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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
7.21.2003 ET
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CSR News from:
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United Steelworkers
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News Category:
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Rio Tinto Brags About Highest Toxic Releases in US
Company Tells the Half-Truth about 730 Million Pounds of Pollution
(CSRwire) PITTSBURGH, PA - In a setback to the movement for corporate social
responsibility, Utah based Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP, FTSE:RIO.L, ASX:RIO)
subsidiary Kennecott Utah Copper advertised what it claimed was improved
performance on toxic releases, despite the Environmental Protection Agency
later revealing that one of the company’s facilities led the United
States in toxic releases by over 263 million pounds.
Kennecott Utah Copper (KUC), like other Rio Tinto subsidiaries, generates
reports discussing purported company social and environmental performance.
In 2002, Kennecott released an annual report titled “Social and
Environment Report,” along with a mailing that went out to some Salt
Lake County residents titled “Kennecott Expects Significant Drop in
Future TRI Numbers.” The report and mailing make numerous claims
about alleged improvements in Kennecott’s toxic releases for
2001.
However, on June 20, 2003, the EPA released 2001 figures for the Toxic
Release Inventory (TRI), a database that details toxic releases by
facilities in the US, which portray Kennecott in a much different light.
According to the EPA’s TRI, in 2001 a Kennecott facility in
Copperton, Utah was the largest toxic releaser in the US- for the third
year in a row- releasing 695,929,704 pounds of toxic chemicals to the
environment. This is over 263 million pounds more than the second largest
toxic releaser.
EPA TRI figures also show that, in 2001, Kennecott:
owned and operated the 1st, 13th and 19th largest toxic releasing
facilities of all 24,896 reporting facilities in the US
released 54 tons of cyanide from its Salt Lake County facilities, 23
tons more cyanide than it released in 2000.
released 99.8% of all toxic chemicals released in Salt Lake County,
the largest toxic releasing county in the country
released 95.2% of all toxic chemicals released in Utah, the second
largest toxic releasing state in the country
released from its Salt Lake County facilities 8.1% of all arsenic
compounds released overall by the 24,896 reporting facilities in the US.
Arsenic is a known carcinogen.
released from its Salt Lake County facilities 22.3% of all lead
compounds released overall by the 24,896 reporting facilities in the US.
Lead can affect almost every organ and system in the human body, including
kidneys and the reproductive system. The most sensitive is the central
nervous system, particularly in children.
“It’s absolutely outrageous that Kennecott would use social
reporting to portray its massive toxic releases in a positive
light,” said Diane Heminway, Environmental Projects Coordinator for
the United Steelworkers of America. “These kinds of antics are what
make many people cynical about corporate commitment to social
responsibility in general.”
Heminway went on to describe specific claims made by Kennecott in its
social and environmental reporting as “half-truths, if not downright
deceptions,” including:
Kennecott’s “Social and Environment Report”
released in 2002 includes a section titled “Selenium Discharge
Reduced by Eighty Percent,” referring to Kennecott’s reduced
selenium discharges from its facilities in Salt Lake County to a water
body in Utah. However, while Kennecott did reduce these discharges by
1,419 pounds, its overall selenium discharges from its Salt Lake County
facilities increased by 7,735 pounds.
In the recent Kennecott mailing “Kennecott Expects Significant
Drop in Future TRI Numbers,” Kennecott claims that its smelter is the
world’s cleanest. The 2001 TRI figures list Kennecott’s
smelter and refinery as the19th largest toxic releaser in the US.
In the same mailing, Kennecott notes that lead and arsenic air
emissions from its smelter in 2001 will be lower than those in 2000.
While this is true, the mailing overlooks that, for another Kennecott
facility in Salt Lake County, arsenic releases increased by over nine
million pounds and lead releases increased by over 33 million pounds from
2000 to 2001.
Recently, Kennecott has put a different spin on its massive toxic releases
than it did in earlier social reporting, downplaying their significance
rather than bragging about them. According to news reports, after EPA
released the 2001 TRI figures, Kennecott spokesman Louis Cononelos claimed
“reporting requirements” undermine the original intent of the
TRI, saying, “this huge numbers game becomes meaningless to the
public.”
Said Mike Wright, Director of the United Steelworkers of America’s
Health, Safety and Environment Department, “Seven hundred and thirty
million pounds of Kennecott’s toxic chemicals in Salt Lake County
residents’ backyard is hardly meaningless to the public, and
Kennecott knows it. That’s why they produce the glossy reports and
mailings. However, what workers and communities living nearby Kennecott
facilities need is for the company to clean up its act, not a denial of
responsibility and not a whitewash.”
Kennecott Utah Copper, based in Magna, Utah (USA) employs about 1,900
mineral mining, processing and support workers at its Salt Lake City area
facilities, approximately 1,000 of which are represented by the United
Steelworkers of America. In 2002, its parent Rio Tinto, which employs
about 60,000 people globally, reported US$10.8 billion in gross revenues
and US$2.4 billion in gross profits. KUC claimed US$755 million in
revenues and US$78 million in net profits.
1. Toxic Release Inventory, www.epa.gov/triexplorer/.
2. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ToxFAQs for Arsenic,
July 2001
3. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ToxFAQs for Lead,
June 1999
4. Deseretnews.com, July 2, 2003, http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,510036893,00.html
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