Mercury pollution - Monsanto contamination now gets scrutiny after 30 years

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Mercury pollution

Monsanto contamination now gets scrutiny after 30 years

By Bluemink

Star Environmental Correspondent

07-20-2001

PHOTO: The present Solutia plant in Anniston, pictured here, is a spin-off

of Monsanto Corp. In the 1950s and '60s, a Monsanto production line in

Anniston, which closed in 1969, used mercury to produce the raw materials

for PCBs.

A new chapter expands Calhoun County's pollution story. This time, it's

mercury.

For more than 30 years, historic mercury discharges in the Anniston

community have gone unprobed, an investigation by The Anniston Star found.

Industrial-released mercury entered the environment decades ago, but no one

is sure how much is out there or where it is.

Monsanto Corp.'s chemical plant in western Anniston used mercury and lead,

both neurotoxicants, to produce the raw materials for PCBs in the 1950s and

'60s.

PHOTO: In 1967, the mortality rate of fish in Choccolocco Creek was found to

be unnaturally high, but testing did not determine the cause of the deaths.

PCBs have since been found in the waterway, shown here south of Friendship

Road in Oxford.

Before the discovery of PCB and lead pollution in local streams, ditches and

low-income neighborhoods, Monsanto operated a caustic soda and chlorine

plant that sent as many as 40-50 tons of liquid mercury into its waste

stream, company records show. Fifty tons is the equivalent of 10 dump truck

loads.

Monsanto employees swept mercury spills into drainage ditches leading to the

plant's storm sewer, where traps recovered elemental mercury for reuse.

Periodically, Monsanto employees cleaned out the mercury ditches and traps,

according to documents provided to The Star by Solutia Inc., Monsanto's

spin-off company.

A new chapter expands Calhoun County's pollution story. This time, it's

mercury.

For more than 30 years, historic mercury discharges in the Anniston

community have gone unprobed, an investigation by The Anniston Star found.

Industrial-released mercury entered the environment decades ago, but no one

is sure how much is out there or where it is.

Monsanto Corp.'s chemical plant in western Anniston used mercury and lead,

both neurotoxicants, to produce the raw materials for PCBs in the 1950s and

'60s.

Before the discovery of PCB and lead pollution in local streams, ditches and

low-income neighborhoods, Monsanto operated a caustic soda and chlorine

plant that sent as many as 40-50 tons of liquid mercury into its waste

stream, company records show. Fifty tons is the equivalent of 10 dump truck

loads.

Monsanto employees swept mercury spills into drainage ditches leading to the

plant's storm sewer, where traps recovered elemental mercury for reuse.

Periodically, Monsanto employees cleaned out the mercury ditches and traps,

according to documents provided to The Star by Solutia Inc., Monsanto's

spin-off company.

However, an emulsion of mercury, mercuric chloride and other chemicals also

went to the company storm sewer and was not recoverable, according to Jim

, a former research chemist who worked at the plant. " Without further

treatment, none of the mercury in the emulsion would have been recovered. "

" I don't know how you could quantify the losses of that stuff, " said.

" It was a primitive system. "

There is no evidence to show that Monsanto discharged lead in a similar

manner.

Today's state officials claim that until 1999 they were not aware that

Monsanto had used mercury, yet former state officials were aware of the fact

in 1970, Star archives show.

In 1999, Monsanto's spin-off Anniston company, Solutia, gave state

regulators a brief description of the site's use of mercury. But, company

records show that the information Solutia supplied about the potential for

mercury discharges was incomplete and inaccurate.

Solutia consultants told the Alabama Department of Environmental Management

in 1999 that Monsanto used mercury but most likely did not release it to the

environment. In a recent interview, Solutia's Dr. Kaley, director of

environmental affairs, said, " Is there a discrepancy? Sure. "

" Apparently, there was a discharge. "

The " discrepancy " is contained in a 26-page letter to ADEM, which was

prepared by Solutia's environmental consultants, Blasland, Bouck & Lee,

Inc., Kaley said. The consultants did not obtain access to all of the

relevant documents, which were " buried deep within the company, " he said.

" They only had 30 days to respond. "

ADEM now plans to expand its investigation of Monsanto's environmental

releases. " Testing will be as comprehensive for mercury and lead as it has

been for PCBs, " said Steve Cobb, chief of ADEM's hazardous waste section.

Both mercury and lead were used by Monsanto to create the raw materials -

chlorine and biphenyl - for its former PCB manufacturing plant, which was

one of only two in the country. Company records also show chlorine was used

to make parathion, a powerful pesticide now banned by the U.S. government.

It is not known to Solutia officials or environmental investigators how

Monsanto disposed of all of its lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency is investigating the sources and extent of residential lead pollution

in Anniston. Lead is a proven cause of neurological damage and lower

intelligence in children.

" I doubt that we are the lamp post that should be looked under, " said Kaley,

regarding Anniston's lead pollution.

The mercury emissions, however, are a revelation, even though they were in

company records and documents in the late 1960s, a span of time when mercury

was being revealed as an international threat to health. Combined with lead

and PCBs - which are still being studied for causes of neurological damage

and cancer - mercury adds a third leg to Anniston and Calhoun County's

industrial pollution triangle.

Methylmercury threat

When discharged to water, mercury can convert to a highly toxic organic

compound, methylmercury. Methylmercury has been proven to be toxic to

humans, causing severe mental and physical disability in large doses and

intellectual impairment in chronic, low doses. In 1969, about the same time

mercury poisoning was making global headlines for deaths and illness in

Japan, Monsanto dismantled its caustic soda-chlorine plant, the source of

the mercury discharges.

Unlike four other Alabama mercury-emitting plants that came under intense

environmental scrutiny in 1970, Monsanto's chlorine plant emissions were not

investigated. The plant had closed in 1969.

A 1970 fish analysis initiated by the Food and Drug Administration gives

reason to hope that local residents were not consuming fish with dangerous

levels of methylmercury at that time.

J.L. Crockett, director of the technical staff of the Water Improvement

Commission reported that all fish tested in Choccolocco Creek contained

mercury, but most were below the federal advisory level, according to a July

9, 1970 article in The Star.

Crockett acknowledged that Monsanto had operated a " mercury cell " chlorine

plant. " I can't say the mercury in this fish came from there or from

somewhere else. I think what we do want to convey is that this is not a

situation of alarm, " he told The Star in 1970.

Neither Jim Warr, director of the Alabama Department of Environmental

Management nor Kaley could explain why the plant site was not investigated.

Warr, who joined the state environmental commission in 1968, said he wasn't

aware that the plant used mercury. " I don't guess I knew that until you just

told me, " he said, in a recent interview.

Kaley said he didn't know why Monsanto's chlorine plant wasn't investigated

for mercury emissions, either, but suggested that it may have been

overlooked because it had already shut down.

Over two months The Anniston Star has gathered 2,154 documents and conducted

more than 50 interviews relating to waste emissions from Monsanto's

1952-built chlorine plant and other manufacturing processes.

Monsanto and Solutia company documents and interviews with former Monsanto

employees show clear evidence that the Anniston plant released mercury to

the environment - to land or water.

When asked in 1999 and 2000 to account for historic mercury and lead

emissions, Solutia told Alabama regulators there were likely none.

Regarding mercury, history and documents tell a different story.

Death by effluent

In 1967, two biologists saw fish boil in a Monsanto ditch. Belly up in 10

seconds, dead in five minutes. " That was a potent brew, " Dr.

recalled.

's story really begins earlier that day, when he and his mentor, the

late Dr. Denzel Ferguson, a celebrated Mississippi State University

biologist, arrived in Anniston with a truck carrying tanks of healthy

bluegill fish.

They disembarked near the boundary of the Monsanto plant, near one of the

plant's drainage ditches leading to Snow Creek. Looking up, could see

the plant on a hill.

They loaded 10 bluegill into a cage and lowered the cage into the

cement-lined ditch carrying Monsanto's effluent. The clear fluid didn't look

dangerous, but the reaction was immediate.

" The fish just boiled, " said. " We were both pretty shocked. "

, who was then studying for his doctorate at MSU, is now biology

department chairman at Middle Tennessee State University in Murphreesboro.

He and Ferguson set more fish cages downstream and determined that the

lethal effects of the effluent extended into Snow Creek and continued

several hundred yards into its receiving stream, Choccolocco Creek.

These results were recorded in Ferguson's 1967 report to Monsanto, entitled

" Investigations of Certain Pesticide-Wildlife Relationships in the

Choccolocco Creek Drainage. " In that report, Ferguson also told Monsanto the

cause of the fish fatalities: high acidity and mercury.

Lab tests had confirmed a toxic effluent in the drainage ditch, laden with

mercuric chloride, an oxidized form of mercury, the same report said.

Mercuric chloride, a byproduct of the chlorine plant's manufacturing

process, is a powerful poison and suspected carcinogen that can convert to

methylmercury in aquatic environments.

Methylmercury is responsible for 80 percent of the fish advisories in the

United States.

Other fish tests also showed extreme results, according to two other members

of Ferguson's squad.

On one occasion, Mack Finley lowered bluegill into the effluent and watched

them actually jump out of their skin.

" It just shucked off, like a glove, " said Finley, now a professor of biology

at University of Tennessee-sville.

Dr. Larry Ludke worked mostly at Choccolocco Creek testing stations. He

noted, " There were fish dying almost constantly up and down that creek. It

was pretty apparent that there was a constant level of mortality in that

stream that wasn't natural. "

Monsanto asked them to find out if Monsanto pesticides were killing the

fish.

Ferguson's team never found out why the fish of Choccolocco were dying in

such large numbers - it wasn't pesticides, according to his report.

" It could have been a lot of things, " said Ludke, who is now a chief

regional biologist in Colorado for the U.S. Geological Survey.

During one of his visits to Anniston, a Monsanto official told Ludke about

historic mercury losses, he said. " I remember the comment that they had lost

quite a bit of mercury. " Also, Ludke and others discovered " massive " peaks of

a mysterious compound on their analytical equipment. After showing Monsanto

the results, Ferguson's team was able to identify the compound as PCBs.

In the final portion of his 1967 report to Monsanto, Ferguson recommended,

" Clean up Snow Creek! "

A closed loop?

Monsanto's PCB releases have been documented since 1970 through letters and

meetings, but according to ADEM, it wasn't until 1999 that Solutia Inc.

specifically stated to ADEM that the Anniston facility had used mercury.

The only references to the mercury process used at the chlorine plant

discovered during The Star investigation were found in company documents and

1970 newspaper articles, which include quotations from J.L. Crockett, the

late technical director for the Alabama Water Improvement Commission, ADEM's

predecessor.

In 1998, ADEM asked about potential mercury discharges after receiving a tip

from an outside source, said Cobb, ADEM's hazardous waste chief.

According to Solutia's Dr. Kaley, the plant's use of mercury should have

been " no secret to ADEM. "

" There aren't that many other ways to make chlorine. "

Kaley said Solutia's environmental consulting firm, Blasland, Bouck & Lee,

Inc. (BBL), prepared the 26-page reply, which included the inaccurate

statements about Monsanto's mercury emissions. " I don't know who they asked

and who they didn't ask. I'm sure they felt they made sufficient inquiries. "

Alan Fowler, Solutia's BBL project manager, said BBL concluded that it could

not answer ADEM's questions with the information available to them from

Solutia and state records.

Fowler said because there wasn't complete information, BBL revised the

off-site PCB investigation to include a study of mercury as well. Fowler

called the study " fairly comprehensive. " However, Cobb said ADEM doesn't

have enough information to understand the mercury contamination.

ADEM spokesman Bruner said ADEM's first site assessment for Monsanto,

issued in 1991 and obtained by The Star, briefly mentioned a caustic

soda-chlorine plant operating until 1969. " It did not include the word

mercury, " he said.

" If that word was in there, we would have done more investigation, " Bruner

said.

In that era, chlorine-caustic soda plants commonly used and discharged

mercury. Even today, chlorine plants are the largest U.S. mercury consumers,

according to a 2000 U.S. Geological Survey report.

" We probably should have caught that. We did not. At the time, we were

concerned about PCBs and pesticides, " Bruner said.

After receiving the tip, ADEM required limited testing for mercury in

Solutia's initial watershed investigation. Also, ADEM requested a synopsis

of all historical information about mercury usage and disposal.

In the 1999 reply letter, Solutia's BBL Inc. consultants told ADEM the

chlorine plant used mercury, but implied that the company did not discharge

it:

" While the records are not clear, it appears that chlorine was manufactured

between 1952 and 1969 using a mercury cell process. No records could be

located describing the consumption of mercury, although it is noted that the

process is a closed one in which mercury is recycled and reused. "

" That's an outright lie, " said , who worked at the Anniston plant from

1964 to 1968 and briefly returned to Anniston in 1969.

" It went to the storm sewer. I saw it, " said .

ADEM's Cobb said he was skeptical of the chlorine plant response. " I know

that we are looking at that and asking questions. We've never really seen

chlorine operations that have a closed loop, " he said.

In 2000, because of the lead contamination found in ditches and residential

soil near the Solutia plant, ADEM asked Solutia about its lead uses.

Solutia documents to ADEM about lead use at the Anniston site said the

facility used pots of molten lead from 1928 to 1961 to make biphenyl.

Biphenyl is the building block of PCBs and a variety of other chemical

compounds, and biphenyl was produced by Monsanto only in Anniston.

During The Star investigation, no records were found showing how the company

disposed of the lead once it was rendered useless. Solutia's Dr. Kaley said

at least some of the lead was probably dumped in landfills or sold. In his

Oct. 12, 2000, letter to ADEM, Kaley wrote that the facility used a

" tightly-closed " process for its lead pots, which were used to generate heat

for the production of biphenyl.

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the lead role in investigating

sources for nearby residential lead contamination, and has listed 22

facilities in the western Anniston industrial zone as potential lead

polluters. The Anniston Star also used lead in its production processes, but

didn't make EPA's list of potentially responsible sites.

EPA's residential lead investigation continues, and ADEM also plans to

require extensive lead sampling in the local watershed and on the Solutia

plant site, Cobb said.

Monsanto did not track possible lead emissions, company records clearly

show. But it did record its mercury emissions.

No rules

Two 1967 internal Monsanto memos, written by the late Gene Coley, the

plant's environmental officer, discuss measures to study and control mercury

emissions to Snow Creek and bury mercury-containing sludge.

In a memo dated Jan. 5, 1967, Coley wrote that " work has begun immediately

to put into effect a plan to investigate mercury concentrations in Snow

Creek at its confluence with Choccolocco Creek, a long-range method for

reducing the mercury levels and an immediate means of reducing mercury

levels. "

At the time, the company took several steps to drastically curtail its

mercury losses, according to the memo.

Shortly before closing the chlorine plant, Monsanto recorded its maximum

mercury waste stream from the Anniston plant at 570 pounds per month,

according to the 1968 Monsanto chlorine plant operating manual, obtained by

The Star.

However, company records did not measure the amount of mercury spills, air

emissions or sludge generated in the production process.

Solutia's Kaley said it is possible that some mercury escaped in the

chlorine plant's air emissions, but it would be impossible to determine how

much. He said he does not know how Monsanto disposed of its

mercury-containing sludge.

" I'm not going to tell you not one molecule escaped, " Kaley said.

Former Monsanto chemist Jim said the chlorine plant operated at 90 to

100 percent of its capacity in the mid- to late-1960s. " It was a boom time

for organic chemicals, " he explained.

At that rate, 45 to 50 tons of mercury, the equivalent of 10 dump truck

loads, may have been released to the ditches during the 16-year operation;

on the other hand, Coley's memos indicate that Monsanto began to eliminate

its mercury emissions in the final two years of operation.

Kaley said he does not believe 50 tons were emitted. " I don't think it was

anywhere near that, " he said.

In 1967, while Coley was writing memos about mercury losses, was

working in his laboratory to find a viable way to cycle the mercury back

into the manufacturing process. " It was my understanding it was an economic

issue, " he said.

In a series of interviews with The Star, Monsanto's , who now runs a

private consulting firm in Delaware, described the difficulties he faced in

his small lab, trying to find a way to reclaim the mercury discharge. " I

worked on it, but I could never get it back. "

After the decision was made to close the chlorine plant, was asked

how to recover spillage from the chlorine plant. " They wanted to contain the

mercury from where it was all over the ground. "

He advised them, before leaving Anniston in 1968, to build a sump - a pit

into which workers could temporarily dump the mercury and then pump it out.

" I told them there was no other way to salvage it, " he said.

In 1969, Monsanto officials dismantled the plant. briefly returned to

Anniston to supervise the transfer of salvaged mercury to Monsanto's

headquarters in St. Louis, he said.

A small team of employees had recovered thousands of pounds of mercury from

the demolished plant, said. " I don't know what happened to what

(already) was in the ground, " said.

" We loaded the mercury into flasks, and we had it all out of there in two or

three days, " he said.

The Star reported on Aug. 1, 1969, that 23,000 pounds of mercury, encased in

50-pound metal flasks, were stolen from Monsanto.

FBI agents estimated the net worth of the mercury at $250,000.

Toxic reaction

While it operated, Monsanto's plant was never subject to mercury

regulations. Even though a link between acute human poisoning and mercury

emissions was proven in 1962, industrial discharges in the United States

were not curtailed until 1970.

Monsanto's chlorine plant, closed in 1969, just missed the chance for

scrutiny.

However, before Monsanto phased out its Anniston chlorine plant,

international scientists had gathered information about severe toxic effects

from mercury in aquatic environments.

Beginning with mysterious afflictions of humans and animals in 1956, acute

mercury poisoning came to be known in Japan as Minamata Disease. In 1962,

the disease was linked to methylmercury, a form of mercury that festers in

the environment.

In the late 1960s, two scientists, one Swedish and one American, were the

first to describe the conversion of metallic mercury to toxic methylmercury

in aquatic ecosystems.

In 1968, the Japanese government officially accused Chisso Corporation, a

chemical manufacturer in Japan's Minamata Bay, of poisoning humans who had

consumed polluted fish and water. The company had dumped methylmercury, the

most toxic form. By 1968, at least 50 people were dead of mercury poisoning

and thousands were sick. The epidemic hit U.S. newsstands in 1972, when LIFE

magazine printed an eight-page report, with graphic photographs, about

stricken Japanese villagers.

For more than 20 years, Chisso's methylmercury impregnated the water and the

fish of Minamata Bay. The methylmercury cleanup in Minamata Bay was finally

completed in the late 1980s.

In 1970, the mercury scare crossed into North America, when mercury-poisoned

fish were discovered in a popular recreational lake near a Dow Chemical Co.

plant in Ontario, Canada. High mercury levels were also discovered in human

hair samples.

Soon after the discovery, U.S. industries drastically reduced their mercury

discharges.

In 1970, Alabama regulators pounced on four Alabama plants, not including

Monsanto, which were suspected of mercury discharges. The four plants were

Stauffer Chemical Company at LeMoyne, Olin-Mathieson at McIntosh and Diamond

Shamrock Company in Muscle Shoals and Mobile, according to Anniston Star

records.

In several cases, technicians from the Alabama Water Improvement Commission,

the precursor agency to ADEM, found high levels of mercury in sediment and

fish near the sites. Mercury-poisoned fish were found in the Tombigbee,

Mobile, Tensaw and Tennessee rivers, resulting in fish consumption warnings

in those rivers, according to 1970 Star articles.

ADEM director Warr said he did not know why Monsanto's chlorine plant was

not targeted.

Warr participated in some of the mercury sampling near the Diamond Shamrock

plant near Muscle Shoals, but didn't recall why that facility was targeted

or what the results showed, he said.

Warr said the state's environmental officers, Crockett and Bolton, who

held responsibility for the mercury investigations, are dead.

Star records show that after the mercury investigations, several Alabama

Water Improvement Commission members recommended a strict standard for

mercury waste - zero emissions.

But, under pressure from chlorine users, and the approval of the state

health officer Dr. Ira Myers, the commission backed off, agreeing to allow

the plants to emit as much as a quarter-of-a-pound per day of mercury into

state waterways, according to the Star articles.

Despite drastic reduction in water discharges, mercury air emissions are

still contaminating waters across the world.

Currently, industrial emissions in Alabama and neighboring states have

resulted in mercury fish advisories on the Fish, Fowl, Mobile and Tombigbee

rivers and the entire Gulf Coast. At present, 40 states have mercury fish

advisories. Scientists are scratching their heads, trying to find out why

elevated mercury levels are emerging, even in areas far from polluting

industries.

" It's almost creating a perpetual problem, " said Dr. Larry , an

environmental chemist and director of the Environmental Sciences Institute

at Florida A & M University in Tallahassee.

" Once it gets into the aquatic environment, it continues to circulate. "

'I've never heard about a sump'

ADEM officials admit that they don't have a handle on the mercury

contamination in Anniston.

They don't know how and where exactly Monsanto's mercury was disposed or

discharged, according to Cobb, chief of ADEM's hazardous waste division.

" I've never heard about a sump, " Cobb said, in a recent interview.

Solutia's Kaley said he didn't know either, but he noted that a sump, a

container pit, is " a perfect way to recover elemental mercury. " Monsanto did

operate a PCB sump, he added.

Faced with growing evidence that Monsanto may have had a role in mercury and

lead discharges in Anniston, ADEM plans more testing on Solutia property and

in the watershed, Cobb said.

ADEM is less concerned about historic discharges than determining current

levels of contamination, Cobb said. " Our first priority is looking for

existing contamination. "

" In the limited mercury data we have, the numbers aren't that high, " Cobb

said.

According to ADEM's procedures, Solutia develops its own work plans for

testing, which are scrutinized by ADEM personnel for deficiencies. Then,

after a potentially lengthy revision process, ADEM approves the plans and

Solutia conducts the tests. Sometimes, ADEM participates in the sampling.

In previous tests, Solutia has conducted only limited testing for mercury -

10 percent of its soil samples and 50 percent of its fish samples, reported

in a 1999 report from Solutia to ADEM.

Future testing will be much more extensive, Cobb said, explaining that ADEM

will require more comprehensive mercury, PCB and lead testing in a series of

studies of the local creeks, the floodplain area and the plant site.

" With as little data as we have right now, there are indications of areas we

need to look at, " Cobb said.

" Looking beyond the plant, we've only scratched the surface, " he said.

It's there

At least one person was perplexed by elevated levels of mercury he saw in

Choccolocco Creek fish.

In 1996, Brad McLane of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, a watershed protection

group based in Birmingham, gathered statewide fish data from ADEM and

plugged it into his computer. His intent was to determine if more Alabama

waterways would have mercury fish advisories if the state used the lower

safety threshold of .5 parts per million used in neighboring states.

" It was pretty obvious there was a problem in Choccolocco, looking at the

numbers, " McLane said.

" People already were cautioned against eating the Choccolocco fish because

of PCBs. It was clear there was mercury, too. "

Kaley said, based on available test results, mercury levels at the plant and

in the watershed don't currently indicate a mercury problem.

The Star hired Dr. Gragg, an environmental toxicologist and policy

expert at Florida A & M, to analyze company documents and ADEM reports

available from the 1960s to the present.

After a 10-hour analysis, Gragg stated that the weight of evidence shows

that ADEM should have identified mercury and lead as potentially serious

contaminants decades ago simply from the knowledge that Monsanto produced

its own raw materials - chlorine and biphenyl - for the PCB manufacturing

process.

" The question is, why did they take so long to characterize this problem? "

Gragg said.

" They need to determine the effect on people and the environment, " he

explained. " But, by starting 30 years late, they've lost a whole generation

of people who may have had health effects. "

According to Dr. Bill Fitzgerald, a New England chemist who has studied

mercury in the environment for 25 years and is considered one of the top

experts in the United States, mercury is similar to PCBs in that it is very

persistent in the environment.

Although discharged years earlier, it will remain in the watershed - either

buried under sediment or still bleeding pollution, said Fitzgerald, a

professor at the University of Connecticut.

Mercury is one of the heaviest metals. One pound of it will fit in a

laboratory test tube.

Typically, mercury will attach to sediment at the bottom of a creek, where

it will either lie inert or transform into other mercury compounds, such as

methylmercury, he said. Whether the mercury " methylates " depends on whether

certain bacteria are growing in the water, Fitzgerald said.

Today, state-mandated testing shows detectable levels of mercury in fish and

sediment in both Snow and Choccolocco creeks. In addition to extremely high

levels of PCBs previously recorded in Choccolocco fish, ADEM reports show

that as recently as 1993, some creek fish downstream of Snow Creek also

exceeded Alabama's 1 part per million advisory for mercury.

The 1 part per million benchmark is considered protective of human health by

Alabama state health officials. However, federal guidelines recommend that

pregnant women and children refrain from eating fish containing .5 parts per

million mercury.

Since 1993, residents have been cautioned by state health officials against

eating Choccolocco fish because of PCB contamination. Although the few

samples screened for mercury haven't shown extremely high levels, that

doesn't rule out the possibility that methylmercury is a threat, state

officials said.

" We need to have more testing, " ADEM's Cobb said.

In a 2000 report to ADEM, prepared by BBL Inc., Solutia said it detected

mercury at all 10 of its soil sampling locations on Choccolocco Creek near

Boiling Springs Road. In the same report, Solutia detected mercury in 24 out

of 27 sediment samples from Snow Creek. Also, Solutia screened for mercury

in 35 of 70 bass fish samples it collected. The remainder were tested for

PCBs. The highest mercury concentration found was .91 milligrams per

kilogram. That's just below Alabama's fish advisory limit.

Solutia reported to ADEM that all of its core, or deep sediment, samples

collected in Choccolocco downstream of Snow Creek were scrapped because of a

laboratory problem. So, Solutia decided to analyze surface sediment instead.

Similarly, eight sediment samples in Snow Creek were also rejected in the

lab, according to the Solutia report.

" We had some questions about that, " Cobb said. He said Solutia will have to

provide new results.

" We'll do whatever we're required to do, " Solutia's Kaley said.

What made this drag out?

For untold years, ditches and streams flowing through western Anniston have

carried a heavy load of metals and chemicals.

" It was a different environment, then, " said , Monsanto's former

research chemist in Anniston. " Back then, we in industry believed the

solution to pollution was dilution. "

More than a dozen articles published in The Anniston Star in the 1960s tell

of thousands of fish and other wildlife dying in Choccolocco Creek and the

Coosa River because of industrial spills.

At least 10 Star articles from the 1970s and 1980s report local residents

choking and complaining during bouts of smelly air pollution.

One industry that always got blamed was Monsanto, although it was not the

only Anniston facility emitting toxic wastes to air, land and water.

Monsanto first began supplying information to Alabama regulators about its

pollution in the 1960s, after an extensive fish kill was blamed on

parathion, a Monsanto pesticide, said Kaley. After the creation of new

hazardous waste regulations in the 1980s, Monsanto built groundwater

monitoring wells, began sampling efforts for several of its chemical

products and supplied limited information to ADEM about its waste and

production areas, ADEM and Solutia records show.

In 1986, Monsanto received its first permits for a regulated landfill and an

old hazardous waste treatment area.

Yet, with permission from the Environmental Protection Agency, Monsanto

" representatives declined to disclose past or present annual production

volumes or explicit details of their manufacturing processes to avoid

divulging confidential business information, " according to a 1991 ADEM

report.

Under these conditions, Monsanto did not have to tell ADEM much about its

mercury, lead or PCBs processes. ADEM personnel duly reported back that " few

details were available " regarding the production of chlorine or PCBs.

ADEM's Cobb said it is not unusual for a company to withhold information

about its production volumes and manufacturing processes. " It's not

necessarily a red flag, " he said.

Although ADEM has not gathered a measurement for Monsanto's PCB or other

environmental releases, Cobb said knowing the " general magnitude " of the

problem is sufficient.

Florida A & M's Gragg said production volumes, as well as estimates of how

much was disposed, would help put the problem in better perspective.

Gragg said the paperwork - both on ADEM and Solutia's part - doesn't show

that any effort was made to find out how much lead or mercury could possibly

be contaminating the environment. Some of that information could have come

from studying the amount of PCBs produced, which would have given a hint to

how much lead and mercury were actually used, he said. Because Monsanto had

officially notified the Environmental Protection Agency about a PCB problem

in the 1970s, there has been plenty of time to gauge the level of pollution.

" The knowledge of the release of significant amounts of PCBs should have

signaled an urgent need to investigate for the presence of the other major

manufacture components on-site and off-site, " Gragg said.

Mercury was detected on the facility as early as 1987, according to ADEM

inspections.

In a 1987 report, ADEM observed drinking water violations in Solutia's

groundwater for seven pollutants, including one violation for mercury. The

other violations: 11 for chlorides, 23 for iron, 20 for manganese, eight for

sulfate, two for cadmium and four for lead.

In 1991, ADEM again detected mercury in the groundwater.

In 1996, ADEM reported that Solutia's groundwater had exceeded its allowable

level of concentration for mercury.

A 1999 Solutia report indicated higher-than-allowed levels of mercury at

several groundwater monitoring locations.

ADEM documents show the agency has long been aware of violations at Solutia.

Indeed, one letter dated April 22, 1992, from ADEM to the environmental

specialist at Monsanto in Anniston about deficiencies in lab testing for

pesticides concludes:

" Although this is a violation of Monsanto's permit conditions, ADEM will not

be forwarding any further enforcement letters belaboring the point. It is

hoped that Monsanto's forthcoming major permit modification will adequately

address and eliminate this item of concern. "

Solutia's Kaley described the groundwater violations for mercury and other

constituents since the 1980s as " minor exceptions. "

Generally, violations in the groundwater do not result in fines, rather are

handled as part of a long-term strategy to combat the pollution with a

complex system of monitoring wells and pumps at the plant site, Cobb said.

Overall, Gragg said, it is distressing that it took 30 years for mercury and

lead to rise to the attention of state authorities.

" Where's the sense of urgency? " he asked.

PCBs, Lead and Mercury

PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyls are mixtures of up to 209 individual chlorinated

compounds, invented by Swann Chemical Company and manufactured by Monsanto

until 1972.

Usage:

PCBs have been used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors

and other electrical equipment because they do not burn easily and are good

insulators.

Health effects and symptoms:

PCBs are pervasive in the environment and bioaccumulate in the food chain,

causing health advisories for fish and other wildlife in some locations.

Exposure to PCBs may cause acne-like skin conditions and rashes and

neurobehavioral and immunological changes in children. PCBs are considered a

probable human carcinogen by the U.S. EPA. Also, recent studies indicate

that eating large amounts of PCB-contaminated fish may impair the memory and

learning of adults.

Lead

A naturally-occurring bluish-gray metal found throughout the environment.

Much of it is released from human activities including burning fossil fuels,

mining and manufacturing.

Usage:

Lead has many uses, including the production of batteries, ammunition, metal

products (solder and pipes) and devices to shield X-rays. Because of health

concerns, lead from gasoline, paint and ceramic products, caulking and pipe

solder has been dramatically reduced.

Health effects and symptoms:

Lead can affect almost every organ and system in your body, whether breathed

or swallowed. The most sensitive is the central nervous system, especially

in children. Even at low levels, lead poisoning has been linked to reduced

growth, aggressive behavior and lower intellect in children. Lead also

damages kidneys and the reproductive system. Lead can cause anemia, weakness

in fingers, wrists or ankles, and damage the male reproductive system. It

may possibly affect the memory.

Mercury

A naturally-occurring metal with several forms. The metallic mercury is a

shiny, silver-white, odorless liquid. If heated, it is a colorless, odorless

gas. Mercury combines with other elements, such as chlorine, to form

inorganic compounds such as mercuric chloride. Mercury and its compounds may

also combine with carbon to make organic mercury compounds, such as

methylmercury.

Usage:

Metallic mercury is used to make chlorine gas and caustic soda, and is also

used in thermometers, dental fillings and batteries.

Health effects and symptoms:

The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury. Methylmercury

and metallic mercury vapors are more harmful than other forms because they

reach the brain, potentially causing permanent brain damage or damage to the

kidneys. Mercury poisoning can result in irritability, shyness, tremors,

changes in vision or hearing and memory problems. Mercuric chloride and

methylmercury are possible human carcinogens, according to the EPA.

Mercury's harmful effects that can be passed from the mother to the fetus

include brain damage, mental retardation, incoordination, blindness,

seizures and inability to speak. Children poisoned by mercury may develop

problems in the nervous and digestive systems and kidney damage.