MONTGOMERY
Alabama water activists questioned state officials about PCBs and mercury in Anniston Friday during a joint meeting of Alabama Water Watch and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
Alabama Water Watch is a citizen water-monitoring organization with dozens of local chapters. Monitors collect water-quality data from numerous watersheds in the state.
ADEM hazardous waste chief Steve Cobb gave a 30-minute presentation on Anniston and issued a 25-page summary of ADEM's investigation of PCBs and other hazardous chemicals.
In the past year, "fifteen percent of ADEM's total hazardous waste effort has been in Anniston," Cobb said.
ADEM's summary statement, dated Aug. 10, has not been widely distributed but is available on request from ADEM.
Anniston resident Francine Hutchinson, a member of the Alabama Water Watch board, asked Cobb what ADEM is doing about a "leaky pipe" in western Anniston that recently was found to be dribbling elevated levels of PCBs, lead and mercury.
Cobb said the pipe likely is a former discharge point from one of several industries in the area, which include MCT Anniston, Inc., Huron Valley Steel Corp., the former Anniston Iron Works, and Solutia, Inc.
He said it is possible the pipe is now "just receiving seepage" from non-point sources, but he said the investigation is ongoing.
After the meeting, Cobb told The Star that ADEM is evaluating samples it collected recently, and will return to Anniston soon to conduct further investigation.
Other participants asked about mercury sediment sampling, and in particular whether ADEM is gathering data on methylmercury, the most toxic form of the metal.
ADEM began requiring Solutia, Inc., a spinoff of Monsanto Corp., to conduct limited mercury sampling two years ago, after gathering information about Monsanto's former mercury-cell chlorine plant, which operated from 1952 to 1969.
Steve Jenkins, ADEM's Field Operations chief, said ADEM is not requiring sediment tests for methylmercury, but rather for "total mercury" in order to measure how much mercury is available for the methylation process.
He said mercury "normally occurs in globules in the sediment."
In response to additional questions, Cobb said ADEM has only "preliminary" information about mercury contamination. He said the levels measured so far are "lower that we would have been afraid of seeing from a chlorine plant."
Also during the meeting, Alabama Water Watch members asked about dredging plans in Rome, Ga., at the Mayo Lock and Dam. Many fear the dredging project - which is for recreation purposes -- may remobilize PCBs in the Coosa River sediments and fish.
Jenkins said ADEM "doesn't want to see anything that makes the fish levels spike back up."
"I think somebody from downstream needs to let them know they are being watched," said Ray Kelley, a member of the Coosa River Basin Initiative.
