Document KR4n0dBKKrJqGaa3gbO38RKb2

/.onsenio /Loon... . Glynn Young - BIND t -" 04TC* SUBJECT March 23, 1979 ; CHANNEL 5 REPORT ON STURGEON cr D. R. Bishop R. C. Isham J. J. Spano ttr.rttIfN C C J.* R.' Foehr'1 T. L. Gossage E. H. Harbison J. E. McKee J. S. Metcalf J. T. Nolan F. A. Provorny R. A. Stohr Attached is a transcript of a newscast by Channel 5 's 6 p.m. news last night concerning .environmental problems at Sturgeon, Mo. The report also appeared on the 10 p.m. news, and a story was carried by KSD-Radio this morning. The newscast cites orthochlorophenol as relating to the deaths of fish and frogs in a pond, and says that dioxin is the main danger. It also mentions that EPA has alerted Boone County doctors to report any unusual ailments. GY :smt Att. Glynn Young BROADCAST INhOHiViA I lUN ScHVlUbb, uno. 25 E. Frisco -- St Louis. Missouri 03119 PHONE: 314-961-4113 CLIENT: Monsanto PROGRAM: Eyewitness News Central DATE: 3/22/79 STATION: TIME: CITY: KSD TV 6:00 p.m. St. Louis PATRICK EMORY: "Ten weeks ago there was a massive chemical spill in a train accident in the central Missouri town of Sturgeon. According to Senator Tom Eagleton and people in that area the EPA was much too slow on moving on decontamination in the region. "Now, at Eagleton's urging, EPA is intensifying its work. Chris Condon has a report from Sturgeon." CHRIS CONDON: "Today rail crews were rebuilding the right of w a y . The tank car ruptured right in the middle of town, first spilling along the right of w a y . After half a mile they finally got the train stopped and most of the twenty thousand gallons of the chemical that Monsanto was shipping out to the West wound up in a farm field. "It took the EPA well over a month to remove the contaminated soil, down to a depth of four feet, along the right of way and in the field. That field drains into Bill K e m n e r 's farm. Since then he has had three calves die and many fish and frogs in his farm pond are dead. "So far lab tests indicate no chemical involvement in the calves' deaths, but there was enough of the spill detected in the farm ponds to account for the fish and the frogs. "The EPA had trouble deciding what to do about the contaminated material, and moved it around, contaminating other areas in S t u r geon, particularly on the Kemner farm." MRS. BILL KEMNER: "If the chemical could have at least been cleaned up while things were still frozen then I don't believe we would have had this runoff into our two ponds." CHRIS CONDON: "We know now that the main danger is from a tiny quanity of dioxin that was found in the solution that was spilled. But even the tiniest amount of dioxin can be deadly. Only recently was its presence disclosed. "Less dangerous arc the fumes from the Monsanto product, ortho-Chlorophonol. EPA claims lo have removed it all, but ten weeks later the smell is still enough to make people sick. "Ray Gilpin and his wife had to move out of town for five weeks." C0084 RAY Git.PIN: Well, it just stopped our breathing where, we couldn't get the air." j CHRIS ICONDON: "I spoke with one woman who can still smell the stuff even*though she lives on a farm six miles out of town." i MRS. RAY FINLEY: "When I come through town, and things like that, when|I come through town I have the same problems, the prob lems some of them living here in town with, it chokes me up." CHRIS CONDON: "The mayor of this town of eight hundred peo ple is philosophical about it by h o w . " D.C. WHITE: "I've"got a concern about it. I d o n !t'know/as the any use to worry about it, but we've got it,- we've got to live with it if we stay." CHRIS CONDON: "The EPA's slow response was ( ) least because never before has there been so large a spill. EPA has belatedly moved many thousands of barrels of contaminated earth from this community out to Kansas.. The agency says the smell should be gone by mid-summer. But it can give no real assurances about that, nor any assurances about the possibility that the dioxin will cause unknown and serious problems in the future. "And only this week the EPA has alerted all doctors in Boone County, asking them to report any unusual ailments i n volving the skin, the liver, the kidney, the lungs, the repro ductive organs and any nerve damage. "Chris Condon, Channel Five News, on the Kemner farm, Stur geon, Missouri."