Document vV1GBryMv3qEQyNRBnbMr937R

Monsanto FROM (name-location-phone) Kevin S. Cahill - G4WD - 4-7518 DATE: SUBJ: REF: June 15, 1994 POST-DISPATCH ARTICLE G. F. Barton - A2SP R. N. Jones - G5NA L. J. O'Neill - G4WA M. A. Pierle - A3NA C. A. Ross - G4EA ^ R. F. Sackett - 1740 M. W. Winkel - G4NL ^ cc: K. S. Miller - 1740 L. W. Wassell - G4WF Attached please find a copy of an article that appeared in this morning's edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch regarding the U.S. EPA's Gateway Initiative. The initiative is designed to heighten the efforts of various state and federal agencies regarding environmental and health issues in the Metro East. More specifically, the effort was designed to launch the government's attempt to address the issue of Environmental Justice. Although Monsanto was not specifically mentioned in the article, we will monitor the Gateway Initiative closely, and will serve as active participants in the development of forward actions. We are prepared for subsequent media inquiries. /ad I Kevin S. Cahill STLCOPCB4034809 ST. LOUIS POST-DISRff Copyright 1994 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15.1994 J5) 5-STAR EPA Targets Metro East Toxic-Waste Sites `We're Going To Do This Sooner And Better' Than Before, Federal Official Vows By Margaret Gilierman Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The federal government has targeted East St. Louis and other Metro East communities along the Mississippi River for high-level and high-priority help in cleaning up toxic-waste sites and a host of other environmental messes. "We want to deal with all the environmen tal issues in this area as a high-priority mat ter." said David Ullrich, a federal EPA offi cial. He was in East St. Louis on Tuesday for a meeting to plot strategy and hear from residents. "We're going to do this sooner and better and more efficiently" than in the past, he said. waste from failed factories and by unchecked development in the flood plains. The problems the group hopes to remedy include major toxic-waste sites, environmental woes caused by lead-based paint, crumbling sewer systems, open burning by refineries, infestations by rodents and stinking, illegally dumped garbage. This is "an effort to focus all our collective resources on the area." said Ullrich, who is deputy director of EPA's Region 5, based in Chicago. The program also may address some environmental problems in St. Louis and St. Louis County, looking especially at lead poisoning there, The new effort -- called the Mississippi River Gateway Initiative -- involves a coali tion of more than a dozen federal and state agencies. Over the last few months. U.S. EPA staff members from Washington and Chicago have been talking to Metro East residents about what environmental troubles worry them most. Ullrich described the target area, which stretches from Alton to Cahokia, as "an area where we feel there's a great need" for extra assistance. It is an area that is riddled with officials said. On Tuesday, Ulirich led a meeting of about 20 senior managers of feder al and state agencies at State Com munity College in East St. Louis. They represented more than a dozen offices including the Iliinois and Miss ouri health departments, the federal Housing and Urban Development and the Iliinois attorney general. The initiative comes amid a grow ing cry in the country of "environ mental racism." which refers to alle gations of neglect by federal agencies in cleaning up neighborhoods of poor, black and Hispanic people in favor of . wealthier, white suburban communities. At Tuesday's meeting, the Rev. Buck Jones, a community activist, asked the officials why East St. Louis, a virtually all-black community, had 22 sites identified as possible hazard ous sites and yet none was on the National Priority List for cleanup. Jones is executive director of Project HOPE (Helping Other People Emerge.). Jones said that residents in one East St. Louis neighborhood near a neglected toxic-waste site had an alarming cancer rate. "You asked us to talk about envi ronmental injustice." said Kathy Andria, an environmental activist from Granite City, who said she lived be tween two toxic-dump sites. In Gran ite City, "the air is polluted, the ground water is contaminated, the city government is hungry for any industry," she said. While she was growing up, she said, "The local steel mills regularly dumped anything and everything into our yards.... We were white, but we were poor." Venessa Marion, administrator of the Operation New Spirit Neighbor hood Office in East St. Louis, talked about environmental issues beyond the tvpicai scope of the EPA: aban doned housing. "There's one cry that echoes con sistently: Ciean up," Marion said. Louis Tiemann. a retired banker in Belleville and president of the East St. Louis Community Fund, said East St. Louis needed jobs more than anything. "The jobs are not going to be there until this city gets cleaned up," Tie mann said. The Gateway Initiative group plans to develop a plan of action based on residents' concerns. East St. Louis Mayor Gordon Bush was optimistic. "I'm very encouraged" by the high-level officials at the meeting, he said. "These are people who can make things happen." DSW 134852 STLCOPCB4034810