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W.R. Grace
William Russell Grace was the founder of the W.R. Grace, which was established in Peru during the year 1854. Grace would later move his operation to New York, and get involved in the political scene within the state. He became the mayor of New York City, and had the honor of officially accepting the Statue of Liberty from France.
Grace's company continued to prosper with two separate divisions: Davison Chemicals and Performance Chemicals. They produced sealants, cements, refining catalysts, fireproofing chemicals, silicon dioxide and many other items. Many of their products contained asbestos, a mineral that was beneficial as a component within industrial products, but was later found to be extremely toxic. Exposure to asbestos can produce respiratory diseases and Mesothelioma, a type of cancer that has claimed many lives.
The W.R. Grace company was found to be a gross polluter by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They became well known for illegally dumping industrial waste containing large amounts of asbestos at several of their facilities in Montana and Massachusetts. EPA officials included the company as part of their Superfund Cleanup Plan of 1980. This plan was created to address the immediate need for cleaning and securing the most dangerously polluted areas in the United States, and suing the companies that were responsible for this pollution. Several of the Grace owned plants made the list, and the company was sued for the damages they had caused. A movie called A Civil Action was even produced about the dangerous situation that originated from W.R. Grace dumping pollutants into water reserves in Montana.
A lawsuit from the EPA was by no means the only one addressed to the W.R. Grace company. Not only did their products endanger customers, but their unsafe disposal practices put employees and people who lived close to their factories at risk for exposure to asbestos. The company received more than 250,000 personal injury claims, and by 2001 they sought bankruptcy protection to escape their massive debt.
Before W.R. Grace could begin the bankruptcy process, they had to create a plan to establish a trust fund that would pay off all valid asbestos related claims. The US Department of Justice investigated the company and found they had siphoned off several billion dollars to their subsidiaries prior to requesting bankruptcy protection, and they were ordered to bring back $1 billion that would be used for the trust fund. With this settled, the company was not protected against ongoing claims and legal fees.
Today the W.R. Grace company continues to operate, and the trust fund officers review cases to determine proper settlement amounts. Several company executives have been brought up on criminal charges for improperly disposing of waste materials, attempting to cover up the pollution and then failing to comply with orders to properly clean up and protect the areas that were contaminated. People who live in cities where this occurred are still suffering from the effects of asbestos exposure even to this day.