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Vermont Environmentalists Take on IBM

Essex Junction, Vermont - June 25, 2003

Vermont's most aggressive environmental group is taking on the state's largest private employer. The Conservation Law Foundation accuses IBM of dumping toxic chemicals into the Winooski river.

"I would just like to draw attention to the fact that we're sitting in the middle of the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act," CLF's Robert Moore told a hearing of the Vermont department of environmental conservation. IBM is applying to renew a five-year permit covering all of its water discharges -- including water from manufacturing and storm water runoff.

The CLF says the state allows IBM to dump more than fifty tons of heavy metals into the Winooski river every year. That angers environmental activists who staged a press conference on the bank of the river. Joining the CLF were representatives of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, the Sierra Club and Vermonters for a Clean Environment. Other groups supporting the effort include the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the National Wildlife Federation.

Annette Smith of Vermonters for a Clean Environment said, "We're outraged that the state of Vermont is allowing the discharge of heavy metals into our state's waters. We didn't think that this sort of thing was still going on."

It isn't, according to IBM. "You know, the issue really is, does IBM's operations negatively impact the Winooski river," IBM spokesman Jeffrey Couture told Channel 3. "And the answer is no."

Moore acknowledged that the CLF has no scientific evidence that IBM has violated any specific limits on certain heavy metals like lead, nickel and chromium, but complained that the standards are too lax. He said New York has enacted much tougher standards than Vermont. "And what you can look at," he said, "is an outrageous amount of pollution being authorized that's being discharged into Vermont's waters, while New York is apparently concerned about protecting water quality and is really ratcheting down and requiring stringent performance measures at IBM."

Couture said there's no significant difference between IBM's water treatment systems at its Vermont and New York plants, and he specifically rejected CLF's charges concerning the Winooski river. "Based on the science that's there, based on our track record," he said, "we are not impacting that river, and the permit as it's set up is designed to do that (protect the river). And we're proud of the fact that we do better than the requirements of the permit."

IBM also points to two sets of awards it received this year -- from the EPA and the state of Vermont -- recognizing the company's reductions of hazardous waste and emphasis on energy savings, and for finding a less toxic chemical to use in the computer chip grinding process.

As for the permit, the CLF says it will appeal if the state grants a new one without major changes, opening up another front in the environmental wars.

Andy Potter, Channel 3 News