Anniston Star
February 12, 2003

EPA denies conspiracy alleged by Anniston attorney

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer

The Environmental Protection Agency did not conspire with Solutia on the Anniston PCB cleanup agreement, the federal government said this week in response to a local attorney's accusations.

Charges leveled against the EPA - and in particular its administrator, Christine Whitman - by Anniston lawyer Donald Stewart are "unfounded, unsupported" and "unequivocally wrong," the government said in a document filed in Birmingham federal court Monday.

Stewart is the lead attorney in a long-running, high-profile lawsuit against Solutia. In the suit, 3,500 plaintiffs claim that the company and its predecessor, Monsanto, polluted their properties and bodies with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The suspected carcinogens were produced in Anniston until 1971, and pollute local residences, waterways and floodplains.

The accusations involve a proposed cleanup agreement, or consent decree, between EPA and Solutia, announced in October. The agreement will not take effect until U.S. District Court Judge U.W. Clemon approves it.

Stewart has been trying to convince Clemon that the proposed agreement is improper. At a hearing before the judge in January, Stewart submitted thousands of pages of documents in support of his contention that the agreement was the result of collusion between the federal government and Solutia.

Last week, Stewart filed a motion in which he accused Whitman of influencing the agreement in order to protect her financial interests. Whitman and her husband have financial ties to banking giant Citigroup, which does business with Solutia. The cleanup agreement, Stewart argued, was designed to protect Solutia by limiting the amount of money it will have to spend to clean up Anniston.

The Department of Justice responded this week on behalf of the EPA, refuting each of Stewart's allegations.

There is no understanding between the company and the government on the cost of cleanup, and the agreement "contains no cost limitations," the document says. The agreement "follows the strict requirements" of federal environmental law.

"Administrator Whitman has never had improper dealings regarding Citigroup or Citibank," the document continues.

In his motion, Stewart also asked for more time to submit information. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management disagrees with the cleanup agreement, he asserted.

Under the proposed consent decree, the EPA will take charge of the entire PCBs site. Up to now, ADEM has overseen the plant site and waterways, while EPA has dealt with residences.

The Justice Department counters in its response that ADEM has already made its dislike for the proposed agreement public; has had plenty of opportunity to say more about the decree; and that the state of Alabama asked for the EPA's help in the first place.

Furthermore, the government says, the governor and attorney general are in favor of the agreement. Gov. Bob Riley wrote a letter to Judge Clemon last week asking him to approve the agreement.