GADSDEN
A hazardous-waste expert criticized cleanup activities at the former Monsanto plant in western Anniston Wednesday during the Monsanto trial in Gadsden.
It was the longest day of testimony since the trial began Jan. 9, and the attorneys for the 3,500 plaintiffs - who accuse Monsanto and its spinoff company, Solutia, Inc., of polluting their bodies and their properties with PCBs - zeroed in on activities from the early 1980s to the present.
The five-hour day in the circuit courtroom began with a video interview with Robert Cheever, who was an environmental specialist at the Anniston plant from 1983 to 1989. Cheever was responsible for maintaining and checking the Monsanto landfills and their associated groundwater monitoring wells. During his six-year assignment, the company did not monitor the groundwater for PCBs, Cheever said in his testimony.
Plaintiff attorney Donald Stewart questioned Cheever about a 1985 investigation of PCBs in Snow Creek by the Alabama Attorney General's office, and asked why Monsanto did not investigate its landfills.
"We had no indication it (PCBs) was leaving the place it was put," Cheever replied.
Stewart noted that 10 million pounds of PCBs, a group of synthetic chemicals listed by the government as probable carcinogens, are in one of the plant's landfills. "Isn't that a possible source?"
Cheever acknowledged that he "might have been curious" about the landfill as a potential source, but he also said "Monsanto might have been one of many sources in the area."
After meeting with the investigators and Don Siegelman, who was the state's Attorney General at the time, Monsanto agreed to remove between 50 and 100 feet of PCB-contaminated sediment from Snow Creek, according to court documents.
Stewart noted that the investigators found high levels of PCBs in the waterway 1.5 miles downstream from the former Monsanto plant. He asked if the 50 to 100-foot cleanup cost Monsanto less than a potential 1.5-mile cleanup.
"It would be cheaper," Cheever said.
After Cheever's testimony, Dr. Richard Ellis, a Chattanooga-based consultant, testified for the rest of the day about ongoing federal, state and company-led investigations of PCB pollution in western Anniston.
Ellis, chairman and CEO of Advanced Waste Management Systems, a global company which specializes in hazardous waste evaluations, is a former senior environmental engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
He said it is his opinion that an effective PCB remediation program has yet to be implemented in Anniston. "The source of the contamination is the facility itself and the dumping sites."
Monsanto attorney Adam Peck challenged Ellis' evaluation during the cross-examination, showing him a summary of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's investigation of the plant, waterways and landfills. The summary indicated that ADEM does not consider the plant site a public health threat.
According to Ellis, all of the sampling data indicates that the waterways, the air, the groundwater and Monsanto-owned land continue to be sources for PCB contamination.
He said if he was asked to evaluate western Anniston property for potential buyers, he would advise them not to buy because of the expensive PCB cleanup costs.
Ellis also criticized the capping of the Solutia-owned landfills. He showed the jury a piece of the geo-textile lining which was placed over the landfills in the early 1990s and then covered with seeded dirt. He testified that the geo-textile material does not block potentially-contaminated water or gases from escaping the two landfills. PCB-contaminated homes in western Anniston will face the threat of recontamination unless the "large sources" of PCBs are cleaned up, he said.
Ellis said it is his opinion that the PCBs in the residential areas needed to be removed to background levels (meaning that it meets U.S. norms). The cost will be "great," Ellis said, giving a minimum estimate of $5 per square foot.
Peck, the defense attorney, asked Ellis during the cross-examination if he had ever set up a remediation plan for contaminated residences and whether any hazardous waste remediation plan he designed has been implemented by a company or government.
Ellis said he has not done the former, but he said a hazardous waste plan he helped design is now being implemented at a U.S. military base.
Peck also asked Ellis if he has proposed specific remediation plans for the 16 properties named in the first phase of the PCB trial.
Ellis said he hasn't done that. He added, "Cleaning up to background (levels) is the goal to be achieved."
Peck also asked Ellis if it is true that EPA approved Solutia's plans to go ahead and remediate residential soil containing 10 parts per million of PCBs, which are required under a federal consent order.
Ellis agreed, but he also said he believes the remediation plan is not sufficient.
Circuit Judge Joel Laird called for recess shortly before 5 p.m. and scheduled today's testimony to begin at 10 a.m.
