EPA rule redesigns quietly cut GM’s cleanup obligation by millions

Evidence

But the EPA’s early resolve quickly eroded. The latest battle with General Motors has been over regulatory gymnastics and some interesting redesignations of what the EPA admits is a very dangerous site. The EPA estimated that it could cost 138 million to clean up the GM site, but during the mid-1990s has balked and backed down, redesignated and allowed for new proposals, proposals which would save General Motors a considerable amount of money. In August of 1990, the EPA suggested that “containment” rather than “treatment” can be appropriate for industrial sites contaminated with PCBs between 10 and 500 ppm. The redesignation by EPA meant that GM would have to dredge and/or treat only 54,000 cubic yards of contaminated soils, in contrast to the 171,00 cubic yards it currently has on-site or in nearby rivers and creeks. This redesignation of the numbers has saved General Motors over 15 million dollars in cleanup costs. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 112

Categorization

• XREF: Governance/regulatory discretion weakening cleanup connects directly to the legal-systems thread on institutional limits before tribal sovereignty. — connects to: General Motors paid only $507,000 for 25 years of PCB dumping — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 111
• SEED: An essay angle: how ‘containment versus treatment’ redefinition quietly transfers billions from public health to private balance sheets.