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Dow’s Bhopal defense could be undermined
by company papers
By Saeed Shah
Dec. 6 — New evidence has emerged that could undermine
Union Carbide’s long-standing denial of responsibility for the
world’s worst industrial accident, the devastation of the Indian
city of Bhopal.
The US company has always claimed that its Indian subsidiary was solely
responsible for the design and management of the plant, where a poisonous
gas leak killed thousands of people 20 years ago.
The documents, obtained by The Independent, show the closeness of the
relationship between the US chemical giant and its financially troubled
Indian business.
A massive leak of poisonous gas from the pesticide factory in December
1984 killed some 7,000 people instantly and contributed to the death
of more than 20,000 more. Survivors are still seeking justice and proper
compensation.
The documents also show cost-cutting in the year before the fatal leak.
Staff and maintenance cuts have been cited as key factors in the accident.
Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) from the US owned a 51 percent stake
in its Indian subsidiary, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL).
UCC and its chairman at the time of the leak, Warren Anderson, have
never answered a summons to face charges of culpable homicide in India.
UCC was bought by Dow Chemical, another US giant, in 2001.
The documents show that UCC provided the “basic process design”
for the Bhopal plant - built in the late 1970s.
The first document, dated Sept. 22, 1975, was a memorandum from a UCC
engineer called Charles H. Becker, and shows the intimate and extensive
involvement of UCC in procuring equipment, designing and providing technical
services to the plant in Bhopal. The document shows that UCC was involved
in procuring “safety equipment” and “control instrumentation”
-- both of which failed on the night of Dec. 2 1984, when water entered
a storage tank containing the volatile chemical methyl isocyanate, triggering
a chemical reaction that sent clouds of deadly gas over nearby slums.
The memo ended with the words: “Union Carbide’s know-how,
technical support, and majority ownership of UCIL provide assurance
of technical competence.”
A second document is dated 24 February 1984. This letter is between
two senior managers at Union Carbide Eastern Inc, the Hong Kong-based
subsidiary which oversaw UCC’s operations in Asia. The “confidential”
letter, between vice-president R Natarajan and J B Law, chairman of
Union Carbide Eastern, discussed the severe financial problems that
had hit Union Carbide India by early 1984. It then went on to ask “what
UCC is going to do to resolve the problem.”
The document also revealed that: “A major OIP [Operations Improvement
Program] effort, including reduction of 335 men, resulted in $1.25 million
annual cost savings in 1983 but future savings will not be easy.”
Tim Edwards, of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, said:
“These two documents prove that Union Carbide USA slashed operating
costs and sourced safety systems that, by Union Carbide’s own admission,
did not have the capacity to prevent the disaster.”
Tomm F. Sprick, director of the Union Carbide Information Centre --
the PR department of UCC - insisted: “The cost-cutting memo you
cited had nothing to do with the incident.” He admitted that “the
safety systems in place could not have prevented a chemical reaction
of this magnitude” but blamed the leak on sabotage.
William Krohley, a lawyer for Union Carbide pointed to a civil lawsuit
brought by Bhopal survivors and the Indian government in a US court
in 1987, which found that, at the time, “UCC’s participation
was limited and its involvement in plant operations was terminated long
before the accident. Preliminary process design information furnished
by UCC could not have been used to construct the plant.”
Edwards said the new documents undermined both these conclusions.
“No US court has ever rejected the assertions made by Bhopal survivors
on their merits, only on jurisdictional and procedural grounds,”
Edwards said.
Source: Independent (UK)
Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years
of environmental laws
By Geoffrey Lean
Washington, DC, Dec. 5 — George Bush’s new administration,
and its supporters controlling Congress, are setting out to dismantle
three decades of US environmental protection.
In little over a month since his re-election, they have announced that
they will comprehensively rewrite three of the country’s most important
environmental laws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling,
and reshape the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
They say that the election gave them a mandate for the measures —
which, ironically, will overturn a legislative system originally established
by the Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford — even
though Bush went out of his way to avoid emphasizing his environmental
plans during his campaign.
“The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda,”
said Mike Leavitt, the Bush — appointed head of the EPA. He points
out that over a third of the agency’s staff will become eligible
for retirement over the President’s four — year term, enabling
him to fill it with people lenient to polluters.
The administration’s first priority is the controversial plan to
open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. Two years ago the
Senate defeated plans to exploit the refuge — home to caribou,
polar bears , musk oxen and millions of migratory birds — by 52
votes to 48.
But with the election of four Republican senators in favor of the drilling,
and the disappearance of one who opposed it, the administration now
has the votes for victory.
It plans to follow with an energy bill — also defeated in the last
Congress — which would investigate vast new tracts for exploitation
for oil and gas. It will also encourage the building of nuclear power
stations, halted since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.
Far more radical measures are also under way. Joe Barton, the Texas
Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who
is to help push through the energy bill, has also announced a comprehensive
review of the Clean Air Act, one of the world’s most successful
environmental laws.
Environmentalists predict the emasculation of the act, which has cut
air pollution across the country by more than half over the last 30
years. Not to be outdone, the Republican chairman of the House Resources
Committee, Richard Pombo, has announced a review of the Endangered Species
Act, for the protection of wildlife. The law has been the main obstacle
to the felling of much of the US’s remaining endangered rain forest.
And in a third assault, Congressional leaders have also announced an
attack on the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires details
of the environmental effects of major developments before they proceed.
Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said last
week that the previous Bush administration had largely contented itself
with weakening environmental legislation, but the new one intended to
go much further. He added: “We will now see an assault on the law
which will set the US in the direction of becoming a Third World country
in terms of environmental protection.”
The environmentalists point out that almost every local referendum on
environmental issues carried out on election day achieved a green majority.
They recall the fate of the assault on environmental law — headed
by the former Congressional Speaker, Newt Gingrich, in the mid 1990s
— which caused such opposition that Congress enacted tough new
green legislation.
Source: Independent (UK)
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