Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less
30 guides found.
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 10 Rocky Flats Colorado plutonium contamination from nuclear weapons plant 7 billion cleanup contaminat
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1989, the FBI and EPA raided Rocky Flats, a U.S. nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado, and found plutonium contamination so severe that a s…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 09 Hanford Nuclear Site most contaminated nuclear site in Western hemisphere 677 million annual cleanup
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1986, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimated that cleaning up the Hanford Nuclear Site—a 586-square-mile stretch of Washington state contam…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 08 Kingston Tennessee coal ash spill 2008 TVA spill released 54 million cubic yards of ash cleanup cost
THE KINGSTON COAL ASH SPILL: THE $1.2 BILLION CLEANUP THAT DIDN’T INCLUDE THE WORKERS WHO DIED THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET On December 22, 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 07 Libby Montana asbestos WR Grace knew mine contaminated town 400 deaths company paid 250 million clea
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1976, W.R. Grace’s chief medical officer wrote an internal memo stating that the company’s vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana, was “a serious heal…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 06 Anaconda Copper Montana Berkeley Pit contains 40 billion gallons of toxic water ARCOBP cleanup liabi
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET The Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, contains 40 billion gallons of water so acidic—pH 2.5, comparable to lemon juice—that it dissolves metal. In 1995…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 05 Superfund program 1300 sites on National Priority List average cleanup cost 140 million polluter pay
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET Between 1980 and 2023, the U.S. Superfund program spent $78 billion cleaning up toxic waste sites. In 70% of cases, the polluter paid nothing—the pub…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 04 Times Beach Missouri dioxin contamination Syntex paid 102 million of 200 million cleanup cost town d
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1982, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that the soil in Times Beach, Missouri, contained dioxin levels 300 times higher t…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 03 Love Canal Hooker Chemical sold site knowing it was contaminated cleanup cost 400 million company pa
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET In 1953, Hooker Chemical sold a 16-acre toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls, New York, to the local school board for $1. The deed included a clause war…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 02 Exxon Valdez Exxon paid 507 million after Supreme Court reduced punitive damages from 5 billion clea
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET Exxon paid $507 million in punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill—less than 1% of its $64.7 billion in profits over the 14 years the case wa…
Environmental Disasters Where Polluter Paid Less: 01 Deepwater Horizon BP paid 65 billion estimated long-term environmental cost 145 billion Gulf ecosyst
THE ONE FACT THEY WON’T FORGET On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and unleashing the largest marine oil spill …