PCB's and Country Life

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GRASSROOTS ACTION

So in late April, Sara and I—along with members of the Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters—helped form a group called Citizens Concerned About PCB's (CCAP). And working together, the 70 or so members of CCAP set out to accomplish the following goals:

[1] DISSEMINATE INFORMATION ON PCB'S. We made up "fact sheets" to give free to persons who'd used sludge on their gardens, had livestock drinking from contaminated streams, or were simply interested in what was going on in the community. (The sheets listed a phone number that people could dial to obtain further information and advice.) In addition, the CCAP made article reprints, and other material on the subject, available in the county library to anyone who wanted to read them.

[2] HOLD MEETINGS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS. The CCAP invited representatives from many governmental agencies to speak and answer questions at meetings held by the group. Attendance often ran high at these gatherings . . . high enough to merit media coverage, which was helpful for increasing the public's awareness of the situation. (After reading about this activity in the local paper, people who were only vaguely aware of the PCB problem before would begin to sit up and take notice.) So: CCAP meetings served not only as open forums for discussion, but as focal points for newspaper and TV coverage.

[3] ASSURE REPRESENTATION AT STATE AND LOCAL HEARINGS. The CCAP members publicized the time and place of every scheduled public hearing on the PCB/Westinghouse issue so that concerned individuals would have a chance to attend. (One time, a group of CCAP members drove 50 miles to be present at an Environmental Management Board meeting in Indianapolis.)

[4] PUBLICIZE THE PCB POLLUTION PROBLEM. Thanks partly to CCAP's efforts, the PCB problem received a great deal of coverage in the Bloomington Herald-Telephone, the Indiana University student paper, and a Louisville, Kentucky newspaper. (Our personal story has also been reported on by at least four local television stations.) Throughout April and May of 1976, in particular, CCAP members carried on a vigorous letter-writing campaign aimed at informing public officials (and editors) of the seriousness of the PCB problem.

Although it was not one of the group's stated goals, I feel I should point out that CCAP members did provide us with moral support that—at the time—we desperately needed. Without this support (and the backing of our friends, who helped us pay our often-astronomical phone bills), I'm not sure how we would've made it through those first bleak months.

PROGRESS

There's no question that the many newspaper stories, the TV exposure, CCAP meetings, and letters to the editor spawned by our situation have helped start the bureaucratic ball rolling toward the search for a solution to the PCB problem. The meaningful progress that's been made, however, is—if not negligible—at least questionable.

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