Water Contamination
Conduct Screen Environmental Harm
Companies with documented abuse of water resources — excessive groundwater extraction, water source contamination, water privatization that restricts community access, or operations that deplete shared water supplies. Includes Nestlé-style extraction controversies and mining operations that destroy watersheds. Distinct from environmental_damage (which covers broader ecological harm).
17 companies currently excluded under this screen
Excluded Companies (17 total)
Showing 17 of 17 companies excluded under this screen.
| Ticker | Company | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| LYB | LyondellBasell Industries NV | LyondellBasell Industries NV is a global chemical and plastics manufacturing company whose operations are water-intensive and have been linked to significant water resource impacts. The company's manufacturing processes require substantial water volumes for cooling and chemical reactions, placing strain on local water supplies, particularly at its facilities in water-stressed regions. A 2021 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice, while primarily addressing air violations, documented systemic operational failures at multiple LyondellBasell facilities. The complaint noted failures to properly operate and monitor industrial equipment, leading to excess emissions. This pattern of regulatory non-compliance extends to water stewardship, where the company's large-scale petrochemical operations risk groundwater contamination and depletion. The company's footprint in Texas, an area prone to drought and aquifer strain, highlights the material risk its operations pose to shared water supplies. LyondellBasell’s sustainability disclosures lack specific, time-bound commitments to reduce absolute water withdrawal or to address the cumulative impact of its operations on watershed health. The company’s water management approach remains focused on efficiency within facilities rather than on preserving the quality and availability of the resource for surrounding communities and ecosystems. |
| TOL | TOLL BROTHERS INC | Toll Brothers, Inc., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, has a documented history of Clean Water Act violations stemming from its construction activities. In 2012, the company settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice for $741,000 to resolve alleged stormwater violations at its construction sites across 22 states. The settlement required the company to implement a comprehensive, company-wide stormwater compliance program to prevent polluted runoff, which can contaminate local waterways and groundwater. The company's operations have also been directly linked to groundwater contamination issues requiring state-level remediation permits. For instance, in New Jersey, the company assumed a groundwater discharge permit (NJPDES No. NJ0104396) for the "Crossroads at Oldwick" project. Other records show the company involved in specific groundwater remediation projects, such as the "Weidemann Ranch Mitigation Project" in California and a gasoline-contaminated groundwater remediation system in Pennsylvania. While Toll Brothers publishes a sustainability report and promotes water-efficient fixtures through its "TollGreen" initiatives, its regulatory record demonstrates repeated failures to manage the water impacts of its large-scale land development, which inherently risks excessive runoff and water source contamination. |
| BG | Bunge Limited | Bunge North America discharged approximately 20,000 gallons of mixed soybean oil and water into the Ohio River from its Cairo, Illinois facility on or about February 2, 2022, in violation of Section 311(b)(3) of the Clean Water Act. The EPA proposed a Consent Agreement and Final Order requiring Bunge to pay a $91,418 civil penalty to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. This follows a larger pattern of environmental violations at Bunge's processing facilities. In October 2006, the Department of Justice and EPA reached a $13.9 million Clean Air Act settlement with Bunge covering 12 soybean and corn processing plants across eight states — Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The U.S. alleged that Bunge constructed major modifications at some or all of these plants that increased emissions without obtaining pre-construction permits. The settlement required pollution control projects estimated at $12 million to eliminate more than 2,200 tons of harmful emissions annually, including 1,122 tons per year of volatile organic compounds (including hexane, a listed hazardous air pollutant), plus reductions in SO2, NOx, and particulate matter. |
| MPC | Marathon Petroleum Corporation | Marathon Petroleum Corporation operates one of the largest oil refining networks in the United States, a process that requires massive volumes of water for cooling and processing. Its refineries are frequently located near critical watersheds, including the Great Lakes and Puget Sound. In August 2025, Washington state fined Marathon’s Anacortes refinery over $1.3 million for mishandling acid waste sludge, a portion of which was stored in a 150,000-gallon pond, posing a direct contamination risk to adjacent marine waters. This penalty is part of a broader pattern of regulatory failures documented by ViolationTracker, where Marathon has accumulated numerous environmental enforcement actions. The company’s operations represent a systemic risk to both the quality and security of local water supplies in the communities where it operates. |
| FCX | Freeport-McMoRan Inc | Grasberg mine (Papua, Indonesia) discharges approximately 200,000 tonnes of tailings daily into the Otomona and Ajkwa river systems via government-permitted riverine tailings disposal (RTD); severe destruction of river ecology and floodplain covering >133 sq km; Freeport-McMoRan sustainability reports acknowledge ongoing ecological impacts; permitted under Indonesian law but represents severe environmental conduct with no equivalent US site allowed |
| NESN | Nestle | California State Water Board / IBFAN / French Senate — Nestlé S.A. (NSRGY); Perrier/Vittel/Contrex fraud: admitted illegal UV + activated carbon purification of brands marketed as "natural mineral water" after finding bacteria and pesticides at source springs; French Senate report May 2025 found government covered up practices since 2021; Perrier fined €2M; Contrex/Hépar microplastic contamination at 1.3 million times higher than surface water |
| DD | DUPONT DE NEMOURS INC | DOJ/EPA — DuPont (DD); Co-liable with Chemours and Corteva for $1.185B PFAS water systems settlement (2023); $393M NJ Natural Resource Damage settlement; EPA TSCA $10.25M penalty for PFOA disclosure failures (2004); as predecessor entity, originated GenX/PFAS contamination of Cape Fear River affecting 500,000+ NC residents; UN experts formally condemned DuPont (Feb 2024) for extensive contamination violating right to clean water |
| CLF | Cleveland-Cliffs Inc | EPA / DOJ / Environmental Law & Policy Center — Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF); August 2019 discharge of ammonia and cyanide wastewater into East Branch of Little Calumet River (Lake Michigan tributary) at Burns Harbor, IN steel mill; killed thousands of fish, closed Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore beaches, threatened drinking water; $3M civil penalty; consent decree April 2022 requiring new ammonia treatment systems |
| DLR | DIGITAL REALTY TRUST INC | Digital Realty sources approximately 32% of its water from regions experiencing high or extremely high water stress. The company draws heavily from the Trinity Aquifer in Texas, a critical water supply suffering severe depletion. This unsustainable extraction has sparked community disputes, project delays, and formal US Senate investigations regarding data center impacts on utility costs and local grid strain. |
| MOS | The Mosaic Company | Tampa Bay Waterkeeper / EPA / Tampa Bay Times — Mosaic Company (MOS); 2021 Piney Point phosphate disaster: 215–400 million gallons of nitrogen-laden phosphate wastewater discharged into Tampa Bay in 10 days; killed 1,600+ tons of marine life; Hurricane Milton (Oct 2024) caused additional breach at Riverview gypstack spilling ~40,000 gallons; 25 active phosphogypsum stacks in Florida with inadequate regulation |
| WY | Weyerhaeuser | Washington State Dept of Ecology $40K penalty for 42 Clean Water Act permit limit violations at Weyerhaeuser Longview pulp and paper mill; stormwater and wastewater discharge violations impacting aquatic habitats including salmonid spawning grounds in the Columbia River watershed; pattern of CWA non-compliance at timber processing operations in Pacific Northwest |
| TSN | Tyson Foods, Inc. | DOJ criminal fine for Clean Water Act violations; Tyson Poultry discharged acidic feed wastewater with pH of 2.5 into a Missouri waterway causing massive fish kill in excess of 100,000 fish; $2M criminal fine; EPA consent decrees also recorded for accidental ammonia and chlorine releases at multiple poultry processing facilities across multiple states |
| NSC | Norfolk Southern Corporation | DOJ/EPA East Palestine consent decree; $15M Clean Water Act civil penalty for discharge of hazardous materials into Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, and Ohio River tributaries following Feb 2023 derailment; consent decree also requires long-term groundwater monitoring and water quality testing for affected communities; part of >$310M total settlement |
| MMM | 3M Company | EPA / EWG — 3M Company (MMM); Manufactured and disposed of PFAS chemicals for decades, contaminating drinking water for an estimated 110–172 million Americans; 9,552 known contaminated sites in 50 states; Settled $10.3B–$12.5B with US public water systems, payments 2024–2036; contamination ongoing and irreversible |
| CTVA | Corteva | DOJ/EPA — Corteva (CTVA); Contributed $193M to $1.185B PFAS water systems settlement (2023), liability inherited from DowDuPont merger; co-liable with DuPont (DD) and Chemours (CC) for PFAS contamination of public water systems across the US; liability traces to original DuPont manufacturing operations |
| CC | Chemours Company (The) | SELC / EPA / NC DEQ — Chemours (CC); PFAS/GenX discharge into Cape Fear River since 1980; 500,000+ NC residents affected across 10 counties, 11,000+ private wells contaminated; company seeking to expand production as of 2025; EPA rolling back drinking water standards |
| KO | Coca-Cola Company (The) | Coca-Cola has been widely documented depleting groundwater in communities across India, Mexico, and Latin America, causing local water scarcity and conflict. ViolationTracker records multiple environmental penalties. |
The Naughty List
A digest of changes to our exclusion list — new additions, removals, and the evidence behind them. We review the list continuously as new evidence surfaces.
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