Document oM9Yey11LqMO71kxxMenGbXDr

! 14th day begins Wednesday " |ns~-. Where are PCB hearings going? By JAMES THOM frtftif m*wm TV Environmental Management Board's Bearing an poiychtorinaled biphenyl (PCB) poOutim bane become transient in nature, drifting from one Bloomtngton chord* to another, to the National Guard Armory, then to Indianapolis twice and back again, to resume next Wetoiesday ia the Utilities Service Center. BUT IFITS HARO to tell where they're going phy sically. it's even harder to tell where they're going to terms of philosophy and purpose. The hearing officer to (he case brought op that < question last Tuesday during a break in the 13U day of the inquiry which originally had been expected to Itot only a few days. ` Faced with a mountainof transcribed technical testimony about wJuinehmi&e Corporation's longtime use and discharge of the chemical into uie Monroe Comfyenvironment, Joepeh Karen asked thnpatttcipattoglawyere: Where is Uus hearing going? I'm wondering if we should go oa with it Where do we stand relative to a Westinghouse settlement offer? What are the ptoftntiifs asking to? Doesn't the Board want to know wheter all this expeadhure hJustified?" KAREN SAID HE COULDN'T underhand why there is no tarUfoony addressed to toe matter of a remedy to Monroe County's pollution plight gmhitaat Attorney General Michael Schaefer, who h* hoc* coorfuctmi the case against Westinghouse. Analysis seemed surprised by the questions. *'I'ai not em powered to negotiate a settlement with Westinghouse." be said *Tm following the Erec tions given by the Environmental Management Board at its last meeting. That Is. to try this case. " Schaefer's efforts to date have been aimed primarily at producing technical witnesses who collected and analyzed water, soil, sludge and biological samples downstream from the place where Westinghouse s waste water enters the city's sewers, and tram U* vicinity of landffib where Westinghouse solid manufacturing wastes have been dumped. He has also brought to the witnessstand the Westinghouse Divisioe manager. Donald Sauter. some gardeners who wrwittingly used PCBcontaminated sewage sludge on their gardens, and a couple of out-of-state scientists who have studied health effects of PCBs. THEIR DETAILED AND technical testimony, both direct and under cross-examination by Westinghouse counsel Joseph Carney, makes up the bulk of toe votontoous transcript, which is produced at a cost of several hundred dollars a day. Carney's relentless cross-examinations have virtually doubled the already staggering amount of data. ' But. Schaefer believes, this is exactly the kind of a case he was directed to put together, documented tods linking Westinghouse with the potlution and todicatiag the seriousness of it. And he believes toe case is moving. 'The bulk of if ts over." he said last week "Wereoverthe hill." But the hearing officer, who has been preparing a progress report to present to the EMB at its meeting next Friday, feels disappointed in the hearings, and thinks the public is. too. "IF I WERE A MEMBER OF toe general public, expecting (o be educated about PCBs and about toe situation m Bloomington. I'd be very disappointed. It hasn't been educational I don't blame people to oot attending these boring sessions." Karen said. "On the other tend, tc justify ?il the expense, you should have more than liveor six membersof toepublic si ting in." More dsturbing to Karen than the educational aspect, though, are what he calls the legal peodiaritles of the case. "The Board has accused Westinghouse." be said, "but it doesn't seem to know yet exactly what to charge. Inthe practice of law. you don't tty someone, hoping that the trial will bring 19 facts on which Is base your charges A policeman arresting someone, lor example, would have done all h*s fact-finding and named the rharcr before bringing that person to trial. Here <* *m t* be expecting the testimony torevea! wt.*' *N- rftarjs* a ill be. ( V J.Pi.'k Ptce.ThlsSoe.) S' HONS 050192 6aca!\3T0N ttj Hf.C/r.D irvrj NOV 14 076 Hard to tell where the PCB hearings are going ^*M^**>|it** pnft anl taciMratiM ( PCt-beirin( t^tn - "I THUS THE FVHJC1 bra nwfcd M (kit measures to firm it airvedv paling into operxttaL case. I'i eel mpfiuM.il te be a lart-findtef presses. . 7*, Btamw^eu Uilfces Service Board to You re j igi| in 1 te know ywr tarts befrwe yoo begin om*r*< estfa#mne to reduce Ms eflhent cm- yourbearhig. taitoffcw la J parts per auBin e( PCBs. A KarewtoacmplaiHsOBlfteoMdsmtsemte Wettinghwe rpakreman said last week dial he lower level. And the firm to announced that d is `*1 mprtiil Tuesday Out in a legal preceding, switching tram PCBs to a hydrocarbon compound to .iwarttilWy tt settlemem B always cpe Isaprspylbphenyl called WEMCOL. winch wiD go Wntingberer made a settiemett offer asm time mtouor laJanuary. age. ad appamtiy that'seW) aa a back buner. Joe The plaintiffs my torn measures arail twoape Carney said Tuesday that Wetting!-- Is ttff wg- becaom they da asddng abooi deaning up high rv- bigteexplorethepenbUMyrt a settlement." siduai coacentratiMS tt PCBs m Moeroe Cowrty EsawliaDy. WuHupuui i settfemtnt offer wu seven and streams or ia the tnmttedi tt tew tt la make e^toeertag changes in the plat which accumulatedwage sMgt. wmdd pinul my merePCBs fna escaping intothe environment. TIE CITY VTUnB DOtECTOI has etimated that it would cost tram nullwn lo HmiHlon to THES* mm rarALUTKM tt a dosed replace the contaminated sewer lines between sotvent bath te replace the oW system ef water- Westmgtoese and the soutliside sewape treatment adh| the PCB-impregnated eaparilin 1 plant, plusnearly quarterrt > million more tor one mamttactures at the plaal controlled dupmal ef proposed sludge-disposal plan The utilities beard wild mshahrtwrtag wattes; sealing of vacuum has expressed Its opouon that hestinghouK. not the rest of the seoercoP.uulets, shotddpavdwaecssls. Aim tatally mreplored yetthe hearings b the plight of several mdhidnB whose property b d*ou0 le have been ruined fir tod production byPCB contamination. It is not known whether or how the state case against Westtaphouse will weigh In theirsuits agamttthe firm. And in the meantime, after area residents await same iadicaUm. tom out-tt-ttate PCB experts who have yet latestify, what levels of PCB eonumtaafto conttiltte a hoard lo theie health. avr or tm mnnomr of the state MuKiw. which makes m perhaps half of al the ttrtimiy lo date, remains in a dublom stale, net admitted yet as valid evidence by Karen. The data has been madul by Westanftoum on sit sates Ms veracity, accuracy and relevance. Westinghause's counsel to stated frequentiy that the firai has been falsely accused of pothklng "the waters of the State f ladk-na."' became ft pots its waste in (hr mver system, not m thestreams That distinction has brutcM sneers tom (he pubtk partpcttartv mrii--nentaiBts, but it canntt be langbed off. One stale witness, formerly water poQutto enforcement dhef. remarked durmg to testimony that, techmcalfy. I s true The citv. be said, pound the stiff Mo the waters of to Stateof Indiana. M the formof treated sewagr effluent. THECOMPLEXITY OP THE case makes muchof the testimony all but weomprebensibiw. For example, ttmatt an hour was spent last Friday In an argumto about whether a standard ctemiral reference hidbmh. with data on the MtoMbty ef ethyl ether, hexane miwater. mold be admitted as evidence B a dBpuic ever ways of recovermg PCBs Wl on the tesides of laboratory mitts Westoghooe sad it eoutfel be admitted because it was only hearetyp" - the lah techmciaa dkbrt write thebook. Earlier last week, a witness *aa requiredte mead half m hoar describing In detail bow to read the munbers on a scale tgmn winch a beaker was weighed m the lab Sock qmbbies as these. Kates suspects, are the reasons why fte puMic stays away from the hearing B draws So the case tedmaiy tookk. Uhe a thermal de-Mcth* story in whicb all the characters are twteettes Aid hovering Ok backfmmd are two giants: MONSAOTO COKPOlUTlOff. which toil K dropped out tt the PCB basinets a to weeks ago. was the sole IS wsmBactuer of PCBs A legal representative ef _H4lurti_Jas sat wwBassly behind the Wsto^wmelawyersevery day same to hearing began. And to EinbonsmnUI Pietedto Agmcy. wWch launched a nationwide prepare agahnt PCBs last year, has taken centarnttatto upnbntiw tom Monroe County, peeks m m (he caee hum time le time. aodwiH issue official fttdrBnes ter PCB levels soon under thenew TucStotaneesAct. In the meantime. Vettaffieuse waits between to proverbial reck andhard place: Ms worst public teu tons crisis ever and to posttbrlityof a mttti-fnltioniMarctoiwmbUI. And BtoonuagLori. in to weird posittew of being a respondent argumg on the side of to pUbdiffs. patiently counts Ms PCBs d wads to see where to case will go fram here, j ., HONS 050793