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Citizens Battle Corporate Giant Dupont and Lax Government Regulators

Tom Paine’s “Mutual Support” In A Battle With Corrupt Corporate Power

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. ~~~ Declaration of the Occupation of New York City   (“Occupy Wall Street”)

I like to stay away from the patriotism flag waving stuff, but, as this 4th of July approaches, we provide a take on the authentic Revolutionary Spirit that’s alive and well in Pompton Lakes NJ.

There, in a battle that has raged for years, a brave handful of true patriots have fought on two fronts – first with the giant corporate polluter Dupont; and also with an indifferent or corrupt local government, and lax and at times hostile government regulators at the NJ DEP and US EPA.

It is a remarkable story of struggle by “commoners”.

A handful of residents, organized under the banner Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes (CCPL), have fought and sustained this asymmetrical war as citizen volunteers, with virtually no resources or external support.

CCPL, their voluntary association, has remained vibrant for years, as they have come under attack by their own local officials, who care more about protecting Dupont and the “image” of the Town than the health and well being of the people who live there.

These patriots have been attacked by their own fellow residents, who have been manipulated by Dupont and corrupt local officials to believe that it is these local patriots fighting for cleanup of Dupont’s mess that are the problem, not the Dupont corporation who poisoned the town for decades.

Dupont and corrupt local officials have lied repeatedly and shamelessly to downplay the risks of the pollution. Their combined efforts have managed to convince many residents that the CCPL patriots – by seeking to hold Dupont and DEP and EPA accountable for cleanup of their toxic pollution –  have created a stigma and severely depressed their property values and stifled investments in downtown businesses and revitalization.

In the warped world of local officials, its the citizen activist, not the corporate pollution, that is the problem.

Remarkably, Dupont even funds the salary of  the town’s “environmental officer” – Ed Merrill – who shamelessly shills for his corporate paymaster.

The Commissioner of the NJ DEP even used a grant to entice an outside group (Passaic River Coalition) to intervene to create local divisions and undermine the efforts of CCPL. I was told that first hand by Ella Filippone, former PRC head who died recently.

The Big Environmental Groups – with resources and large paid professional staffs – have not lifted a finger to help the residents whose community, namesake Lake, and even the air inside their homes have been poisoned by cancer causing chemicals from the Dupont site (or toxic impacts to wildlife).

Elite Conservation groups are engaged in co-optation and window dressing.

[It’s gotten so bad, Dupont actually funds NJ Audubon work – see this and this. Despite the fact that Dupont is perhaps the biggest toxic polluter of Delaware River and Bay and that those waters fail to meet Clean Water Act standards, note how NJ Audubon’s non-regulatory work will not obligate Dupont to stricter water pollution discharge limits, or additional cleanup requirements, or Natural Resource Damage compensation. The sole purpose is to provide green cover for Dupont and fund Audubon’s operations.]

The Big Foundations – who like to talk the talk about environmental justice and authentic grassroots organizing – have done nothing to help. Worse, they have actually DEFUNDED the only environmental group that supported residents, the Edison Wetlands Association – while refusing to fund my work as well.

Some see a larger pattern, and think that Foundations might be corrupt and might have intentionally crippled the ability of  New Jersey’s once numerous and active grassroots groups to battle corporate power and big polluters and rapacious developers.

Where have all those local grassroots groups gone? Where has the focus on corporate accountability, cleanup of toxic sites, and the need for aggressive enforcement of strong environmental laws gone? Why is there no aggressive climate campaign?

Instead, the Foundation money has gone into open space and the elite conservation groups that are land trusts. They take care of their own. It’s a process that abandons both grass roots and advocacy that I’ve called Foundation Fail.

Over the last 5 – 10 years, the Big Foundation money has migrated away from those efforts – which built the NJ environmental community and were responsible for NJ’s strong environmental laws –  and to a few large elite conservation groups who do nothing on corporate pollution and real grassroots citizens campaign to battle corporations and their captured government regulators. Instead faux and ineffective campaigns get funded.

Places like Pompton Lakes are a perfect illustration of the abandonment of Foundations of any real local grassroots support – and when the Foundation grants dry up, the Big Environmental Groups walk away too.

Even the media has backed away, after Dupont and their local minions organized a letter writing campaign to reporters and editors attacking critical media coverage.

But the patriots in Pompton Lakes have not been discouraged by that cowardly abdication by Foundations and Big Green.

They have battled on – very effectively.

Ask Dupont about that – and their Chemours spinoff – and their army of PR flacks, lawyers, and lobbyists. The David of Truth Telling citizens have held their own against the Goliath Dupont PR machine.

The patriots in Pompton Lakes have created more negative press coverage and leveraged more targeted and effective pressure on Dupont and government officials than the Big Green groups typically do in well funded campaigns that employ scores of paid professional staff. Remarkably, they accomplished that with no resources – zero!

One tiny illustration of that is how Pompton Lakes has been the national poster child for the implications of Dupont’s Chemours spinoff.

And that is the Revolutionary spirit – citizens in “mutual support“ battling the power of big and corrupt corporations (like the British East India Corporation) and oppressive or uncaring governments (like King George and is corporate cronies ) – that prevailed in 1776.

I salute the Patriots in Pompton Lakes NJ – you know who you are.