Greenwashing is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company's policies or products are environmentally friendly.
Slabwatchdog.com is the curiously opaque website masquerading as an environmental group. It has been identified as a potential frontgroup for the lead battery industry.
Following the Money revealed the connections between the Slabwatchdog and two of the biggest players in the lead battery industry:the RSR corporation and the Doe Run Company.
Now in part 1 of this diary I will examine the environmental history of the first of these two corporations and see if Slabwatchdog is fronting for them by providing a "green" patina to cover their operations in this notoriously toxic industry. The findings after the jump.
The RSR corporation is one of the largest lead smelters in the US, and also recycles lead components, polypropylene plastic battery cases, and battery acids. RSR Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Quexco Incorporated and is controlled by Chairman and CEO Howard M. Meyers.
RSR has a long record of toxic environmental pollution at its facilities. In Dallas Texas, the notorious RSR Superfund Site was one of the most polluted sites in the country.
“West Dallas residents celebrated when the Clinton Administration declared last May that they live in the largest lead-contaminated Superfund site in the United States. Portions of one of the nation's biggest housing projects and five schools, all located within five square miles of a now-defunct lead smelter, are slated for cleanup (although Federal Environmental Protection Agency records indicate as much as sixteen square miles of West Dallas are contaminated)."
The federal government ordered a $13.25 million
(2003) penalty for RSR Corporation and its subsidiaries for pollution in West Dallas. It also required cleanup at the site valued at $11.6 million, and reimbursement to the state of costs in the amount of $870,000.
In Seattle Washington, Quemetco, an RSR subsidiary was linked to substantial environmental damage and another Superfund site. They agreed to pay $8.5 million (2006) to resolve liability for cleanup costs relating to the contamination of Harbor Island in Puget Sound.
In the city of Industry California, Quemetco, paid $70,000 (2007) in fines for air quality violations to State pollution Control agencies.
In Indianapolis Indiana, Two Quexco affiliates, Quemetco Inc. and RSR Corp., plead guilty to dumping pollutants from lead-smelting operations into the Indianapolis sewer system and agreed to pay a fine of $1.5 million.(1995) Four employees, including a senior vice-president, pleaded guilty in the same case and two of them were sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
Quexco and its affiliates (RSR and Quemetco) certainly could use some positive environmental credibility. In part 2, I will examine the environmental record of the Doe Run Company and see if they would also benefit from some "Greenwashing".