Herculaneum (Lead Poisoning)

It's an old story. It's been with us since the first humans began to congregate into groups and live together in communities. Shit rolls down hill; it's just that simple. That's why the rich folks, the kings and presidents, the industrialists and bankers, the priests and the politicians all live at the top of the hill. (Capitol Hill -- coincidence?) Miss Manners would say, "clean up after yourself." The trouble is that's a thankless and expensive task and when you're rich and powerful you often develop an attitude that you're above such things. As our societies have grown more complex and more technologically sophisticated this would be simple problem has become complex. It has become more and more difficult to be able to uncover just whose shit it is; meanwhile the shit has become far more dangerous.

It adds a new twist to the story when the shit not only stinks but will likely sicken, mutilate and/or kill you. We all know the history well enough: black lung disease, Love Canal, DDT, Pacific Gas and Electric, Silent Spring, The Cuyahoga River, Anniston Alabama -- it's a really long list, and with the stakes raised to the level where human lives hang in the balance we must now attach the word criminal to the irresponsible dumping of toxic wastes.

New twist number two: There are no criminals, only faceless corporations protected by massive amounts of money and walls of lawyers who will do anything for massive amounts of money. The poor folk being dumped on often have the letter of the law on their side, but the law has other sides that are out of their price range (footnote). Even when the dumped on win in court, the punishment to the faceless corporation can often be less painful than cleaning up their mess. Who can be held responsible? The stock holders who have no power to effect corporate policy? The corporate officers who pass the buck down to the managers? The managers who claim they were only doing their jobs? Corporations are fundamentally legal institutions designed to protect those who are benefitting most from the corporation's activity, from any liability for the corporation's activity. As we've grown more environmentally aware and passed laws that regulate toxic waste disposal, more and more corporations have been caught and brought to trial for breaking those laws. Yet rarely if ever have any individuals been penalized personally for the damage done.

Now what about Herculaneum? How bad is it? Is Doe Run a good corporate citizen doing all they can to remedy the problem or are they villains? Is there a real villain or just a faceless corporation? Let's take a careful look.

Here's some facts worth careful consideration:

• Doe Run continues today as it has continued for over twenty years to violate the EPA clean air standards for lead emisions. Those standards were set in 1978.
• Doe Run agreed in 1990 to bring the smelter into compliance with the law and set a target date (in negotiation with the state) of 1995 to achieve this goal. They failed.
• Sections of Herculaneum are seriously contaminated with lead -- so much so that Doe Run has removed and replaced some home owner's entire yards. More yards are planned for replacement. The government limit for safe levels of lead is 400 ppm in whatever substance tested. Herculaneum has lead levels as high as 300,000 ppm -- deadly.
• In a recent study, 24 percent of Herculaneum's children under six tested with elevated lead levels. Doe Run points out that this isn't too bad and in fact not much worse than in some urban areas in the state. They make a point of noting that the children testing high for lead may have been contaminated from some other source. This is true. However it is also possible that, after twenty years living under a cloud of lead contamination, the mothers of Herculaneum have learned to take extra care with their children. I'm inclined to believe the latter.
• The situation is deemed critical enough by the EPA and Missouri Department of Natural Resources that the MoDNR issued an Abatement and Cease and Desist Order on Sept. 25, 2001 that required immediate corrective action within 60 days or the plant would be shut down.
• During the more than twenty years that the Doe Run smelter has been in violation of the EPA standards, the company has complied with the state's and the EPA's requirements to reduce emisions. At present they have agreed to spend $15 million to address this most recent crisis. This is an interesting fact. Legally, Doe Run has been playing ball, so to speak, with the government regulatory agencies. Doesn't that fact pass the buck to the state and exonerate Doe Run of any villainous behaviour? The government after all has known for over twenty years that Herculaneum was being lead poisoned. Why did they wait until now to start making a fuss about it?

Not an entirely clear picture is it? Is this really the stupid government's fault? Let's look at some more facts that will help. As we dig a little deeper I'm reminded of agent Carter's comment in the film Rush Hour 2, "Follow the white man with the money."

• Doe Run is an international company headquartered in St. Louis. In addition to the Herculaneum smelter Doe Run owns and operates the La Oroya smelter in Peru. Here's a good test to see if we're dealing with villains: How does Doe Run operate the La Oroya smelter?
• Oh well, so much for giving Doe Run the benefit of the doubt. They're villains all right. La Oroya is a filthy cesspool of toxic waste. Oxfam America reports that lead levels are elevated in 90 percent of the people living near the smelter. Lead levels in the air are 800% above acceptable standards. Rivers nearby are contaminated with lead, iron, zinc, copper, and arsenic. The people living near the smelter are primarily Native Americans who have no political clout. Without Peruvian government intervention, Doe Run is happy to have poisoned them and willing to poison their children so long as it remains profitable. That makes them villains, and it's fair to assume that without government intervention here in the U.S., the people of Herculaneum could expect the same.
• Doe Run is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Renco Group Inc. Let's apply the same test as above. If The Renco Group's other holdings are villainous operations, we get a clearer picture of Doe Run and who's behind it. So what have we; a collection of model U.S. corporations any of us would welcome into our communities, or more villains?
• Magnesium Corporation of America located in Rowley Utah is another Renco Group subsidiary. For the past two years they have topped the EPA's list of our nation's foulest polluters. Now isn't that a coincidence! On January 16, 2001 the Federal Government filed suit against Magnesium Corp. for pollution and illegal mining (footnote).
• WCI Steel Inc. in Warren Ohio is another Renco Group subsidiary. The EPA has been suing WCI Steel for years now for one violation after another not the least of which is polluting the Mahoning River with zinc, copper, lead and cyanide (footnote). Am I detecting a pattern here?

Yes, it's villains folks. In other words we have a huge corporation willing to take unnecessary risks with our lives for their profits. So some children in rural Missouri are lead poisoned. Compared with Renco's or should I say Ira's billions that's just too bad. Ira? That would be Ira Leon Rennert. We found the white man with the money. The Renco Group is just a front. It's a legal front that protects its owner like a shield. The Renco Group is the wholly owned property of Ira Leon Rennert.

Log on over to Google.com and do a search for Ira L. Rennert. What a great guy! He's a philanthropist wouldn't you know it. His companies break the law and poison people and Ira takes a portion of his profits and gives them to charity. Even Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, got in on Ira's charity. In 1997 he gave a talk at Barnard to inaugurate a new chair endowed by Ira to the tune of 2.5 million. The topic of his talk was, Job: A Cry for Justice. Now there's a definition of irony; I wonder if Mr. Wiesel knew he was working for blood money? Ira Rennert appears to be a religious man. Many of the search results that come up for his name involve his gifts to religious groups or schools. His name adorns an organization known as The S. Daniel Abraham & Ira. L. Rennert Torah Ethics Project. The project's mission: "It seeks to work with local communities to sensitize all to the cardinal importance of achieving a harmonious balance of both ritual and ethical excellence." How strange is this? How does Mr. Rennert reconcile his actions with his beliefs? How is poisoning children for more filthy money ethically excellent? Mr. Rennert, we'd like to know? Would the proper term here be hypocrisy? Christ was an even tempered man. There was only one thing that really got him angry:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. . . . "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?
Matthew 23:27-33

Mr. Rennert may prefer a reference from The Prophets; the same message is there:

Woe to those who enact evil
And to those who constantly record unjust decisions,
So as to deprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor of My people of {their} rights
So that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the orphans.
Isaiah 10:1-2

Should you be inspired to drop Ira a note and help him with his ethical problems, here's his address as best I can figure:

Ira Leon Rennert
Renco Group Inc
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112