Running head: BUSINESS REGULATION
Business Regulation Simulation
Jason
University of Phoenix
MBA 560
Prof. Schumacher
September 16, 2008
Introduction
Alumina Inc. is a $4 billion aluminum maker based out of the United States. Alumina operates in eight countries around the world with the United States accounting for roughly 70% of sales, (University of Phoenix, 2008). Alumina has business interests tied to automotive components, packaging materials, mining, refining and smelting; which classify Alumina’s business activity under jurisdiction of region six of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Five years ago, Alumina reportedly violated environmental discharge norms during an EPA compliance evaluation inspection. The EPA has responsibilities such as conducting research on the harmful impact of pollution, gathering information about present pollution problems, assisting state and local governments in controlling pollution through grants, technical advice, and other means, advising the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) about new policies needed for protection of the environment and administering federal pollution laws, (Reed, Shedd, Morehead & Corley, 2005).
Key facts
In an EPA compliance evaluation inspection conducted five years ago, Alumina reportedly was in violation of normal environmental discharges, namely, their PAH test sample levels were above the EPA’s accepted levels. The EPA ordered Alumina to clean up these PAH levels in which Alumina complied and has not faced any other public scrutiny until now.
Local resident Kelly Bates is currently accusing Alumina of contaminating the waters of Lake Dira with carcinogenic effluents, claiming the contaminated water is one of the contributing factors to her daughter’s leukemia. Bates also suggests that her daughter’s disease could possibly be traced back to Alumina’s EPA violation over five years ago.
After Bates’ allegations, Alumina conducted an independent study which...