It is good news that the state of Alabama finally is throwing its legal resources into the Monsanto pollution fight. On Monday, State Attorney General Bill Pryor and district attorneys from Calhoun, Shelby, St. Clair and Talladega counties filed a legal complaint and motion for intervention in the Bowie v. Monsanto case.This maneuver comes less than a week after a Gadsden jury found the company liable for PCB contamination around its Anniston operation and ruled that the PCB pollution represents a public nuisance. Sadly enough, it also comes some 20 years after the Alabama attorney general’s office first had access to evidence that the company was polluting its neighbors in western Anniston.
If it is granted, the motion would expand the current lawsuit to state-owned properties, such as boat ramps and along waterways, located in Shelby and St. Clair counties. It includes, among other things, a demand for a cleanup of the areas polluted, one that would alleviate “the injurious effects to health, safety, welfare and the environment caused by these PCBs…”
This is a great deal more forceful than the milquetoast approach preferred in the past by our state’s supposed environmental protector, the weak-kneed ADEM. Over the decades, that agency has stood idly by as more and more of Anniston fell prey to more and more PCB contamination.
Again, the only questions about this new motion are in regard to timing. An argument can be made that a deliberate tact was needed in order to see how the jury would react before joining in. Yet it is nigh impossible to look at Monday‘s court filing without casting one eye toward the Nov. 5 election. And let’s face it, a more proactive legal approach by the state attorney general’s office, say roughly 15 years ago, might have saved everyone involved a lot of tears and heartache.
Motivation aside, however, it’s hopeful finally to see some action from Montgomery on this issue. And that added weight, it seems from here, can only help in bringing about what is only right, what in fact the original plaintiffs in the case have sought all along — “proper remediation and cleanup.”
