CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
When
Air Products and Chemicals Is Charged with a Crime, and Hardly Anyone Notices,
Was it Charged with a Crime?
20 Corporate Crime Reporter 10(4), March 3, 2006
Yes, of course it was.
But imagine the relief of Air Products and Chemicals – 281 on the Fortune
500 with $7.4 billion in sales.
In January, it was charged with a series of environmental crimes by the Los
Angeles City Attorney.
And only a small local newspaper – The Daily Breeze – wrote
about it.
Given that perhaps the number one concern of big publically traded corporations
is protecting corporate reputation, the people at the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based
Air Products must have been relieved when the press just ignored the alleged
crimes.
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office says it put out a press
release on January 5, 2006 announcing the criminal charge against the company.
And the press release is on its web site.
The City Attorney’s spokesperson, Frank Mateljan, has no explanation for
the lack of coverage.
“We blasted the press release to everyone on our list,” he says.
The company was charged will illegally dumping hazardous chemicals into the
Dominguez Channel in Los Angeles.
Arraignment has been set later this month.
State officials charged the company with 15 counts of unlawful disposal of hazardous
waste, four counts of exceeding waste discharge permit limits, and four counts
of depositing factory wastes into waters of the state.
The Air Products facility in Wilmington, California produces hydrogen that is
sent via pipeline to major refineries in the Los Angeles area.
Hydrogen is used in the refining process to produce cleaner burning fuels.
Air Products has a permit to dump stormwater and wastewater into the Dominguez
Channel – which flows directly into the Los Angeles Harbor and the Pacific
Ocean.
But it must monitor the dumping and not exceed certain limits on pollutants.
The company’s own reporting to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality
Control Board showed discharges from the facility that included “suspended
solids, oil and gas, copper and residual chlorine in excess of permit levels,”
the City Attorney said.
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Crime Reporter
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