With a lawsuit finally nearing trial, the FMC Corp.'s insurers are looking for information showing that pollution from the former rayon plant it once owned in Front Royal wasn't accidental.

FMC filed suit in the late 1980s against insurers around the country for coverage of environmental claim’s, said attorney Bruce R. Grace, who represents Lloyd's of London, one of the insurers of the local plant. In preparation for that suit's hearing in a California court in January, a Lloyd's investigator is soliciting, through local newspapers, information from employees at the plant in the 195OS, ‘6OS and ‘7Os.

FMC, which owned the plant from 1963 to 1976, is being held responsible for the cost of cleaning up the plant, closed in 1989 by Avtex Fibers after repeated violations of environmental protection laws. Grace said FMC is interested in information from the 195Os as well because it bought the plant "lock, stock ,and barrel from American Viscose "so we think American Viscose circumstances are relevant."

The advertisement asks former employees to call investigator Tom Clancy with information on well, river, soil and ground water contamination or on complaints made to American Viscose or FMC about such contamination.

The information could help show whether "pollution at Front Royal was an accident or whether it was the express result of routine waste disposal operations," Grace said. "Insurance is meant to cover accidents."

People who say polluting activities weren't accidents could be used as witnesses, he said.

Clancy wouldn't say if he'd gotten any response to the advertisement, which ran for the first time on Wednesday.

He said responses could "at least identify that people knew there was a problem -- what happened down at that site and when did they first identify the problems."

"I'm a little surprised at the ad," FMC attorney Neil G. Epstein said. Some of the events it says "we are especially interested in" are "dead-flat wrong," he said.

But over the years, "they've spoken to many, many, many people in the Front Royal area, as have we," he said.

Silas V. "Sy" Langfltt, who worked at the plant from 1940 to 1974 and was a supervisor in three different departments, said, "I don't really think you'd see (contamination) unless it was a tank overflowing. Everything went through waste treatment, so far as we knew."

James Culbertson, another former employee, said he doubted employees would have seen polluting activities "unless they were in a technical department."

The plant is an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund cleanup site. Avtex Fibers went bankrupt, leaving FMC a potentially responsible party for the pollution.