Corporate Responses to Claims of Environmental Misconduct: The Case of Phelps Dodge and Blackwell, Oklahoma

Abstract

Drawing from fieldwork and thematic content analysis, we examine corporate responses to allegations of environmental misconduct surrounding a decommissioned zinc smelter plant in Blackwell, Oklahoma. Environmental grievances center on health effects associated with exposures to lead, cadmium, and arsenic and local activists charge the responsible company, Phelps Dodge, with pandering to local city officials and state regulatory agencies. Local citizens and their lawyers accuse the company of compromising public health and environmental safety by conducting improper soil samples and neglecting proper cleanup of resident homes and public spaces. Findings indicate that Phelps Dodge responded to charges of organizational misconduct by engaging in a strategic campaign of organizational impression management that included the development of a “good neighbor campaign,” the establishment of a community outreach program to promote their voluntary environmental remediation efforts, and the diffusion of responsibility through the identification of alternative exposure scenarios.

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Notes on contributors

Chris M. Messer

CHRIS M. MESSER is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University, Pueblo. His primary research interests are in environmental criminology and organizational deviance. He is currently conducting research on corporate environmental crime in several contaminated communities. His work has appeared in the Journal of Black Studies, International Journal of Sociological Research, and Family and Marriage Review

Thomas E. Shriver

THOMAS E. SHRIVER is Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. His primary research interests are inequality, environmental health, social movements, and social justice. He is particularly interested in social change generated by the efforts of social movement organizations mobilized around environmental health issues. He is currently studying state repression and environmental activism in several contaminated communities and in the post-communist Czech Republic.