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A Look at the Rise of the Waste Management Corporation from Rural California to the Rest of the World

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A Look at the Rise of the Waste Management Corporation from Rural California to the Rest of the World Corporation, People, and Government: A Look at the Rise of the Waste Management Corporation from Rural California to the Rest of the World By Yalda Asmatey A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Laura Nader, Chair Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes Professor Liu Xin Professor Beatriz Manz Spring 2013 Copyright 2013 Abstract Corporation, People, and Government: A Look at the Rise of the Waste Management Corporation from Rural California to the Rest of the World By Yalda Asmatey Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Laura Nader, Chair This research project is a study of Kettleman City, California, home to the largest Class I toxic waste dump in the western United States, owned and operated by the public corporation Waste Management Inc. (WMI). The story of Kettleman City is a cautionary tale of hubris that warns of the consequences of the complete disregard for the natural environment and the tolerance for corporation’s profit-generating schemes that harm human health and the ecosystem. Divided into three parts, the project expands scholarship on the anthropology of disaster, the study of corporations in the United States within a framework of environmental justice, and the controlling processes underlying the dominant paradigms. The first part of the dissertation examines government and corporate neglect and acquiescence to the incremental degradation and devastation of California’s environment since the mid- nineteenth century involving the displacement and extermination of Native Americans and the Tulare Lake Basin, the killing and contamination of migratory birds in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge, and the corruption and power of the agricultural industry. This history lays the groundwork for WMI selecting Kettleman City as the site for the largest toxic waste dump west of the Mississippi. Since the 1990s, the town’s largely Latino population has been fighting against the dump and for the environmental safety of its residents, and many credit them for launching the environment justice movement in the western United States. Using ethnographic and archival methods, I examine the history of Kettleman City and the opposition of its residents to the waste facility and the recent discovery of elevated rates of birth defects and infant deaths since 2007. In the second part of this study I examine how our corporatized, industrial society has made landfills and other environmental injustices permanent fixtures in our society and how, as consumers, we have become conditioned to disregard waste as anything but normal. This research complicates the categorization of what constitutes a “disaster” and finds that not only are landfills certain to cause serious future catastrophes, but that unlike other disasters that are 1 abrupt and uncontrollable, landfill disasters are avoidable “ticking time bombs.” We accept them because of ideological convictions supported by science, technology, and government oversight that evidently accepts accidents, spills, and site contaminations as natural, inevitable or necessary byproducts. I document the long list of serious violations at the WMI facility in Kettleman City and the subsequent fines levied by regulators and out-of-court settlement deals. In short, I argue that our history and culture has created a society with a high tolerance for corporate environmental degradation for the perceived benefit of economic progress. In the final part of this study I unveil the socio-historical, political, and economic processes responsible for a culture of wastefulness. In the nineteenth century, Americans were aware of what they used and purchased. Americans valued thrift, and since recycling was very common, people produced little waste. The Industrial Revolution led to the rise of corporations by the twentieth century and to a growing advertising industry that promoted hyper-consumption. This, in turn, created demand for the waste hauling and disposal industry. I document how WMI, a multibillion dollar transnational corporation, by the 1980s and 1990s had grown into a powerful institution, and now maintains a monopoly over the American waste industry and beyond. I explore the history of WMI and examine how the company has successfully influenced political, economic, and cultural spheres of American society to build and sustain its empire. WMI’s success lies in its power to influence public perceptions of waste and waste services: a power that has gone unquestioned for far too long. 2 Dedicated to Prof. Sayed Askar Mousavi and to My father i Table of Contents List of Abbreviations v Acknowledgements vi Chapter 1: Introduction The Human Predicament of Our Time in Perspective 1 Environmental Justice 8 Disasters 12 Controlling Processes 16 Methods 20 PART I: Incremental Changes Chapter 2: Snapshot: The Demise of a Golden State 28 The Untold Story about a People and Their Lake 30 Arrival of the Outsiders: Disruption and Extermination 32 The Curse of the Lake: If You Destroy It, You Are Really Destroying Yourself 36 A Product of Human Design: Maintaining a Cornucopia Powerhouse 38 Bailout: Government-Subsidized Destruction of the Environment 42 Chapter 3: In the Shadow of the Valley 48 Setting the Stage: Demographics and Geography 49 Kingdom of Kings 54 Spoiling the Landscape in Just a Matter of Time 56 The Sleeping Giant is Awake 59 Vital to National Defense: Kettleman Hills is the Richest Oil Field Ever Found in This Country 63 “Like Manna from Heaven”: Establishing a Town 69 Chapter 4: Kettleman City from Boom to Bust 72 Welcome to 21st Century Kettleman City, USA 73 Sentiments of Disappointment and Frustration 75 The 1990s: Moving Against the Unwanted Intruder in Our Backyard 78 An Epic Six Year Fight 85 ii Chapter 5: Si Se Puede! Yes We Can! 93 Taking on a System Designed to Work Against Us 94 “Look at How They Treat Me Because I Ask for Justice” 100 “We Speak Up, We Struggle, and We Fight For Our Babies that Died and for the Babies that Will Come” 105 Critical Mass: Making Our Voices Heard 116 “Fox Guarding the Hen House” 120 PART II: Total Disasters Chapter 6: There is Absolutely Nothing Natural About This Disaster 129 The Origins of Toxic Waste Regulation 131 The Production of Hazardous Uncertainty 134 Modern Technology? 138 Chapter 7: An Incremental Record of Disasters in the Making 145 Disproportionate Siting and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement 146 California’s Toxic Waste Politics: A System Designed to Turn Solutions into Problems 149 A Textbook Example: “One of the Most Heavily Regulated Facilities in California” 153 Review of the Status Quo 159 PART III: Reign of a Waste Corporation Chapter 8: How One Person’s Trash Became another Person’s Treasure 166 Corporate Power and Monopolies 167 Manufacturing a Waste Culture 168 Control and Advertising 170 The Origins of a Waste Industry 172 The Emergence of Big Business in the Waste Scene 174 Chapter 9: The Internal Workings of a Fortune 500 Corporation 179 Two Steps Ahead: The Launching of a “Sustainability” Business Enterprise 180 Sustainability in an Expanding Empire 185 A Pattern of Shameless Criminal Behavior 191 Age of Hypocrisy 194 Fool me once, Shame on you. Fool me twice, Shame on me. 199 iii Chapter 10: The Darker Side: The Subtle Promotion of Wasteful Living 206 Think Green. Think Waste Management. 208 The Good Neighbor Ploy 211 Creating Street Presence and Street Credibility in Entertainment 214 Targeting Children at the Happiest Place on Earth 219 Waste Educators: Winning Hearts and Minds in Classrooms and on College Campuses 221 He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune 229 Chapter 11: Conclusion: Those Who Control the Future, Can Imagine It. 233 A Fork in the Road 236 Postscript 239 Bibliography 245 Appendix 1 (Maps) 278 Appendix 2 (Advertisements) 283 Appendix 3 (Photographs) 288 iv List of Abbreviations Waste Management Inc. (WMI) Chemical Waste Management Inc. (CWM) (Chem Waste) California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Central Valley Project (CVP) California State Water Project (CSWP) Bureau of Reclamation (BoR) Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) El Pueblo para el Aire y Agua Limpio (People for Clean Air and Water) (El Pueblo) Kids Protecting Our Planet (KPOP) California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) Office of Solid Waste Management Programs (OSWMP) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Department of Health Services (DHS) Government Accounting Office (GAO) Southern California Hazardous Waste Management Project (SCHWMP) Office of Appropriate Technology (OAT) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v Acknowledgments To my academic mentors and committee members, I owe great thanks. Professor Laura Nader continues to be an inspiration. As an advisor and dissertation chair, she consistently challenged me from the start to think critically and to appreciate the world around me. She was always accessible, reading every page, and providing feedback in just a matter of days. As her last graduate student, I can only hope that I have made her proud. As I embark on my professional academic career, I will carry with me the life lessons I have learned from her. !! Thank you to Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes for her commitment to public anthropology and for her infectious energy inside and outside the classroom; Professor Beatriz Manz for conversations about human rights and for the opportunity to teach beside her; and to Professor Liu Xin for stepping in at the last minute. I am gratified to have had the opportunity for many conversations with other academics, students, staff, and librarians at Berkeley and elsewhere. I especially want to thank Kathleen Van Sickle, Kathleen Gallagher, and Ned Garrett for all their support. Thank you to Shirley Taylor for her careful editing.
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