Int’l bottled water stunt targets Dow ‘greenwashing’

Photo of "B'eau Pal" water courtesy the Yes Men

Documentary filmmakers The Yes Men and health activists from industrially contaminated Bhopal, India, converged on Midland-based Dow Chemical’s offices near London on Monday to present a new line of attractive yet toxic bottled water called “B’Eau Pal,” referring to the city where thousands died in 1984 after the release of cyanide gas from a facility then owned by Union Carbide.

In 1999, that plant was bought by Dow (NYSE:DOW), which has refused to accept liability for the contamination.

The Yes Men reported that Dow employees in London had vacated the building:

Had they not fled, Dow employees could have read on the bottles’ elegant labels:
B’eau-Pal: Our Story

The unique qualities of our water come from 25 years of slow-leaching toxins at the site of the world’s largest industrial accident. To this day, Dow Chemical (who bought Union Carbide) has refused to clean up, and whole new generations have been poisoned. For more information, please visit http://www.bhopal.org.

The action, organizers said, was designed to highlight the contradiction between Dow’s recent water themed public relations efforts and it’s refusal to address the water contamination issues at its own property.

In March, for example, the company declared:

Water is the single most important chemical compound for the preservation and flourishing of human life, and yet today, more than one billion people in the world do not have access to safe, clean drinking water. Waterborne diseases cause over 80 percent of illnesses in the developing world and represent one of the most serious public health threats. More than 6,000 people per day — mostly children — die from these diseases. Through partnerships with non-profit organizations, and businesses such as Dow Water Solutions, The Dow Chemical Company and its affiliated companies are helping to address this problem.

In June, 27 members of the U.S. Congress, including U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, asked Dow to clean up soil and groundwater contamination around its Bhopal plant and address the needs of people affected by the pollution.

According to the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, 120,000-150,000 people are chronically ill as a result of the accident and ongoing contamination.

The bottled water stunt appealed to some in Michigan’s Saginaw River watershed, where dioxin contamination from Dow’s Midland plant has contaminated homes, wells, parks and caused health concerns for thousands of people.

“The bottled water couldn’t have been more appropriate,“ Tittabawassee River resident John Taylor said in an email. “Green Washing is also an excellent term for what Dow has been spreading for the [eight-plus] years I have been involved in this.”

“[Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Livernis] trying to state that Dow is doing something to improve clean water conditions is simply another example of their never ending lies,” Taylor said. “We can’t get the EPA to place stringent requirements on the water that is being recontaminated in the Saginaw River, let alone address the unimaginable amount of toxins that were pumped down abandoned Dow brine wells and getting into the ground water that has now caused so many illnesses in this area due to private wells that are the only source of potable water many have in this area.”