The report states that Campbell’s admitted to violating the Clean Water Act at least 5,400 times between April 2018 and December 2024, with the incidents occurring at the canning factory located in Napoleon, Ohio.
“Campbell’s admission that it committed these violations will speed this case toward a trial that will decide what steps the company must take to curb its pollution and how large a civil penalty should be imposed. That’s great news for the people who live along the Maumee River and Lake Erie, who want prompt action on reducing sources of the toxic algae in their local waters,” said John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director for Environment Ohio. “We appreciate Campbell’s willingness to work cooperatively with us and the federal government to solve its compliance problems, rather than spending time and effort contesting clear-cut violations of the Clean Water Act.”
And that’s just what they were willing to admit to. I can guarantee their lawyers did a cost analysis to see how much the regulators would care about the remainder. Basically “we did it 10k times, but if we admit to 5.4k they won’t bother with the rest.”
Basically “okay, you caught us. We’ll take our lumps without complaining, so you won’t dig any deeper.”
Damn, I hadn’t even thought of that.
It’d be against their goal to maximize shareholders value to do anything but this unless there’s a smoking gun very obvious proof otherwise on the quantity.