In December 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined Koch Industries subsidiary Georgia-Pacific $600,000 and required the company to install $4.9 million in pollution abatement equipment and monitoring to address violations of the Clean Air Act at its Crossett, Arkansas mill.
It was the biggest penalty assessed on Georgia-Pacific, a major pulp and paper company under Koch’s ownership and has gone largely unreported in the mainstream media.
In June 2019, Georgia-Pacific announced that the Crossett plant would be partially shut down, with the loss of 555 jobs, almost half of its workforce.
Crossett, a small, low-income and racially diverse city, has one of the highest rates of exposure to cancer-causing toxins in the nation, and Georgia-Pacific has been singled out as the leading culprit.
In 2016, a former mill safety coordinator accused Koch Industries of a corporate cover-up to hide the pollution he said was “poisoning” Crossett. The mill’s impact on the community was also the subject of a Robert Greenwald documentary, “Koch Brothers Exposed,” and a Newsweek article, “How a Paper Plant in Arkansas is Allegedly Poisoning the People of Crossett.”
Georgia-Pacific said that it is closing the Crossett mill because it is unable “to compete effectively in the bleached board market.” The company has already invested in the new pollution control equipment as part of its settlement.
Earlier this year the EPA also fined Koch’s Georgia-Pacific plant in Coos Bay, Oregon $79,000 for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Two months after the EPA announced the fine, Georgia-Pacific closed the plant, laying off 111 workers. Georgia-Pacific blamed “Asian competition for Oregon logs” and difficulty getting lumber to its plant due to a closed railway bridge. The bridge, however, was reopened two weeks later.
Not being able to do business while complying with environmental laws is a stupid strategy. Georgia-Pacific deserves to close.
Maybe this action will encourage workers (and their unions) to push plant management for compliance, rather than passively accepting precarious employment with a polluter. These people live in this community, after all. Stop watching Fox News and get informed, worker.
I hope this is what The Ouachita River Keepers, Cheryl Slavant, David Bowie will be happy now that the mill is closing. When you put out lies about what you don’t know the real issues are. Karma will shine one day! This will affect the entire SE Arkansas. Not just Crossett!
The koch brothers are evil/vile beings who are responsible for ruining our planet!! They, of course,are not alone,but they rank way up there. GREEDY BASTARDS!
Surprising that they chose to close the plant. They seem to prefer buying businesses that require investment. Are they having a temper tantrum because they can’t ruin the environment?
Keep up the good work.
Stop making paper from trees. Hemp makes much better paper and doesn’t need dioxin to produce nice white paper. One acre of hemp is worth four acres of trees tor making paper USDA 1914. Plant hemp and make toilet paper. Hemp can grow 10′ in two months.
Great idea Garry Gall. Hemp is what we need to use for so many things that pollute the earth.
Plus, you can get stoned to the BeJeezus belt on the right variety.
Thank you for shedding light on this subversion of the rule of law by Koch. You are a hero for telling the truth about corporate crime.
The KOch brothers should think about how much they are hurting others in the name of capitalism (their understanding if the term). I feel sorry for the loss of lives and the loss of jobs in those communities and others and how the rich continue to get richer without worrying what happens to the little guy. The same thing happened in Cuba and we ended up with the Castro’s and the total destruction of both political and economic systems. A smart capitalist is a true believer that the working class also deserves part of the profits and the better you treat those who work for you, the harder they will work for you. Capitalism is not a term that means rat eats rat, it means that the profits will be shared in part with those who help you create it. This is true capitalist and Christian way of treating those under your command.
Miriam Robertstad, you are talking about socialism, not capitalism. Capitalism only favors the people at the top and the owners who want to make more and more money. Capitalists don’t like to share the profits with employees. Capitalists offshore labor to save money. They also don’t care what they do to the environment. They leave their messes for the public to deal with.
Cuba failed because they wouldn’t let the US take them over and pillage their natural resources. The US retaliated with sanctions against Cuba and by not doing business with them. They were cut off financially and diplomatically.
Retaliation? The Koch’s have so much money they couldn’t spend it in a lifetime. Their business practices have always been against the working man and have contributed to many, many politicians who are grateful to the Koch families. This would be one really great reason for the government to fund elections. That would take big money out of election control.
$600,000 fine is “hug?” Buh? What is that, a minute’s worth of profits to the Koch brothers?
Paper thin apologia to pimp “regs cost jobs” propaganda