· Bechtel built the petrochemical plants that allowed Iraq to make the chemical weapons used against Iran.
· Bechtel lobbied for war through its former president George Shultz, Reagan’s Secretary of State and co-founder of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.
· Bechtel is receiving $2.8 billion to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, and is laying the groundwork for more lucrative deals through Iraq’s water privatization, even though an independent report found that many of the Corporation’s reportedly finished rebuilding projects remain “in shambles.”
· Bechtel recently won a bid to co-manage, along with the University of California, the Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab, the birthplace of the atomic bomb
· Bechtel looks to submit a similar bid for its sister lab, Lawrence Livermore. If successful, Livermore Lab will join Bechtel’s vast nuclear weapons portfolio, which includes:
o The Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee
o The Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant in Texas
o The Savannah River Site in South Carolina
o The Kwajalein missile range off the Marshal Islands, and
o The Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in Pittsburgh.
· Bechtel was in charge of the Nevada nuclear test site up until June of this year. These managerial contracts combined total over $20 billion.
· Bechtel operates the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. There are serious concerns about waste from Yucca mountain escaping into the water table, which the nearby native people rely upon. Many even predict the waste contaminating water as far away as Las Vegas.
· In 1951, Bechtel built the “world’s first nuclear reactor designed to generate electrical power” in Idaho.
· Bechtel built India’s first nuclear plant at Tarapur. That reactor produced the plutonium used in India’s 1998 atomic bomb test, which set the stage for the arms race between India and Pakistan.
· Bechtel was originally contracted to build Iran’s first nuclear power plant, before the fall of the Shah’s regime.
· Bechtel constructed the San Onofre nucler power plant in Southern California just two miles from an earthquake fault. Bechtel installed one of the reactors for the plant backwards, further exacerbating the potential damage from an earthquake. Although Bechtel officials admit the mistake, they claim there is, “no problem.”
· Bechtel has built 40% of the US’s nuclear power capability and 50% of all the nuclear power plants in the developing world.
· Bechtel received a contract to clean up after the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant meltdown. The company avoided making essential repairs, and disregarded the health and safety of its cleanup crew by sending them into contaminated areas without protective clothing or respirators.
· Bechtel has also harassed and fired employees for complaining about dangerous situations at the nuclear facilities they build and maintain. Richard Parks, a senior engineer, complained about safety violations and excessive company waste during the Three Mile Island salvage operation. He was fired, and his apartment was broken into. He was so intimidated by the company that he took his family into hiding.
· In 1999 a Bechtel Subsidiary privatized the water supply of Cochabamba, Bolivia, and raised rates so high that many people could no longer afford water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. The people of Cochabamba, however, organized in resistance and refused to pay. In Bechtel’s defense the Bolivian government attacked protestors with police, and later the military. In the struggle, a sniper killed 17-year-old Victor Hugo Daza. At the end of the two-month battle, the people emerged victorious and reclaimed their water supply. Bechtel then tried to sue the Bolivian government for lost profits.
· Bechtel has privatized water in Sofia, Bulgaria. Bechtel tried to raise water rates against the terms of its contract, requiring a government injunction to stop the price hikes. Even so, water rates have been raised, despite worsening water quality and no visible investment in the water service infrastructure.
· In the 1990’s, Bechtel was responsible for over 730 hazardous waste spills – including crude oil, asbestos, and ethylene glycol.
· Bechtel received a $45 million contract to manage the reconstruction of San Francisco’s water system. It grossly overcharged the city for unnecessary and superfluous work, and in April 2002, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission ended the contract.
· Last year Bechtel received a $100 million contract from FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. This contract elicited comparisons to Bechtel’s rebuilding deals in Iraq, right down to its no-bid nature.
· Bechtel is co-managing a major transportation infrastructure project in Boston known as the “Big Dig.” The initial price tag for the project was $2.6 billion and it was supposed to be completed in seven years. Instead, it took nearly 15 years and repeated cost overruns drove up the price to $14.6 billion. A month ago, a significant portion of the tunnel system was closed after tons of concrete panels fell from the ceiling, fatally crushing a 39-year-old woman in her car. Massachusetts Gov. Romney called this security lapse “hard to understand,” adding that it raises, “very serious concerns about the oversight by these engineering firms of this project."