01060 (413) 584-3956 October 26 December 4 EVENING FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM $ 100 14 languages Classes meet twice weekly J ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM '_______ Morning and Evening - all levels D CHILDREN'S AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM- Call tor information- 5 at the Institute focus on developing oral language skills and cross-cultural awareness. The staff is composed of ex;ed professional language teachers who use modem, creative teaching methods. All ESL teachers have Master's degrees in iching of English as a Second Language. 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Monsanto (Continuedfrom Page Pl enties of federal programs. . . .Much of her own work involved corporate clients doing battle over federal air and water protection laws." "I think you're just going to see the government go to sleep for the next four years," said an attorney who left the section. Similarly, the Reagan Commerce Department has targeted many of the new hazardous waste regulations with its "terrible 20" regulatory hit list. On May 28, EPA also directed its regional offices to stop ordering clean-up of alleged hazardous waste sites without prior approval from Washington--limiting direct regional en forcement of regulations still on the books. As a result, the company may never have its day in court for possible violations of the 1899 Refuse Act, the 1948 Water Pollution Act, the 1972 Water Pollution Control Act Amendments and the 1977 Clean Water Act, the Wetlands Protection Act, or even the 1980 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The company's chances of being hauled into state court are even slimmer, par ticularly given Monsanto's past cozy relationships with environmental regulators and Massachusetts' sorry history of hazardous waste law enforcement. Examples of reluctant regulation abound. In 1976, the state Department of Water Pollution Control sent Monsanto hazardous waste transporter license applications for the company's unlicensed outside haulers, instead of summonses for violations of a 1973 statute. In 1977, the same agency recommended "that no up-front fine be imposed," and that "no publicity be generated for this so-called violation" in a letter sent to the state Attorney General requesting legal action against Monsanto for "failing to eliminate the discharge of polluted wastes to the Chicopee River by January 1, 1977." In 1978, according to DWPC field memos, officials responded to a report of "therminol" spilled at Monsanto and diver* ' into the Chicopee, made an inspectiot jpervised the clean-up and wrote a report without ever mentioning "therminol" is a trade name for chlorinated biphenyls, as in PCBs, a hazardous waste. `7 am concerned, though, Mr. Chairman, about a thread which weaves its way throughout S. 1480. And it is that the chemical industry is evil, that it needs to be punished for the sins of the past, that it does not care about its workers or the citizens of this country, and that it has enormous profits which can be tapped indefinitely to solve societal ills. / am here today to state flatly that this is a false assump tion. ..." --Dr. Louis Fernandez, Vice-Chairman of Monsanto Co., Superfund Hearing testimony. Despite Monsanto's claim that it dumped chemicals in what were once acceptable and legal procedures, the fact remains that groundwater has been contaminated by wastes that may pose serious threats to our health and environment. Company officials, state and federal authorities have no idea which water resources may be threatened by this newly exposed underground hazard. Although groundwater is almost impossible to clean up once contaminated, government policy requires all efforts be made to stop the spread of toxic substances and prevent further degradation of this increasingly important resource. Although the company has stopped on site dumping, the discovery of chemicals in water supplies near the dumps indicates contamination is continuing. Extensive testing will be necessary to determine the extent of the damage. Chemicals may have accumulated in river sediments, creating "hot spots," or may have spread through the water table affecting areas beyond the plant property. Discovery of chemicals in the Connecticut River will not prove they originated at Monsanto. Other industries' river dumping could be blamed, unless special chemicals used only at Monsanto are found. I Testing will also be necessary to discover any adverse health effects caused by the dumping. Workers on the yard gang, children who played in the dumps and neighbors of the plants may have been directly exposed to chemicals, while people living downstream or over polluted aquifers may also have been affected. In addition, toxins may have bio-accumulated in fish taken from the Chicopee or Connecticut Rivers, and those who have eaten the fish may be at risk. Only Monsanto may be able to pay the costs of an environmental and health monitoring program. "Neither the EPA nor the states have the s'taff and funds to operate and manage programs effectively for the control of hazardous waste disposal," the U.S. General Accounting Office recently reported. EPA's operating budget ha' n cut by $150 million, including $17 m. i less for water pollution control, $17 million less for solid waste disposal regulation, and $50 million less for "Superfund" clean-up projects. The determining factor may be the f :. With government unable to uncL <ce testing and clean-up and unlikely to pressure Monsanto into action, citizens may be forced to intervene. Local citizens may have to begin class-action lawsuits against the company, or even directly sue the state and federal governments into doing their jobs. Since government could or would not uncover a problem 20 years in the making, it may depend on the people of western New England to end this "imminent hazard." OUR ANNUAL FALL SALE EVERY ITEM IS ON SALE TWO FULL WEEKS OCT. 12-24 THOUSANDS OF YARDS OF 1ST QUALITY DECORATOR FABRICS ARE ON SALE QUALITY * SELECTION * PRICE * VELVETS - UPHOLSTERY AND PRINTS (FEATURING MANY SMALL SCALE PATTERNS) ANTIQUE SATINS, SHEERS, AND THERMAL ENERGY SAVERS BETTER THAN EVER] FINAL FALL SALE .o o o EASTERN MOUNTAIN SPORTS CANT GET TO OUR STORE? ('rtmCaMlti*' tWlr: KsaMim Mountain Sport* isaor Vow trn> Road Merbortnigti. MM DMM Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 AM-9PM, Sat. 9 AM-5:30 PM Route 9, Amherst-Hadley Line Amherst, Massachusetts (413)253-9504 life Accept: 01 FORMERLY PRINT WORKS MILL STORE ie Fabric Mills Rte. 202, Belchertown, Mass. (413) 323-6321 New Hours: 10:00-9:00 Mon. Tues. Wed. 10:00-5:00 Thurs. Fri. Sat. J