Judge disciplines L-P
At a criminal
trial last month in Denver, a federal judge fined the
Louisiana-Pacific Corp. a record $37 million for breaking
environmental laws at its Olathe, Colo., waferboard plant and for
selling a product whose quality didn’t meet the company’s claims.
The fine is the latest chapter in the plant’s stormy
history.
Louisiana-Pacific had already admitted
to tampering with the factory’s air pollution monitor and boosting
production at night, when increased emissions were likely to go
undetected by state regulators. The company also admitted it lied
to the Colorado Department of Health about the number of times it
violated its pollution permits (HCN,
6/26/95).
For local activists and environmental
officials who have battled the plant since it was first proposed in
the early 1980s, the latest judgment was welcome. “They paid a fine
large enough to grab a lot of attention,” said Marv Ballantyne of
the Western Colorado Congress. “I’m glad for that.”
The corporation pleaded guilty to 18 felonies
and will pay $5.5 million to the federal government in Clean Air
Act violations – the largest fine in the law’s 28-year history. It
will also donate $500,000 to seven government and nonprofit groups
working to improve air quality, including the Delta County Air
Quality Planning Committee and the Renewable Energy Trust of
Denver.
The major part of the fine, $31 million,
is for “a company ethic that encouraged cheating and lying to
maximize profits,” said Judge Dana
Dulohery.
Louisiana-Pacific broke environmental
laws at its Olathe operation from day one, said Ron Rutherford, the
Environmental Protection Agency’s senior environmental enforcement
officer in Denver. In fact, the EPA did not know the factory
existed until an agency official from Denver saw it during a
fishing trip. After checking, he found L-P had not applied for a
pollution permit.
“L-P was bringing all of its
economic and political clout to keep the state at bay,” he said.
“It had a lot of influence with the state.”
Investigations at Olathe were sometimes
conducted by undercover agents dressed as farmers. Their findings
led to further investigations at L-P plants across the country,
revealing a pattern of ignoring clean air
laws.
Now Rutherford hopes the restructured
company will follow the law. But he isn’t letting his guard down.
“Just about every enforcement tool in the Clean Air Act was thrown
at them, and finally the criminal suit got their attention,” he
said. “After 12 years, I’m still skeptical, so I’ll be watching
them closely.”
* Dustin
Solberg
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Judge disciplines L-P.
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