Profit before people

Just the tip of the iceberg here. Each of the sites which have received media attention represent literally hundreds of other sites which remain to be investigated. Where possible, we have included each company's board of directors in the event folks would like to write and express their opinion of the behaviors which are killing the planet.

Here are the top 10 States with Toxic Waste Superfund Sites:

New Jersey 140 sites
Pennsylvania 122 sites
New York 110 sites
California 107 sites
Michigan 84 sites
Florida 71 sites
Washington 65 sites
Texas 54 sites
Illinois 51 sites
Minnesota 46 sites

Text Module

GE and TEPCO

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

(From Wikipedia) The plant comprised six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric (GE) and maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). At the time of the earthquake, reactor 4 had been de-fueled and reactors 5 and 6 were in cold shutdown for planned maintenance.^[18] Immediately after the earthquake, following government regulations, the remaining reactors 1–3 shut down their sustained fission reactions automatically, inserting control rods in what is termed the SCRAM event, following this, emergency generators came online to power electronics and coolant systems, which operated right up until the tsunami. The tsunami arrived some 50 minutes after the initial earthquake. The 13 meter tall tsunami overwhelmed the plant's seawall, which was only 10 m high,^[6] with the moment of the tsunami striking being caught on camera.^[19] The tsunami water quickly flooded the low-lying rooms in which the emergency generators were housed.^[20] With the flooded diesel generators failing soon afterwards, cutting power to the critical pumps that must continuously circulate coolant water through a Generation II reactor to keep the fuel rods from melting down following the SCRAM event, the rods remained hot enough to melt themselves down as no adequate cold sink was available. After the secondary emergency pumps (run by back-up electrical batteries) ran out, one day after the tsunami, 12 March,^[21] the water pumps stopped and the reactors began to overheat due to the high decay heat produced in the first few days after the SCRAM (diminishing amounts of this decay heat continue to be released for years, but with time it is not enough to cause fuel rod melting).

As workers struggled to supply power to the reactors' coolant systems and control rooms, multiple hydrogen-air chemical explosions occurred from 12 March to 15 March. It is estimated that the hot zirconium fuel cladding-water reaction in reactors 1-3 produced 800 to 1000 kilograms of hydrogen gas each, which was vented out of the reactor pressure vessel and mixed with the ambient air. The gas eventually reached explosive concentration limits in units 1 and 3. Either piping connections between units 3 and 4 or from the zirconium reaction in unit 4 itself,^[24] unit 4 also filled with hydrogen. Explosions occurred in the upper secondary containment building in all three reactors.^[25]

TEPCO admitted for the first time on October 12, 2012 that it had failed to take stronger measures to prevent disasters for fear of inviting lawsuits or protests against its nuclear plants. There are no clear plans for decommissioning the plant, but some estimates extend to thirty or forty years.

On 22 July 2013, more than two years after the incident, it was revealed that the plant is leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. This had been denied by TEPCO.^[30] The report prompted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to order the government to step in.^[31] On 20 August, in a further incident, it was announced that 300 metric tons of heavily radioisotope-contaminated water had leaked from a storage tank.^[32] On 26 August, the government took charge of emergency measures to prevent further radioactive water leaks.

Archer Daniels Midland Co

Price fixing, deforestation and mad cow disease

American River Transportation Co. (an Archer Daniels Midland Co) paid a $3 million fine for spilling oil and grease into the St. Louis sewer system and the Mississippi River from 2004-07.

ADM produces biofuels, food ingredients, animal feeds and feed ingredients

In 1996 ADM pled guilty and paid a record $100 million fine for price-fixing in the lysine market

ADM is one of the primary forces driving deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon due to soybean farming

Their production of palm oil is driving rainforest destruction in Indonesia

It was found that their cottonseed-based animal feed contained gossypol, (a naturally occurring poisonous pigment) and that they were illegally disposed of genetic organisms (including rats and animal by-products) by adding them to the animal feed.

On January 12, 2001, ADM agreed to pay a $1.46 million fine for violating federal and Illinois clean-air rules at a corn feed plant

as of 2008, ADM ranked #2 on the Political Economy Research Institute of UMass' Toxic 100, a ranking of the top 100 industrial polluters in America

Here's their Board of Directors:
Patricia A. Woertz-Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President
Alan L. Boeckmann-Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fluor Corporation
Terrell K. Crews-Retired Chief Financial Officer, Monsanto
Mollie Hale Carter-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sunflower Bank and Vice President of Star A, Inc.
Donald E. Felsinger-Retired Chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy
Pierre Dufour -Senior Executive Vice President, Air Liquide Group; President and CEO of American Air Liquide
Patrick J. Moore -President and Chief Executive Officer of PJM Advisors, LLC
Antonio Maciel Neto-CEO, CAOA Group
Kelvin R. Westbrook -President and CEOP of KRW Advisors, LLC
Thomas F. O'Neill Co-CEO of Kimberlite Group LLC
Daniel T. Shih-Deputy Chairman and Executive Director, Stella International Holdings Limited

Ameren Corp.

10,000 violations of the federal Clean Air Act in Missouri.

Exceeding air pollution limits 10,000 times since 2008 at their at its St. Louis-area coal -fired power plants including Meramac (pictured above)

CH2M Hill

safety violations, kickbacks, and fraud in Hanford, WA

CH2M Hill is an "engineer-procure-construct" company heavily focused on privatizing public infrastructure and waste systems for local and state governments. It has been criticized for its "contract cities" or "outsourced cities" and its expansive model of privatization of government services. For the 12 months ended December 31, 2012, the company's total revenue was $6.2 billion, and its net income was $93 million.

At the Hanford, WA facility, Large tanks containing radioactive waste are leaking into the nearby aquifers at a reported rate of 300 gallons per day. With many of the tanks holding a million gallons each, this means the United States is producing a massive radioactive waterway on a course to pollute the Colombia river.

Kickbacks: Between 2003 and 2005, CH2M Hill employees made over 200 purchases of substantially marked-up goods from companies owned and run by the employees' spouses, then charged the cost to the DOE. CH2M Hill agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the allegations.

Radioactive Waste Spills: In June 2008, CH2M Hill was found to have committed nine nuclear safety violations of Nuclear Safety Management and Occupational Radiation Protection.

Radioactive Safety Violations: In March 2005, CH2M Hill was cited for four violations and was required to pay a civil penalty of $316,250.

What's to be done?

Rather than cleaning it up as their contract stipulates, Hill Hanford Group Inc. has been playing games with their timecards.

Hill Hanford Group Inc. has agreed to pay $18.5 Million to resolve civil and criminal fraud allegations.

Monsanto (now a Pfizer subsidiary)

Monsanto hid Decades of pollution in Anniston, Alabama

Monsanto went to extraordinary efforts to keep the public in the dark about PCBs, and even manipulated scientific studies by urging scientists to change their conclusions to downplay the risks of PCB exposure.

Documents that emerging from a court case in 2000 show that Monsanto knew the truth as early as 1938. The plant was the source of thousands of pounds a year of deadly PCBs. For nearly forty years, unfiltered and untreated PCB waste was discharged directly into streams or dumped in landfills around town. Monsanto dumped at least 5.5 million pounds of PCBs in landfills located near the plant.

In 2003, Monsanto agreed to pay $700 million to more than 20,000 Anniston residents in the first civil suit of its kind. Thousands of pages of Monsanto documents many marked "CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy" proved that, for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew.

Board of Directors

Gregory H. Boyce - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Peabody Energy Corporation
David L. Chicoine, Ph.D. - president of South Dakota State University and professor of economics.
Janice L. Fields - former president of McDonald's USA, LLC, a subsidiary of McDonald's Corporation.
Hugh Grant - chairman and chief executive officer of Monsanto Company.
Arthur H. Harper -managing partner of GenNx360 Capital Partners.
Laura Ipsen - corporate vice president of Microsoft Corp.'s Worldwide Public Sector organization.
Gwendolyn S. King - president of Podium Prose, a speakers bureau.
C. Steven McMillan - retired chairman of the board and CEO of Sara Lee Corporation.
Jon R. Moeller - chief financial officer of The Procter & Gamble Company.
William U. Parfet - chairman of the board, chief executive officer and President of MPI Research Inc.
George H. Poste, Ph. D., D.V.M. - chief executive of Health Technology Networks.
Robert J. Stevens - executive chairman of the board of Lockheed Martin Corporation.

We can all sleep soundly in the knowledge that Michael R. Taylor former Monsanto attorney and chief super lobbyist is now the FDA's Deputy Commissioner of Food.

Union Carbide (Now owned by Dow Chemicals)

Bhopal gas disaster 1984

over 20,000 dead and 150,000 seriously injured.

After 29 years, the fight for financial compensation for the survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster is far from over. The survivors are demanding that the 1989 verdict, in which the Indian government agreed to a $470 million out-of-court settlement, be reopened. The curative petition in the Supreme Court, filed in December 2010, argues against the terms of the 1989 settlement on the plea that it was based on underestimated figures of the dead and injured.

Here's Union Carbide's board of directors:

Rainer E. Gut, age 66, Director since 1994, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Group, Credit Suisse First Boston and Credit Suisse, all of Zurich, Switzerland.

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., age 63, Director since 1987,

William H. Joyce, age 63, Director since 1992, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Union Carbide Corporation. Annual compensation: $918,750

Robert D. Kennedy, age 66, Director since 1985, Retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Union Carbide Corporation. Presently Director and Chairman of UCAR International, Inc. Director of Kmart Corporation,

Ronald L. Kuehn, Jr., age 63, Director since 1984, Director, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sonat Inc.

Rozanne L. Ridgway, age 63, Director since 1990, former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada.

James M. Ringler, age 53, Director since 1996, Chairman, President and CEO of Premark International
.
Paul J. Wilhelm, age 57, Director since 1998, President & Director of  USX Corporation

Here's Union Carbide's executives and salaries:
Joseph E. Geoghan Corporate Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary Salary: $393,750

Lee P. McMaster Corporate Vice-President/ General Manager - Specialty Polymers Salary: $315,000

Joseph C. Soviero Corporate Vice-President, Corporate Ventures Salary $350,000

Roger B. Staub Corporate Vice-President/ General Manager-Unipol Systems Salary $325,000

John K. Wulff Corporate Vice-President, CFO and Controller Salary $316,667


Here's Dow Chemicals' Board of Directors

Andrew N. Liveris President, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Arnold A. Allemang-Member of the Board of Directors since 1996

Ajay Banga President and Chief Executive Officer, MasterCard-Member since 2013

Jacqueline K. Barton-Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Chemistry Member  since 1993

James A. Bell-Former Chief Financial Officer, The Boeing Company;Member since 2005

Jeff M. Fettig-Dow Lead Director; Chairman and CEO, Whirlpool Corporation; Member since 2003

Paul Polman-CEO Unilever PLC and Unilever N.V. Member since February 2010

Dennis H. Reilley-Former Chairman, Covidien, Ltd. Member since 2007

James M. Ringler-Chairman, Teradata Corporation;Member of the Board of Directors since 2001

Ruth G. Shaw-  President and CEO, Duke Power Company; Member since 2005