On May 24, 2004 federal officials filed an agreement to fine Wal-Mart a total of 3.1 million towards storm water runoff violations. This fine of 3.1 million is a record civil penalty. These violations were cited at 24 sites in nine different states including: California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Assistant attorney general Thomas L. Sansonetti states that “Complying with the storm water portion of the regulations is not that difficult it requires some low-cost technology, and these contractors, on behalf of Wal-Mart, weren't doing it”.
In response Wal-Mart has stepped forward stating that they hope to be a trendsetter in environmental compliances moving forward. They will be requiring their contractors to attend educational sessions addressing compliance with storm water management. They also plan to spend $250,000 on an environmental project in one of the nine states where they failed to comply with storm water regulations.
This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been fined for the inability to comply with storm water regulations, in 2001 they were fined 1 million for violations at 17 different sites. The Federal Government feels the more specific assurances from Wal-Mart for how they plant to go about correcting problems will provide a greater chance of continued implementation.
According to the EPA, less than half of all commercial construction companies do not obtain proper storm water permits or undertake all of the necessary actions needed for adequate storm water mitigation approaches.
Article: http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?
It is just plain sad that companies pay so little attention to the environment that they have be fined millions of dollars just to comply with laws. Also, though I'm rarely pro-government involvement, I have to say that the government should really be paying closer attention and being more strict with the large corporations.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Wal-Mart, a multi-billion dollar corporation, has decided to spent just a quarter of a million dollars on an environmental project in just one of nine states in which they violated regulations is really ridiculous. Their response seems to be the bare minimum.
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