While the big trial is unfolding in Gadsden this week, we shouldn’t forget that important talks between officials of the Environmental Protection Agency and Monsanto over the future of our community are still going on in Washington.
The main aim of these talks is to try to come to some agreement over a comprehensive cleanup of the area. But there is more to do in and around Anniston than simply clean up.
That’s a point people in some of the most contaminated parts of the county have been making for some time now.
In letters to the EPA last year, many residents expressed hopes that the talks between the agency and Monsanto would also produce agreements on a range of issues important to the community.
They include the possible relocation of some residents, the long-term monitoring of the overall health of the community, air monitoring for pollutants and indoor monitoring of homes.
We would add that it is also extremely important for the EPA to carry out a comprehensive environmental and baseline health study of the area and to work with other agencies to undertake a historical study of the area to try to determine if we do or do not have a higher instance of diseases that have been associated with PCB exposure.
Currently that data simply does not exist.
Of course, we want our community cleaned up as quickly as humanly possible. But we also must demand that the future health of the community is taken care of as well. It is crucial, then, that the EPA not simply focus on the cleanup issue, but look at the broader picture.
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