Document rxkVZm27oVg7yLqRorqX4b7Qq

1 To: M.E. Klaus J. Ortiz F.A. Provorny J.C. Weber D. Wood Frou: Glynn Young The Louisville Times LOUISVILLE. KY. 0. 154.576 MAR 2 01979 Traces of toxic PCBs found -! near'valley of the drums' The 11. S. Environmental Protection Agency has fount) small quantities of the tonic chemical PCB at the bottom of Wilson Creek near the northern Bullitt County dumping site known as the "val ley of the drums," The Courier-Journal reported today. John C White, regional EPA adminis trator In Atlanta, said test results his agency has done has found small quan tities of polychlorinated biphenyls, but he did not know the amount or the type. An announcement of the findings has been scheduled for tomorrow morning at Frankfort Ky. It Is the first time something as haz ardous es PCBs has been found at the dump site. The chemical was not found In the water itself. In February 1978, EPA banned the discharge of PCBs Into rtvers and streams. The only U. S. manufacturer of the chemical, Monsanto Chemical Corn., has agreed to stop producing it Tha chemical has been used In elec trical equipment such as transformers, but between 1930 and 1970. It had been used In a variety of manufacturing pro- environmental emergency by EPA March 2. Makeshift filtering and aery ation systems were set up to remade chemicals from the water. The chemi cals were flowing into Wilson Creek, from which water eventually empties into the Ohio River. , Arthur L. Taylor, who died last July, over a period of about three years pat thousands of drums of chemicals on the; 23-acre plot of ground. The state Department for Natural. Resources and Environmental Protec-1 lion has scheduled a hearing next Tue-. day against Taylor's widow, Nell, and Taylor's dnim-cleaalag hiitlnesa, clam* tng violations of water-quality and aogdwaste disposal laws. It causes liver diseases, skin rashes and birth defects In humans and --^ in laboratory animals. White would not discuss further EPA's test results, saying they weatd first he released to the Kentucky De partment for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection. The raaaim were tent yesterday. . Moat of the chemicals Identified la water samples taken from the dumping - site have been Identified as petal or pease solvents. One of the chemicals fc benzene, a cancer-causing agead. OH and the metals lead, cadwuam aad chromium have else bet HONS 008876