Ethical Problem Uncovered by Cost Estimation Sounders Management Company owns and provides management services for several shopping — Brunswick centers. After five years with the company, James Heller was recently promoted to the position of manager of Brunswick, an 18-store mall on the outskirts of a downtown area. When he accepted the assignment, James was told that he would hold the position for only a couple of years because Brunswick would likely be torn down to make way for a new sports stadium. James was also told that if he did well in this assignment, he would be in line for heading one of the company’s new 200-store operations that were currently in the planning stage.

While reviewing Brunswick’s financial records for the past few years, James observed that last year’s oil consumption was up by 8 percent, even though the number of heating degree days was down by 4 percent. Somewhat curious, James uncovered the following information:

+ Brunswick is heated by forced-air oil heat. The furnace is five years old and has been well maintained.

* Fuel oil is kept in four 5,000-gallon underground oil tanks. The oil tanks were installed 25 years ago.

* Replacing the tanks would cost \($80,000\). If pollution was found, cleanup costs could go as high as \($2,000,000\), depending on how much oil had leaked into the ground and how far it had spread.

+ Replacing the tanks would add more congestion to Brunswick’s parking situation.

Required
What should James do? Explain.