Edge of the Storm?
April 1, 2010 - by
A couple of months ago the Supreme Court decided corporations – like people who talk and breathe and walk around on two legs – have an inalienable right to free speech, including the right to criticize politicians they don’t like all they want.
Now, back when the court ruled that banks and insurance companies could attack politicians there was a lot of moaning it would lead straight to, say, Solomon Brothers running TV ads blasting away at any Congressman who voted against bank bailouts or AIG ripping into Senators who tried to limit their executive bonuses.
Well, we just got an example of what may be the front edge of the coming storm right here in North Carolina – down in Stanly County.
Back during World War I old Pittsburgh Tycoon Andrew Mellon put an aluminum smelter down in the tiny hamlet of Badin on the Yadkin River; after that, for five decades, Alcoa Corporation – quite legally – dumped arsenic and cyanide and PCBs in fields and forests across Stanly County. As Alcoa executive Gene Ellis told a newspaper (perhaps with more candor than discretion) back in those days everybody used the ‘Back 40’ to get rid of their waste.
That has left both Stanly County and Alcoa with huge problems. Stanly County because the waste dumped in fields and forest and unlined landfills has been leaking and seeping into the groundwater for years. Alcoa because even if it polluted legally it still has an obligation (and faces a huge liability) to clean up the mess.
Which has put Alcoa and the Stanly County Commissioners, who are wrestling with public health problems like arsenic in the groundwater and PCBs in Badin Lake which supplies drinking water to the towns of Albemarle and Badin, on a collision course.
Alcoa, of course, argues vociferously there’s not one shred of evidence that PCBs from its plant are a threat. But instead of taking Alcoa at its word the local County Commissioners went out and hired a scientist to find out just where the PCBs did come from. He did a study and came back and said bluntly: The chemical ‘fingerprints’ in the PCBs in the lake match the chemical ‘fingerprints’ of the PCBs in Alcoa’s smelter.
From there things went from bad to worse: When PCBs turned up in bass and catfish in Badin Lake the State Health Department decided to post warning signs telling pregnant women and children not to eat the fish because they could cause cancer and birth defects, and Alcoa promptly sued the state and stopped the signs – which pretty much enraged a lot of people in Stanly County.
After that, it was more or less open warfare.
Naturally, the County Commissioners took up the gauntlet and dove into the middle of the lawsuit – and won.
Then last week, before the upcoming Primary where three of the Commissioners are seeking reelection, Alcoa launched an ad campaign using newspaper ads, billboards, mailings and the Internet to blast the Commissioners, saying they’ve been wasting taxpayers’ money…by, well, hiring scientists, lawyers and lobbyists to fight Alcoa.
This is a pretty good example of what the “moaners” were worried about regarding the Supreme Court ruling. Alcoa’s an international behemoth conglomerate. Its Chairman is from Brazil, its President is from Germany, it’s partnered with the Chinese and its world headquarters is in Pittsburgh, old Andrew Mellon’s hometown. It smelts aluminum everywhere from Iceland to the Amazon Rainforest and its annual budget is bigger than the State of North Carolina’s – so what hope on earth do three local County Commissioners (who may raise $5000 in their entire campaigns) have of winning re-election if Alcoa with its $20 billion annual budget is dead-set on retiring them?
Edge of the Storm?
April 1, 2010/
A couple of months ago the Supreme Court decided corporations – like people who talk and breathe and walk around on two legs – have an inalienable right to free speech, including the right to criticize politicians they don’t like all they want.
Now, back when the court ruled that banks and insurance companies could attack politicians there was a lot of moaning it would lead straight to, say, Solomon Brothers running TV ads blasting away at any Congressman who voted against bank bailouts or AIG ripping into Senators who tried to limit their executive bonuses.
Well, we just got an example of what may be the front edge of the coming storm right here in North Carolina – down in Stanly County.
Back during World War I old Pittsburgh Tycoon Andrew Mellon put an aluminum smelter down in the tiny hamlet of Badin on the Yadkin River; after that, for five decades, Alcoa Corporation – quite legally – dumped arsenic and cyanide and PCBs in fields and forests across Stanly County. As Alcoa executive Gene Ellis told a newspaper (perhaps with more candor than discretion) back in those days everybody used the ‘Back 40’ to get rid of their waste.
That has left both Stanly County and Alcoa with huge problems. Stanly County because the waste dumped in fields and forest and unlined landfills has been leaking and seeping into the groundwater for years. Alcoa because even if it polluted legally it still has an obligation (and faces a huge liability) to clean up the mess.
Which has put Alcoa and the Stanly County Commissioners, who are wrestling with public health problems like arsenic in the groundwater and PCBs in Badin Lake which supplies drinking water to the towns of Albemarle and Badin, on a collision course.
Alcoa, of course, argues vociferously there’s not one shred of evidence that PCBs from its plant are a threat. But instead of taking Alcoa at its word the local County Commissioners went out and hired a scientist to find out just where the PCBs did come from. He did a study and came back and said bluntly: The chemical ‘fingerprints’ in the PCBs in the lake match the chemical ‘fingerprints’ of the PCBs in Alcoa’s smelter.
From there things went from bad to worse: When PCBs turned up in bass and catfish in Badin Lake the State Health Department decided to post warning signs telling pregnant women and children not to eat the fish because they could cause cancer and birth defects, and Alcoa promptly sued the state and stopped the signs – which pretty much enraged a lot of people in Stanly County.
After that, it was more or less open warfare.
Naturally, the County Commissioners took up the gauntlet and dove into the middle of the lawsuit – and won.
Then last week, before the upcoming Primary where three of the Commissioners are seeking reelection, Alcoa launched an ad campaign using newspaper ads, billboards, mailings and the Internet to blast the Commissioners, saying they’ve been wasting taxpayers’ money…by, well, hiring scientists, lawyers and lobbyists to fight Alcoa.
This is a pretty good example of what the “moaners” were worried about regarding the Supreme Court ruling. Alcoa’s an international behemoth conglomerate. Its Chairman is from Brazil, its President is from Germany, it’s partnered with the Chinese and its world headquarters is in Pittsburgh, old Andrew Mellon’s hometown. It smelts aluminum everywhere from Iceland to the Amazon Rainforest and its annual budget is bigger than the State of North Carolina’s – so what hope on earth do three local County Commissioners (who may raise $5000 in their entire campaigns) have of winning re-election if Alcoa with its $20 billion annual budget is dead-set on retiring them?