Document K5aZ6rQd8mOdvbOX80KovK8X

CONFIDEMTIAL REPORT ON VXSXT BY JOHN BARKY OF THE SUNDAY TIMES 1 INSIGHT' INVESTIGATION TEAM, TO MOHSflMTO HOUSE, LONDON, MAY loth, 1973. Present A. vodden. P . Ma rsh. E. Bracken. Background s The Sunday Times have had several long telephone conversations with us over the last two weeks on the subject of PCB--contaminated waste dumped at Maendy Quarry, South Wales, up until 1969. we invited one of their researchers, Peter Pringle, to visit us to discuss this. John Barry stood in for Pringle, who had been detained on an assignment overseas. Barry opened by saying that the Sunday Times had been concerned for some time about irresponsible disposal of industrial waste in the U.K. Maendy was just one of many sites which had been drawn to their attention as being an eyesore and a source of pollution. He said a number of companies had been involved, including BP and ICl, and that he realised that PCBs were comparatively innocuous compared with other waste that had been dumped in the area. ICI had tipped explosives into Maendy. He also said that they had found a bewildering array of Government bodies involved in PCBs generally, and Maendy in particular, and that the Civil Service seemed to be in the position of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Contd/..... OSOZOtt** STLCOPCB4044870 2 Barry asked when exactly Monsanto first heard about the problem at Kaendy quarry and from whom. we had previously established that the Sunday Times knew all about Douglas Gowan, so P. Marsh was able to give the full back ground to our co-operation with OECD on PCBs, then on to the specific details of when we heard about Brofiskin and Maendy and what we did about it. Most of this was simply repeating information already given to the Sunday Times. A. Vodden outlined results of tests carried out on water taken from Maendy and also briefly explained that we had carried out a r programme of analysing watercourses etc.,, round out plants long before Gowan came on the scene. At this point it was emphasised that the level of PCB contamination found was at no time high enough to represent a problem. P. Marsh gave full details of our programme of controlled sales of o Araclor and of the present arrangements for incinerating all waste from the PCB plant at Newport. At this point, Barry explained that he had a science degree. Xn the light of this, A. vodden was able to explain in depth the various properties of different types of PCBs, their molecular structure and the effect that this structure had on bio--degradation and on the levels of solubility of different types. A great deal of scientific background was given, which seemed to help Barry get PCBs much more into perspective. Background to recent research on the rate of degradation of PCBs in sludges was also given- 0402090 STLCOPCB4044871 3 Xt is clear that Barry obtained three important general guidelines from thiB lengthy discussion: i) That it is difficult to be precise about levels of PCB contamination a few years ago, because methods of analysis and detection have been improving steadily over the last few years. ii) The subject is far more complex that it appears on the surface and that conclusions drawn too quickly can be widely inaccurate. iii) That a great deal of research still remains to be done, but that Monsanto know as much about this subject as anybody else and have been well to the fore in research and in taking action on a worldwide scale. Xn the course of this discussion, Barry again touched on the subject of Government departments and said that in his opinion they were totally disorganised. He asked, confidentially, if we had obtained the same impression. We explained that the great bulk of our contact had been through one man in the Department of the Environment, so that we were not in a position to give an opinion. Barry then reverted to more specific questions about the levels of PCB contamination in and around Maendy quarry. With the aid of a map, P. Marsh gave details of PCB level readings from tests carried out around Maendy on May 4th this year. These showed that a sample taken from stagnant water on top of the quarry contained .09 ppm PCBs, water taken from a stream running across the peripheral of quarry contained .033 ppm, water taken from the stream 100 yards from the bottom fence contained .045 ppm and water from the ditch on the eastern edge of the quarry contained .02 ppm* 05C<i091 STLCOPCB4044872 -4 A subsequent question was answered by phone: Q. Planning permission was given to tip at Maendy in 1966. did the waste from Newport plant go before that? Where A. It was tipped at Nantgarw and Ynyaddu. COHCLUSIOHS; Monsanto seems to be a fairly small part of a broadly--based Sunday Times investigation. At no time have the reporters involved appeared antagonistic. However, they are clearly aiming to expose a major national muddle over who is responsible for monitoring and controlling industrial waste disposal in the u.K. Government departments will probably be the subject of attack; it is highly unlikely that any laurels will be given in this article, and every organisation mentioned, including ourselves, will suffer a little in reputation from being associated with it.' Notei The article is scheduled to appear on May 20th, but we understand that this is not a particularly firm date. John Barry said that any reference to Monsanto, arising from the meeting, would be checked with Monsanto PR Dept, before publication. This was an unsolicited offer. 0&Q2Q92 STLCOPCB4044873