ABSTRACT
The tragedy in The Tragedy of the Commons is perhaps best illustrated by the events surrounding the production of Kepone in Hope well, Virginia, by the Allied Chemical Corporation and its jobbers. The results of the research revealed Kepone to be highly toxic to all species tested: it caused cancer, liver damage, reproductive system failure, and inhibition of growth and muscular coordination in fish, mammals, and birds. In 1970, the federal government resurrected the Refuse Act Permit Program, which required all industrial discharges into navigable waters to obtain permits from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Tolling is a common arrangement in the chemical industry whereby another company performs processing work for a fee or a "toll" and then returns the final product. Allied and Life Science Products Company began to discuss the capital costs of expanding Kepone production to 2,500,000 pounds per day in order to meet an increasing demand in the European market.
