The Anniston PCB Site is located in and around Anniston, in the Coosa River drainage in east-central Alabama. The former Monsanto Corporation’s PCB manufacturing plant manufactured polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from 1929 to 1971. Sampling at the site beginning in 1999 as part of a Superfund investigation indicated that sediments in drainage ditches leading away from the plant, Snow Creek and Choccolocco Creek, as well as the floodplains of these waterways, contain varying levels of PCBs and other contaminants. While the Site is not listed on the National Priorities List, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers it to be an NPL Caliber Site and is addressing it through the Superfund Alternative Approach. The response process led by EPA is ongoing. In December 2024 the EPA issued its Record of Decision for the Choccolocco Creek and its floodplain downstream of the Anniston Plant (OU-4). The OU-4 ROD selects the actions needed to clean up the Site.

PCBs are extremely toxic to natural resources such as birds and fish and can cause adverse effects such as increased mortality, reduced fecundity, and reduced growth. As a result of the high levels of contamination, the natural resource trustees, the US Department of the Interior acting through the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Alabama, acting through the Geological Survey of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (“Trustees”) initiated a Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) in 2005 under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

The Trustees finalized an Assessment Plan in 2010 (See 43 CFR §§ 11.30-11.38). Migratory birds, fish and other aquatic organisms, water and sediment have potentially been negatively affected by the release(s) of contaminants at the Anniston PCB site. Fish consumption advisories are in place in Choccolocco Creek and a 100-mile reach of the Coosa River, including two major reservoirs providing water-based recreational activities. The Trustees completed several Assessment activities, including conducting supplemental soil and sediment data, data on bird use and exposure to PCBs at the site, a compilation of mussel resources in the Coosa River basin, data on fish communities and habitat indices in the Choccolocco Creek basin, and a compilation of biological data from nearby reference areas.

The Trustees are in the process of understanding the extent and effects of the contaminants on natural resources and associated services, and to identify restoration priorities to compensate for the resources injured and lost services. The Trustees are coordinating closely with the USEPA in its ongoing efforts to clean up the contamination from the facility.