Business Regulation Sim
The Alumina Inc. simulation posed many factors needing consideration in the business environment. First, Alumina, Inc. is a 4 billion dollar world-wide company that could be an attractive target to someone seeking a lawsuit. In the last five years, Alumina, Inc. has had a single violation on record with the Environmental Protection Agency. The violation was corrected quickly and was documented as such. As far as Alumina Inc. knows, the company has a good reputation with the majority of the community.
A single mother, Kelly Bates, has unexpectedly made Alumina Inc. the target of a media frenzy citing that Alumina Inc. has been in violation of the law. Not only has Bates accused Alumina, Inc. of violating the law, but has made them publicly responsible for her daughters leukemia.
Presently, no regulatory agency has deemed Alumina Inc. in violation of any environmental laws. Some Alumina Inc. management wants to work with Bates and address her concerns, while others want to launch an investigation on Bates and not disclose any information until ordered to do so.
There are regulations Alumina Inc. must comply with, and are mostly in monitored by the EPA. The Clean Water Act employs a variety of regulatory and nonregulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff (www.epa.gov). The federal government uses the Clean Water Act to achieve the broader goal of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters so that they can support "the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in and on the water (www.epa.gov). As previously mentioned, there was one violation of the Clean Water Act over 5 years ago.
Another legal issue that is involved in this scenario is the Freedom of Information Act. The U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law ensuring...
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