POLLUTING THE WATER in the United States is an environmental crime. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors and regulates approximately 80 chemicals in finished drinking water as stipulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. When analyzed samples contain the specified chemicals above a preset maximum contamination level, then the water is considered unsafe.

Corporations are chronic offenders in this category of white-collar crime. Some of the biggest corporate offenders of such environmental crimes include, General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, Ford, DuPont, the U.S. government, and Union Carbide. Estimates are that corporations illegally dump about 8 million tons of toxic wastes into rivers and coastal waters annually.

As just one example from the industrial polluters list, during the 1950s, General Electric's two manufacturing plants in New York, one at ...