Stauffer Chemical Company is a former American chemical company which manufactured herbicides for corn and rice. It was acquired by Imperial Chemical Industries

Imperial Chemical Industries

Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...

 from Chesebrough-Pond's Inc. in 1987. In 1987, Stauffer's head office was in Westport, Connecticut

Westport, Connecticut

-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

. Late that year, Imperial sold Stauffer's basic chemicals business to Rhône-Poulenc S.A.

Rhône-Poulenc

-History of the company:The Company was founded in 1928 through the merger of Société des Usines Chimiques du Rhône from Lyon and Établissements Poulenc Frères from Paris founded by Étienne Poulenc, a 19th century Parisian apothecary and brought to prominence by his second and third sons Emile...

Pollution and site contamination

A Stauffer Chemical factory in Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs, Florida

Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 21,003 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the city had a population of 22,554....

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 in Pinellas County

Pinellas County, Florida

Pinellas County is a county located in the state of Florida. Its county seat is Clearwater, Florida, and its largest city is St. Petersburg. This county is contained entirely within the telephone area code 727, except for some sections of Oldsmar, which have the area code 813...

 (28.16666°N 082.77569°W), produced elemental

Elemental (disambiguation)

Elemental is the adjective form of the word element. In chemistry, it refers to matter composed of only one chemical element: graphite and diamond are both forms of elemental carbon....

 phosphorus

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...

 from phosphate

Phosphate

A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...

 ore operated from 1947 until 1981. The factory was originally operated by Victor Chemical Company, and was acquired by Stauffer Chemical in 1960. The United States Environmental Protection Agency

United States Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

 reported that "Site operations resulted in the contamination of soils, ground water, and waste ponds on the property. The main contaminants of concern (COCs) in soil include arsenic, antimony, beryllium, elemental phosphorus, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), radium-226, and thallium."

1982 and 1983 earnings dispute

In 1984, the company was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of overstating its 1982 and 1983 earnings through non-standard accounting.

History

In 1931, the company announced plans for a new manufacturing subsidiary, the Pacific Hard Rubber Company.

People

The company began in the 1886 in San Francisco as a partnership between two young Europeans a German John Stauffer and a Frenchman Christian de Guigne. Ships which were exporting borax to Europe ballasted with sulphur. This provided the company with inexpensive raw material. The company was incorporated by John Stauffer Sr., who died on March 4, 1940 at the age of 78.
John Stauffer, director emeritus of the company and son of the company’s founder, died in 1972. The John Stauffer Laboratory for Physical Chemistry and the John Stauffer Chemistry Building at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 and the John Stauffer Science Center at Whittier College

Whittier College

Whittier College is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. As of January 2009, the college has approximately 1540 enrolled students.-Overview:...

are named after him.

Hans Stauffer, who retired as president in 1967, died in 1986.