Document QgO4waZobjQrMDOD8pjYznqZL

What is the current status of Monsanto's program to terminate production and sales of PCBs? Monsanto's phase out timetable for PCBs, announced in October, 1976, was completed on schedule. Actual PCB production was halted at our William G. Krummrich Plant in July, 1977, and all shipments to customers were completed by the end of October. Monsanto's orderly phase out period was initiated to allow our customers in the transformer and capacitor industries to follow an orderly conversion program to substitute materials. Provisions for the cost of PCB phase out were made in 1976. Did Monsanto fail to warn of PCB dangers? Absolutely not. Prom the time PCBs were first identified by a Swedish scientist in 1966-67, Monsanto has played a major role in the resolution of this environmental matter. For example, in the 1967-70 period, Monsanto refined test procedures for determining the presence of PCBs. It undertook animal feeding studies. Monsanto has made every effort to keep its customers and the public current on developments related to PCBs in the environment. HONS 000420 What Is Monsanto doing to clean up PCBs in the environment? Right now, incineration is the best known technology for destroying PCBs. A leading incineration service is developing equipment that will shred a PCB capacitor and then incinerate the liquid in one operation. The Ontario Foundation in Canada, General- Electric's Schenectady Lab and the Institute of Fermentation in Japan are attempting to develop bacteria which will break down PCBs. Also, in November, 1977, MIX reported a new method of destroying PCBs in water by using high-energy electrons. There is no known technology that will guarantee 100 percent collection and disposal of PCBs from mud and silt bottoms of waterways. Dredging, for instance, doesn't do much but recirculate PCBs which have settled into the bottom of the waterway. HONS 000421 -3- What has been done with the PCB manufacturing facilities? PCB manufacturing equipment at the W. G. Krummrich Plant was dismantled, after a thorough cleaning, and shipped to a landfill site specifically designed to handle chemical waste disposal. When was this done? In early 1978, Where is landfill located? The landfill, approved by state and federal environmental agencies for disposal of such material, is located at Sheffield, 111. What will be done with the rail tankcar fleet used previously to transport PCB material? This Monsanto-owned fleet consists of approximately 45 tankcars. Where practical, tanks will'be thoroughly" cleaned"arid returned to appropriate service within Monsanto. Tanks which cannot be returned to alternate service will be sent to an environ mentally approved landfill for disposal. HONS 000422