Agribusiness Giant Wilbur-Ellis Made an Unreported Chemical 29 Times — EPA Made It Pay $630K

Wilbur-Ellis Made a Chemical 29 Times Without Telling Anyone

The Toxic Substances Control Act exists so the public and regulators know which chemicals are being made and in what quantities. Wilbur-Ellis, a major international agribusiness company, repeatedly skipped that step — and the EPA caught it.

The Violations

In a settlement announced June 4, 2026, the EPA detailed how Wilbur-Ellis manufactured a new chemical substance that it had never reported, on at least 29 different occasions, across facilities in Willows, San Joaquin, and Rio Linda, California, and in Pomeroy, Washington. Each occasion legally required a notice before manufacturing. None was filed.

More Than One Gap

The failures went beyond a single unreported chemical. The company also processed a chemical that the EPA had formally designated as 'inactive' — meaning it was off the active commercial inventory — without submitting the required processing notice. And it produced more than 25,000 pounds of three additional chemical substances while failing to submit the required quadrennial chemical production data. These reporting requirements are how the EPA tracks what is circulating in the environment and the supply chain.

The Resolution

Wilbur-Ellis agreed to pay a penalty of $630,737 and returned to compliance by filing the appropriate premanufacture notice and revised chemical data reporting. The dollar figure is modest for a company of its size, but the pattern is the point: a major chemical handler operated for an extended period while keeping multiple substances and production volumes off the books the EPA relies on.