Anniston Star
September 10, 2003

Solutia's open house answers residents' questions

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
09-10-2003

Craig Branchfield, remedial projects manager for Solutia, talks with David Baker of Community Against Pollution and residents about Solutia's soil sampling program. Photo: Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Dozens of Anniston residents brought their questions about local PCB cleanup efforts to an open house Tuesday at Solutia.

The chemical company held the event in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency, Community Against Pollution and West Anniston Foundation and the National Black United Fund.

“The main purpose is to allow the community to come in and ask their very specific questions,” said Craig Branchfield, remedial projects manager for Solutia. “Like, what is on my property? Or, have you sampled my property? Or, how are you going to clean up my property?”

A second open house will take place Thursday at the civic center in Oxford.

PCBs have long been a divisive issue in the area.

For decades, Monsanto made polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at its plant in western Anniston. The plant is now owned by Solutia, a Monsanto spinoff.

The chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and are now banned in the United States, contaminate local waterways, floodplains and residences and have been found in people’s blood.

Two large lawsuits against the companies were recently settled for $700 million, and a federal judge approved a cleanup agreement between Solutia and the EPA.

Under the agreement, or consent decree, Solutia will conduct a broad study of contamination in the Anniston area. The company will also begin cleaning up properties that contain PCB levels over one part per million, possibly as soon as the end of the year.

At the open house, the company displayed photographs of property cleanups and a 5-foot-high map showing residences that had already been sampled in Anniston and Oxford.

“I came to find out, what is it all about as far as the cleanup?” said Ronnie Myles, 43, of Anniston, as a worker checked by laptop whether a particular property had been tested for PCBs. “And to see what they was offering here.”

David Baker, executive director of the local grassroots organization Community Against Pollution, said the open house signaled an easing of tensions in the community, but he emphasized that it is important to keep tabs on how Solutia conducts the cleanup.

“We are grateful that they are trying to reach out,” he said. “But we are cautious of their reaching out.”

Thursday’s open house in Oxford will be from 3-8 p.m