=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #72
—April 11, 1988—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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WASTE MANAGEMENT GAINS PIPELINE TO GRASS ROOTS MOVEMENT’S PLANS.
Waste Management, Inc.–the nation’s largest waste hauler and the
company fined most for breaking environmental laws–has
successfully developed an information pipeline into the grass
roots environmental movement. A combination of cunning and dumb
luck has given the nation’s least lawabiding waste hauler an
inside track to plans and strategies of citizen groups across the
country.
In 1987 the National Wildlife Federation, one of the nation’s
largest environmental organizations, elected Dean L. Buntrock to
its Board of Directors. Mr. Buntrock is the original founder of
Waste Management and today serves as its president. He has
personally guided the organization from a tiny garbage hauling
company to an international giant. In 1968 Waste Management had
12 trucks and total revenues of $65,000; by 1986 the firm was
operating in 40 states and several foreign countries and was
earning net profits of $380 million.
Along the way, the firm earned itself a reputation for the worst
environmental record of any American corporation, paying record
fines for illegal activities in many states. They have been
convicted and fined across the country for price fixing and bid
rigging. They have been fined for maintaining double sets of
books to prevent authorities from learning about leaking
landfills. They have been fined for selling PCB-contaminated oil
to rural people as dust suppressants, and to homeowners as
heating fuel. In a trial in Illinois, a Waste Management
executive admitted under oath that the firm keeps special
accounts for giving “promotional” gifts to politicians. The firm
is reportedly under investigation today by six grand juries in
six states.
Waste Management and Dean Buntrock have been able to buy anything
they wanted, except respectability and an inside track to
information about their only effective adversary: the grass roots
environmental movement. But now even these things seem within Mr.
Buntrock’s grasp. The National Wildlife Federation (a large,
wealthy traditional environmental organization–publisher of
Ranger Rick magazine for kids) has now taken up the cudgel on
behalf of Waste Management. Dean Buntrock has been elected to
the Federation’s board or directors. Anyone who writes to the
Federation objecting to Mr. Buntrock’s presence on their board
receives a letter from the president of the Federation, Jay D.
Hair, saying his Federation is composed of 51 “grass-roots
affiliates” throughout the United States. Mr. Hair says these
grass roots environmental groups “determine the conservation
policies of the National Wildlife Federation, which has fought
long and hard to reduce the threats posed by toxic wastes.”
Representatives of these grass roots organizations elected Mr.
Buntrock to the board, says Mr. Hair.
Mr. Hair goes on, “Mr. Buntrock has pledged to support all of the
conservation policies and goals of the National Wildlife
Federation, including those related to toxics and waste
disposal.” And, he finishes with an unqualified endorsement of
Waste Management itself: “We feel that Waste Management, Inc. is
conducting its business in a responsible manner.” Evidence? “We
feel you should have the opportunity to review many of the same
materials that we used in reaching our judgement and suggest that
you write directly to Waste Management, Inc. for this
information,” Mr. Hair concludes. It is not known what Mr.
Buntrock and Waste Management have promised to do for the
Wildlife Federation in return for the valuable endorsement of
their business methods.
No matter. With one of the nation’s largest and wealthiest
environmental organizations won over, Mr. Buntrock is now in a
position to begin systematically acquiring information about his
firm’s only effective adversaries, the grass roots environmental
movement.
Today the frontier of environmental action at the grass roots
level is the “community right to know” movement. The federal
Superfund amendments (known as SARA) require companies to begin
this month to report details about their use of hazardous
chemicals. Charles Elkins, director of the EPA’s Office of Toxic
Substances says the new law represents nothing less than a
“revolution” in the way society deals with toxic chemicals. [NY
TIMES Feb. 14, 1988, pg. 1.] “Data on chemical hazards are going
to be in peoples’ home computers,” he said. With the new
information, Mr. Elkins says, “the American people can take the
lead identifying problems and saying what is to be done about
them.” Mr. Elkins says he expects local citizens “empowered with
knowledge” to bring pressure to force change.
There is no doubt that the SARA law has handed environmental
groups an array of new weapons for confronting polluters. Across
the country, creative new plans will be, and are being, developed
by community groups as the SARA law kicks in.
To assist grass roots groups make effective use of SARA, a
handful of environmental groups in Washington, DC, have formed a
new organization called the Working Group on Community Right to
Know. Participants include Clean Water Action, the Citizens
Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, Environmental Action,
Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council,
the National Campaign Against Toxic Hazards, the Environmental
Policy Institute, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the
National Center for Policy Alternatives, and National Wildlife
Federation. The Working Group’s goal is to provide a
clearinghouse for citizens who want to know how to use the
powerful new law. They plan outreach to grass roots groups
outside DC, to tell people about the law, and to learn what
strategies, developed at the local level, are working. For
example, recent minutes from a meeting of the Working Group
includes a report on grass roots actions under way in Minnesota,
Louisiana, Ohio, California, and Vermont.
Among the most active and hardworking members of the Working
Group are two representatives from the National Wildlife
Federation. In fact, it was one of them who, with Fred Millar,
recently reported on grass roots right-to-know events in
Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, California, and Vermont. We do not
mean to impugn the good intentions of these individuals; we do
not know them. However, we find it difficult to believe that Dean
Buntrock of Waste Management can legitimately be denied access to
these individuals’ meeting minutes, memos, notes, documents, and
records. After all, Mr. Buntrock is now their boss’s boss.
With outreach for the Working Group being coordinated by Fred
Millar of the Environmental Policy Institute–a respected member
of the legitimate environmental community–the files of Working
Group members are rapidly becoming the best single repository in
the nation for grass roots strategic planning on community right
to know. It would be an invaluable resource for industry to gain
access to. It appears to us that Dean Buntrock of Waste
Management, Inc. has gained access to it already.
Contact the Working Group at: 218 D St., SE, Washington, DC
20003; (202) 5442600. Contact National Wildlife Federation at
1412 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036-2266. Phone: (202)
797-6800. For abundant documentation on Waste Management’s
violations, send us $6.00 for a copy of our report, “THE CHICKEN
GUARDING THE FOXES” and relevant back issues of HWN.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: wmi; haulers; corruption; organized crime;
citizen groups; environmentalists; national wildlife federation;
dean l. buntrock; fines; pcbs; il; jay hair; conservation; rtk;
epa; sara; clean water action; cchw; natural resources defense
countil; national campaign against toxic hazards; environmental
policy institute; u.s. public interest research group; national
center for policy alternatives; mn; la; oh; ca; vt; fred millar;