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

Philex

Balog Creek, Philippines

In October, 2011,the Balog Creek was declared "biologically dead" after Philex allowed some 20 million metric tons of mine tailings to be deposited along the 2.5-kilometer water channel, according to a report from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (MGB-DENR).

This is ten times more than the volume of mine tailings that spilled out of the Marcopper mine in 1996 in Marinduque

The DENR has slapped a hefty P1-billion fine, almost as much as the mining firm's taxes last year, on one of the country's largest producers of gold and copper.

Philex refuses to pay Padcal mine waste leak fines stating "forces of nature cannot be prevented 100 percent."

Here's Philex's Board of Directors
Eulalio Austin Jr. -Chief Executive Officer, President, Director and Member of Finance Committee -- 51
Manuel Pangilinan - First Pacific Company Ltd. 67
Juan Santos - Philex Mining Corp. 74
Robert Nicholson - First Pacific Company Ltd. 58
Oscar Hilado Jr. - Phinma Corporation 76
Edward Tortorici - First Pacific Company Ltd. 74
Marilyn Victorio-Aquino - First Pacific Company Ltd. 57
Eliza Antonino - Philex Mining Corp. 35
Wilfredo Paras - GT Capital Holdings Inc. 66
Bienvenido Laguesma - Philex Mining Corp. 62

Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO)

Times Beach, Missouri

Times Beach is a ghost town in St. Louis County, Missouri.
Once home to more than two thousand people, the town was completely evacuated early in 1983 due to a dioxin contamination that made national headlines. It was the largest civilian exposure to dioxin in the country's history.

The decision in United States v. Northeastern Pharmaceutical & Chemical Co. NEPACCO's corporate vice president (Leo Grande) was found liable because he had direct authority to control the disposal of hazardous waste, supervised the disposal of waste-filled barrels and, therefore, was held to be an "arranger" of disposal under CERCLA. The court imposed personal liability because the president/shareholder had (1) the capacity and general responsibility to control waste disposal, (2) the power to direct negotiations regarding waste disposal, and (3) the capacity to prevent damage caused by hazardous waste.

Pharmacia Corporation (now Pfizer) and Bayer CropScience Inc.

Industri-plex Woburn, Massachusetts

Bayer CropScience has products in crop protection and nonagricultural pest control. It also has activities in seeds and plant traits and is involved in genetic engineering of food.

Between 1991 and 2009, Pfizer has agreed to pay fines for polluting the Delaware River, the as well as for environmental violations in Connecticut, Alabama, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, NJ, and Michigan

Pharmacia Corporation and Bayer CropScience Inc. have agreed to pay $4.25 million in natural resources damages caused by hazardous contamination at the Industri-plex in Woburn, Massachusetts

Taylor Lumber and Treating, Oregon

arsenic and pentachlorophenol groundwater contamination

A still-active wood processing facility, Taylor Lumber and Treating made the list because of groundwater contamination. The Oregon site leaked wood-treating chemicals such as arsenic and pentachlorophenol, which have now been contained by an underground barrier wall (but for how long???)

Hooker Chemical Co. (Occidental Petroleum subsidiary)

The Love Canal Tragedy, NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y

Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, began percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal.

Here's Occidental Petroleum's Board of Directors:

Edward P. Djerejian Director since 1996 Independent Chairman since 2013

Spencer Abraham Director since 2005 Independent Vice Chairman since 2013

Howard I. Atkins Director since 2010

Gene L. Batchelder (Conoco Philips...see Bhopal) Director since 2013

John E. Feick Director since 1998 Member of the Audit Committee, Executive Compensation Committee, Finance and Risk Management Committee, and Environmental, Health and Safety Committee (Chair)

Margaret M. Foran Director since 2010

Carlos M. Gutierrez Director since 2009

William R. Klesse Director since 2013 Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Valero Energy Corporation,

Avedick B. Poladian Director since 2008

Oxy's subsidiaries include wholly owned chemical manufacturers Occidental Chemical Corporation (OxyChem), OxyVinyls, and INDSPEC Chemical Corporation. Oxy indirectly owns Armand Products Company with Church & Dwight Co., Inc.. Carbocloro S.A. Indústrias Químicas is a joint venture between OxyChem and UNIPAR in Brazil.

Nov, 2013: Occidental Petroleum will pay $14 million to its former chairman Ray Irani as part of his severance agreement

Text Module