=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #211
—December 11, 1990—
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
==========
The Back issues and Index
are available
here.
The official RACHEL archive is here.
It’s updated constantly.
To subscribe, send E-mail to rachel-
weekly-
request@world.std.com
with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the message. It’s free.
===Previous Issue==========================================Next Issue===
WOLVES MASQUERADING AS SHEPHERDS.
After Union Carbide Corporation killed an estimated 8000 workers
and townspeople in Bhopal, India in December, 1984 (injuring up
to 300,000 others, 50,000 of them seriously) because of flawed
plant design and faulty maintenance (see RHWN #170), the company
felt the need to improve its image. Five years later, in
December, 1989, Carbide issued a report called Toward
Environmental Excellence: A Progress Report in which it claimed
major progress reducing emissions and discharges from its many
U.S. chemical plants, and, further, claimed substantial progress
in actual pollution prevention–creating less waste in the first
place. In short, Carbide presented itself in 1989 as a company
that had reformed itself and was now leading the U.S. chemical
industry in developing a modern approach to environmental
protection.
Part of Carbide’s new image involves the placement of company
officials on the boards of directors of national environmental
organizations. Carbide now has one or more of its top people
(directors, CEOs, or vice presidents) on the governing boards of
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF, the environmental group formerly
headed by William Reilly, now chief of U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency), the World Resources Institute (WRI), the
Wilderness Society, and the Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) where Carbide officials serve not on the board of trustees
but on a non-governance advisory body called the chairman’s
council. (MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, March, 1990, pgs. 10-12.)
In sum, it appeared in 1989 that Carbide had managed to
rehabilitate itself almost entirely–not only had it declared
itself on a cutting-edge industrial track (pollution prevention)
but it had been welcomed into the fold by some of the nation’s
leading environmental organizations. Presumably Carbide’s claims
had been scrutinized by such groups and had been certified as
honest, well-intentioned, and true.
Now, however, a detailed new report reveals that Carbide has
basically not cleaned up its act at all, and that the company has
cynically manipulated data to make it appear that they have
reduced wastes when, in fact, their waste generation has
increased substantially in recent years. Furthermore, the report
charges that Carbide has shifted waste disposal from air to land
and to water–hardly a progressive environmental direction. The
report charges that Carbide’s chemical management and
environmental programs are putting the company’s assets in
jeopardy because of longterm liability resulting from poor
environmental management (on-site burial of large quantities of
hazardous wastes). Carbide is already a potentially responsible
party (a known or suspected dumper) at 21 Superfund sites where
it faces a liability of $421 million dollars; the new report
estimates that Carbide faces an additional liability of $250
million for cleanup costs from dumps it has created on its own
property at various chemical plants around the U.S.
The new report, PRESENT DANGERS… HIDDEN LIABILITIES; A PROFILE
OF THE IMPACT OF THE UNION CARBIDE CORPORAION IN THE UNITED
STATES (1987-1988), was prepared by well-known environmental
scientist Robert Ginsburg for the National Toxics Campaign Fund
and the Council on International and Public Affairs.
Most importantly, this new report reveals how an unprincipled
company can use the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) [part of the
federal Community Right to Know law, which requires large users
of chemicals to report their releases of toxics into the
environment] to make it appear that they have reduced their toxic
emissions when, in fact, their toxic emissions have increased.
Grass-roots activists and journalists using the TRI data should
study this new report carefully because it reveals that the TRI
data must be supplemented by additional sources of information
about a company’s waste generation if a reliable picture of a
company’s total pollution is to be drawn. The TRI data can be
manipulated to make it appear that chemical emissions and
releases are being reduced when, in fact, they are increasing.
Another lesson to be drawn from this new report is that unworthy
companies can find acceptance among some sectors of the American
environmental community without deserving such acceptance.
Specifics:
Carbide’s claims: On pg. 1 of its 1989 report, Carbide said,
“We’re finding ways to reduce the amount of wastes from our
production operations.”
The facts: In 1988, Union Carbide generated 301 million pounds of
hazardous wastes–an increase of 70 million pounds over 1987, a
30.3% growth in waste generation.
Carbide’s claims: In its 1989 report (pg. 6), Carbide said, “Here
are a few of our source reduction accomplishments: Institute,
WV–Reduced annual waste generation in one production unit by 3.4
million pounds–some 60%…. Seadrift, TX–Reduced its largest
hazardous waste stream by 20%…. Reduced the annual amount of
waste solvent generated by over two million pounds… Additional
technology modifications resulted in a 650,000-pound reduction in
annual waste generation. By adjusting production schedules… cut
annual waste generation by an additional 275,000 pounds.”
The facts: Carbide’s claim of a total reduction of 5.4 million
pounds of wastes generated at its plants in Seadrift, TX,
Institute, WV, and Sisterville, WV, is contradicted by the
company’s own official reports to state and federal agencies,
which reveal an increase of 17.6 million pounds at these plants.
Carbide’s claims: “Union Carbide is committed to making the new
law [SARA Title III–Community Right to-Know] a success. In this,
as in the whole area of health, safety and the environment, we
want to do a quality job–and we want people to know about our
commitment.” (Carbide Annual Report, 1987, pg. 6.)
The facts: Carbide became the first company in the U.S. to be
challenged under SARA Title III… when one of its subsidiaries,
Unison Transformer Services, Inc., of Henderson, Kentucky,
claimed trade secrecy protection, refusing to identify one of the
key chemicals used in its Henderson, KY, facility. (Dembo and
others, Abuse of Power: Social Performance of Multinational
Corporations–The Case of Union Carbide, pg. 103). Furthermore,
Carbide reported releasing 4000 pounds more methyl isocyanate
(MIC) into the community of Institute, WV, during 1988 compared
to 1987. MIC is the highly toxic gas that killed an estimated
8000 townspeople living near Carbides’s Bhopal, India, plant in
1984.
Carbide’s claim: Carbide asserts it is a leader in new-style,
modern, environmentally-sensitive chemical processing and
management.
The facts: Union Carbide’s Taft, Louisiana plant generates fully
36% of all the wastes Carbide produces in total. Carbide’s Taft
and Star plants in Louisiana recycle or re-use (as distinct from
incinerating, burning in industrial boilers, or burying in a
dump) only 12% of the hazardous wastes generated at the plants.
This falls far below the chemical industry average rate of 55%,
as identified by the Chemical Manufacturers Association’s 1986
hazardous waste survey of the U.S. chemical industry.
Furthermore, Carbide seems to rely to an unusual degree on land
disposal. In 1988, Carbide buried 35% of its 301 million pounds
of hazardous waste in the ground. According to the Chemical
Manufacturers Association’s 1986 survey, the industry-wide
average for burying hazardous wastes is 13.3%.
It is perhaps not unusual for wolves to masquerade as something
else. What is unusual is for the masquerade to be dissected so
carefully and so thoroughly. Also noteworthy in this case is the
degree to which the environmental community has embraced this
particular wolf; Carbide has managed to place its officials on
the boards of more environmental organizations than any other
company. What does this say about the environmental movement in
this country?
Get: Robert Ginsburg, PRESENT DANGERS… HIDDEN LIABILITIES; A
PROFILE OF THE IMPACT OF THE UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION IN THE
UNITED STATES (1987-1988) (21 pages; dated November, 1990).
Available from two sources: National Toxics Campaign Fund, 1168
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02134; or: Bhopal Action Resource
Center, Council on International and Public Affairs, 777 United
Nations Plaza, Suite 9a, New York, NY 10017.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: union carbide; bhopal; world wildlife fund;
william reilly; wri; nrdc; tws; studies; liability; tri; ky; la;
nethyl isocyante mic; robert ginsburg; chemical industry;