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Environmental Record

In Febuary of 2002, Simplot agreed to buy equipment and pay penalties related to a release of 80,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide form a facility in Pocatello. The Company violated the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act by failing to immediately notify the Power and Bannock Counties' Local Emergency Planning Comittees or the State Emergency response Commission of the release. In February of 2004, J.R. Simplot Company Agreed to pay the EPA $525,000 and install a $2 million in air pollution control equipment to resolve violations of the federal Clean Air Act at its silica sand mining facility in Overton, Nevada. The violation occurred in 1988 when the company removed equipment required by the federal Clean Air Act to control emissions of air pollutants. In June of 2005, J.R. Simplot agreed to pay a $4550 fine for violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act in a settlement with the EPA. The company was investigated for misbranded Pesticide containers.

Environmental Record

In the summer of 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) removed 23,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments and soil from the General Motors Superfund site in Massena, New York for disposal at a licensed facility in Utah. The amount contained 13,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments dredged from the St.Lawrence River. The sediments had been stored on the site since 1995. There was also 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated sludge from the active wastewater treatment plant on the General Motors property. General Motors was ranked 20th in the 2002 toxic 100. The company released 12,771,830 pounds of gases in the year 2002. In September of 2006, the state of California filed suit agianst General Motors, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Ford. The companies were accused of producing cars that emitted over 289 million metric tons of carbon per year in the United States, accounting for nearly 20% of carbon emissions in the United States and 30% of carbon emmissions in California.

Environmental Record

Tyco Printed Circuit Group (TPCG) of Stafford, Connecticut, was sentenced on 12 counts of violation the Clean Air Act in August of 2004. The plea agreement called for TPCG to pay a total of $10 million in fines. Of that amount, 6 million was paid as a federal criminal fine; $2.7 million went to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP natural resources fund; the Towns of Stafford and Manchester received $500,000 each to fund improvements in their sewer and water treatment system; and $300,000 was paid for recycling deionized and other wastewater at the company's Stafford, Staffordville facilities. Between 1999 and June of 2001, TPCG managers at the company's Stafford, Staffordville and Manchester facilities engaged in a variety of practices that caused the facilities to discharge wastewater with higher than permitted levels of pollutants into municipal sewage treatment systems. The illegal practices included, but were not limited to, diluting potentially non-compliant wastewater samples, discarding samples with excessive levels of toxic metals, and omitting samples that were not in compliance for PH. Daniel R. Callahan, the former Dirctor of Environmental Health and Safety of Stafford Division of Tyco Printed Circuit Group, pled guilty to violating the Clean Air Act on Novembor 17 of 2003. Callahan falsified reports submitted to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The reports failed to include the fact that a "batch tank" had been discharged into the Manchester public sewer system. Tyco's DEP permit required that all discharges into public sewer systems be reported. Tyco was 41st on the 2002 Political Economy Research Institute's (PERI) Toxic 100.

Environmental Record

Alcoa is ranked 9th in the Political Economy Research Institute's (PERI) Toxic 100 of 2002. The company released 9.88 million pounds of toxic air in 2002. In April of 2003, Alcoa Inc. agreed to spend an estimated $330 million to install a new coal-fired power plant with state-of-the-art pollution controls to eliminate the vast majority of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from the power plant at Alcoa's aluminum production facility in Rockdale, Texas. The settlement was the ninth case the Bush Administration pursued to bring the coal-fired power plant industry into full compliance with the Clean Air Act. Alcoa was unlawfully operated the Rockdale facility since it overhauled the Rockdale power plant without installing necessary pollution controls and without first obtaining proper permits required by "New Source Review" program of the Clean Air Act. In February of 1999, Alcoa cleaned soils and sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and lead at the York Oil federal Superfund site in Moira, New York in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency. The site, a former waste oil recycling storage facility, accepted waste oil from a number of companies, including Alcoa. The facility was improperly managed and operated and, as a result, soils on the York Oil Property and nearby wetlands sediments and groundwater were contaminated. The EPA issued a Superfund Unilateral Order on December 31, 1998 requiring Alcoa to excavate, treat and dispose of the contaminated wetlands sediments.

Environmental Record

Dominion Resources Incorporated was 19th on the Political Economy Research Institute's (PERI) 2002 Toxic 100. The company was responsible for 15.15 million pounds of toxic air emissions in the year of 2002. In December of 2007, a settlement between the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Dominion Energy of Brayton Point called for the company's power generating plant to install new closed cycle cooling towers that provided significant protection to aquatic organisms in Mount Hope Bay, which flows into Narragansett Bay. The 2007 settlement resolved an ongoing dispute that began in 2003. The EPA issued a final discharge permit called a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) for the Brayton Point Power Station requiring significant reductions in thermal discharges to, and water intake from, Mount Hope Bay. In 2002, Dominion was responsible for 1,110,703 pounds of gastrointestinal or Liver Toxicant emissions, 1,440,000 pounds of Musculoskeletal Toxicant emissions, and 1,489,763 pounds of suspected respiratory toxicant emissions, and 1,478,383 pounds of suspected skin or sense organ toxicant emissions among other emissins that are suspected to be hazardous.

Environmental Record

The Kerr-McGee Corporation was ranked 30th on the 2003 Political Economy Research Institute's (PERI) Toxic 100. The company was responsible for 840,000 pounds of toxic emissions in 2002. In May of 2007, Kerr-McGee Corp spent $18 million on pollution controls in the first comprehensive settlement under the Clean Air Act that reduced harmful emission and conserved natural gas at production facilities across Utah and Colorado. The settlement addressed violations discovered at several of Kerr-McGee's natural gas compressor stations located on the Uinta and Ouray Indian Reservation bear Vernal, Utah, and in the Denver Julesburg Basin near Weld County, Colorado. In addition to implementing pollution controls, the agreement required Kerr-McGee to pay a $200,000 penalty, and spend $250,000 on environmental projects to benefit the areas in which violations occurred. In July of 2005, the United States EPA settled with Kerr McGee Chemical in Henderson, Nevada that required the company to pay $55,392 penalty to resolve air permitting violations at its facility that began in 1993. The EPA cited Kerr-McGee for failing to install carbon monoxide emissions controls required under the Clean Air Act when it installed a new open hearth furnace in 1993. The company spent $4.8 million to install proper pollution controls at the facility reducing total carbon monoxide emission 115 tons per year, an 80% reduction from previous levels.

Environmental Record

Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated was ranked 34th on the 2002 Political Econonmy Research Institute's (PERI) Toxic 100. The company was resposable for 8.17 million pounds of toxic emissions in 2002.