ABSTRACT
The following is a direct transcript from the CBS program 60 Minutes. Hooker Chemical Company, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, appeared to have for years been disposing of toxic materials into the ground and polluting the groundwater. Such contamination is considerably more serious than the pollution of surface waters (as was the case in Hopewell) since the contamination of groundwater is for all intents and purposes permanent. What is interesting in this article is the apparent ignorance of the company executives as to what was really taking place. One almost feels sympathy for Mr. Raeder, the president of Hooker. The fault seems not to be so much his as in the inability of middle managers to act on serious but clearly defined problems which may not have been in the company operations manual. Management was not impressed by appeals for reason, even when written in terms of potential financial liability to the company. For middle managers to heed the concerns expressed in the memos from Mr. Edson would have required a special appreciation of and concern for the environment - an enlightened environmental ethic.
