THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 24, 1995 TAG: 9507240048
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Most Virginians had never heard the word ``Kepone'' 20 years ago. It would become synonymous with environmental disaster.
Kepone was the brand name for an insecticide patented by the Allied Chemical Company in 1952.
It was sold as an ant and roach killer in the United States but was more popular abroad, where it was used to kill potato beetles in Europe and banana pests in Central America.
Allied began manufacturing Kepone at its Hopewell plant in 1966. In 1974, the company turned the production of Kepone over to Life Science Products Inc., a small company formed by two former Allied employees.
In the 16 months before it was shut down, Life Science made 17 million to 18 million pounds of Kepone in that converted gas station, more than Allied had made in the previous eight years.
Production was not tightly controlled, and waste Kepone went into the sewer. In 1978 the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 20,000 to 40,000 pounds of Kepone had settled into the bottom of the James, where it remains today.
Allied paid more than $30 million in court settlements and fines as a result of Kepone.
U.S. District Judge Robert Merhige Jr. considered fining Allied $13.2 million, the largest criminal fine ever levied against a U.S. corporation. Instead, he cut the fine to $5.2 million after the company agreed to donate $8 million to establish a private environmental trust fund: The Virginia Environmental Endowment.
- ASSOCIATED PRESS MEMO: [For a related story, see page B5 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT for this
date.]
KEYWORDS: KEPONE POLLUTION JAMES RIVER by CNB