Donna from CBS radio called. She wanted to interview our environmental reporter to tap her expertise for a network story.Mike from BBC London called. He wanted to know if next week's trial is open to the public so that a sound crew can record the proceedings.
An investor from Georgia called. He owns property in downtown Anniston and wanted to know if more stories would be coming.
Why all the hoopla?
It seems that once again the door to Anniston's closet is open, and more skeletons are falling out. Can we replace them with new life?
Back in July, The Anniston Star featured a large Page 1 headline that read: Mercury pollution; Monsanto contamination now gets scrutiny after 30 years.
The story went into great detail about the dangerous potential of pollution involving mercury, PCBs and other threats existing in Anniston waterways and dirt after years of industrial pollution.
The July 20 story particularly was revealing because it reported information gleaned from countless interviews and documents that previously had never been uncovered. The reporting led to new emphasis on investigations by environmental officials, investigations that continue but now under more of a public eye instead of in office memos.
The Washington Post visited town a few months ago, and it ran a story of its own last week, focused more on the PCB threat than the mercury. Nonetheless, the picture it painted was just as dirty.
The Post did, it seems, capture more of an international spotlight on a very local issue.
And all of this dirty laundry will air with an even louder smell beginning next week, because that is when yet another lawsuit gets attention as Monsanto and nearby property owners face off in a Gadsden courtroom.
David Cain, the plant manager of Solutia, which is Monsanto's successor, will tell you it is an entirely different operation on the chemical company's site today. If David the person is any kind of example about Solutia the company, we have a very good neighbor there now.
David is active in numerous community activities, and Solutia employees contribute to a variety of good causes. It is hard to meet a man of David's character and not believe in him.
Yet the company known as Monsanto is suspected of having poisoned this town for decades. Health problems and fenced-in abandoned property are not tools for recruiting, nor retaining, good residents and corporate citizens.
Much of the court trial that begins next week will argue over whether PCB pollution is really dangerous. The evidence that it causes cancer and other harm is suggestive but not conclusive. As was noted in the Post story, there is no smoking gun, but bullets on the floor.
Many well-respected publications from around the world will tune in for this environmental fight. The world will learn more about Anniston, Alabama.
The question is, will we pitch in the tent and leave the town's remaining values up for grabs by the lawyers? Or will we as a community respond by using closet skeletons like the Monsanto legacy to learn from and build new foundations?
These particular storm clouds may seem dark and low over Anniston.
But I, for one, believe we again will see the bright sunshine on the other side of them.
