Dupont CEO Threatens to Off-Shore US Jobs Due to EPA Enforcement of Regulations
For years, residents of Pompton Lakes NJ have wondered why the Dupont Corporation has been allowed to poison their community – and even their homes – for decades with impunity, with no enforcement sanctions from state DEP or federal EPA.
Some were given hope when new Obama EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck pledged to involve the community and hold Dupont accountable for cleanup.
Those hopes have largely been dashed due to repeated EPA failures to honor Enck’s pledges.
Baffled by EPA failure, many have asked what could explain EPA’s reluctance to enforce environmental laws against Dupont, and why the Dupont Pompton lakes site is treated differently by EPA than other similar toxic sites.
To explain why, in response, I recently wrote: Dupont Pompton Lakes Site of National Significance:
Basically, the Dupont site raises major policy and regulatory issues of national significance that are being watched closely by politically powerful polluters.
These are the same politically powerful polluters and economic elites that forced President Obama to back down and withdraw the EPA’s proposed new ozone standard, that have blocked progress on global warming, and that have stymied EPA efforts to protect public health from air, water, and toxic chemical pollution. …
For each individual regulatory issue, EPA is facing enormous behind the scenes political pressure from polluters and their friends in Congress and the White House.
Well, my surmise has been confirmed – Dupont is dialed in to the Obama White House.
In a story about EPA’s enforcement fine against Dupont for poisoning the Delaware River with toxic chemicals, it was confirmed that the Dupont CEO had met personally with Obama (see Philly Inquirer: Dupont Fined for Poisoning Delaware River).
In that Obama meeting, Dupont CEO Ellen Kullman made a thinly veiled threat to relocate US jobs if regulations were enforced. The Inquirer wrote:
The fine and settlement comes as DuPont, which earned $3 billion in profits last year, is weighing whether to expand the Edge Moor plant or rival works in the southern U.S. and Asia. CEO Ellen Kullman has met with President Obama, urging less cumbersome regulations and lower taxes to make it more attractive for her company to site more factories and jobs in the U.S.
Obama has repeatedly caved to corporate pressure – and Dupont has an inside track.
Dupont CEO Kullman is literally on the White House webpage, as a member of Obama’s  Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, (that group of corporate job offf-shoring CEO’s, chaired by job destroying  GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt).
I cannot believe what is happening to us! We need help desperately and who will help us now????? The residents of Pompton Lakes have suffered for decades! DuPont needs to clean our community to the highest residental standards available to us and the EPA must take full control and make sure it happens. The residents need a Property Value Protection Plan to include a buy-out option for those that had enough and would like to leave and live out the rest of their lives in a clean environment. Should they not have that right? They should not have to suffer a great financial loss since they did nothing wrong. Some residents only have their home worth and do not have big cushy bank accounts or pensions that they can fall back on! If there is no plan to EVER do a full residential clean-up then future generations to come that will reside in Pompton Lakes will suffer once again! When is enough enough!
@Lisa Riggiola
Among other things involving the cleanup, homeowners in Pompton Lakes should get full equity protection.
EPA should create a special fund, funded from Dupont money, so that property owners are guaranteed the real estate market value that existed in 2008, just prior to the release of the vapor intrusion data.
Dupont should be required to purchase homes at that 2008 value from willing sellers, or reimburse the difference between 2008 fair market value and actual sale price.
This can be done by looking at 2008 comparable sales data.
@Bill Wolfe
In the 11/9/11 Council Meeting it was requested by a resident/appointed member of the other CAG funded by the EPA for the Pompton Lakes Mayor and Council to set-up a committee to focus on the development of the DuPont contaminated site. Meanwhile, guess what this person does for a living?
Interesting – wouldn’t you say considering a bioremediation pilot study to clean up the DuPont plume just failed???? Thanks for the above information Bill – now how can we make sure the residents in the DuPont plume area of Pompton Lakes receive full equity protection?
@Lisa Riggiola
EPA could issue this kind of finding and action memo for the PL site:
(iii). The (lack) of availability of other appropriate Federal or slate mechanisms to respond to the release.
EPA believes that no person or local, state. or Federal agency is in the position, has the authority. or has the resources to independently and in a timely manner implement an effective response action to address the on-going threats presented at the Site. Other than CERCLA, there is no comprehensive Federal, state, or local program that provides both the authority and resources necessary to respond to a release of the scope presented in [Pompton Lakes] Libby atOUs 4 and 7. Under CERCLA as implemented by EPA under Executive Order 12580, EPA is the agency with the authority to address such releases.
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/libby/FINALAM.pdf
@Lisa Riggiola
Wait a minute:
Are you telling me that the EPA funded CAG will focus on REDEVELOPMENT of the Dupont SIte?
Are your kidding me? !!
@Lisa Riggiola
And, of course, EPA has the authority {under RCRA and Superfund) to make this kind of finding (which I have already written to EPA RA Enck to request that EPA do so]:
v. ENDANGERMENT DETERMINATION
The aetuaI or threatened releases from this Site, if not addressed by continuation of the time-
critical Removal Actions set forth in the original Action Memorandum and subsequent amendments may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health or welfare or the environment. The original Action Memorandwn for the Site. dated May 23. 2000 (EPA Region 8. 2000). as well as subsequent Amendments and the Administrative Record. describe in detail evidence o f the toxicity associated with exposure to LA [vapors, soils, et al], the large number of human exposure pathways, the significantly elevated disease rate in [Pompton] Libby residents, and the variety of conditions present in and around [Pompton] Libby that could lead to continuing exposures.
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/libby/FINALAM.pdf
@Lisa Riggiola
Hit this link, and a look at the statuary basis and the sources/exposure pathways, and tell me if you think they apply to the conditions in Pompton lakes:
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/libby/FinalPHE.pdf
@Lisa Riggiola
Hit thins link, and take a look at “Operable Unit #4” and let me know if you have similar conditions in Pompton:
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/libby/LibbyBackgrounder.pdf
Bill:
There was an article in the Suburban Trends today on the above metioned committee. I will make share I share this article with you once it is up on line.
Some want to plan future uses of the DuPont property in Pompton Lakes
http://www.northjersey.com/news/133788188_Committee_formed_to_explore__how_to_use_DuPont_property_.html . Decades of no clean-up/failed pilot studies-why now? Thousands of residents live close to this site and without a clean-up to the highest residential standards available to us future generations will suffer!