1. What are the social and ethical issues in this case? Which are major and which are minor?
2. Who are the stakeholders and what are their stakes? Assess their legitimacy, power, and urgency.
3. Who is responsible for the contaminated Hudson River? GE? EPA? State of New York? Local citizens? What ethical principles help to answer this question?
4. Do research on the EPA Superfund. Does it appear to be fair environmental legislation? Should a company have to pay for something that was legal at the time they did it?
5. Towards the end of the case, does it appear that GE is winning in its negotiations with EPA to complete the cleanup of the Hudson River? Should issues involving human health be negotiable?

One of the major challenges businesses face with respect to government regulations is that compliance with existing regulations during an earlier period often does not protect them against expensive problems that occur or come to light later. The plight of General Electric (GE) with respect to its dumping of PCBs more than 30 years ago is a classic case in point.