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"THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING"
--Burke

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sterlite raises 1.5 Billion

Google News Alert for: asarco
Sterlite gets its US$1.5 billion in a day after US ADS offering
Mineweb - London,England,UK
India's Sterlite Industries is not only gaining a following among US Asarco creditors, as US investors and Asian investors, as well as parent Vedanta, ...


" Vedanta's stake in Sterlite [is] 61.7%....Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal said the ADS issue is the first in a series of actions that would soon include acquisition of mining assets in Africa and Central America....India's Economic Times reported that a fourth of the ADS book was purchased by hedge fund investors with about 85 percent of demand coming from the U.S. and Asia."

Groundwater Arsenic at Asarco El Paso TX

To:  Mr. Sher
       Lorinda Gardner
cc:   SPGEG, GTLO, ACORN, Sierra Club
sb:   Arsenic in groundwater question

The TCEQ Asarco remediation website says that "...Currently, the highest concentration of arsenic in the groundwater occurs in onsite well EP-49 with a concentration of 62.5 mg/L, which is above the MCL for arsenic. This well is located on the east side of Paisano Drive. The area of contaminated groundwater is shown in Figure 2."

  • I am confused why Well EP-49 is mentioned having a top concentration of 62.5 mg/L  but leaves out that  "above the MCL" is actually "6,200 times above the MCL.g "  (see: "The groundwater at the facility has arsenic, lead, and cadmium concentrations above the maximum contaminant level (MCL). ......The most prevalent COC in the groundwater is arsenic. Currently, the highest concentration of arsenic in the groundwater occurs in onsite well EP-49 with a concentration of 62.5 mg/L, which is approximately 6,200 times the MCL for arsenic. The area of contaminated groundwater is shown in Figure 5."
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/remediation/variousremediationsites/sher_asarco_expert_report.pdf"

Would you add those words to that webpage? (i.e. "6,200 times")

  • Also, I am concerned that this Well EP-49 is being reported as having the max groundwater arsenic level when another map shows a well with 332.8571 mg/L level (see attached, and the figure at the bottom of this email.)  Why the discrepancy?
  • In addition, we know that in a "May 14, 1999 sampling event, Asarco reported a concentration of 0.302 ppm for arsenic in the groundwater. The previous sampling event (February 25,1999) from the same well reported a concentration of 320 ppm for arsenic in the groundwater.  #EPRI-9905-118. On further review, well EP-49 has a sample identification.   Finding that sample identification in the lab sheets appendix, the lab reported a concentration of 302 ppm for arsenic in the groundwater. Please correct the table and incorporate a procedure to include well identification numbers corresponding to submitted plats on lab reports." (see attached 20011002 response)

This refers to the same well that you say has a max arsenic level of 62.5 mg/L -- yet the 2/25/99 sampling event for that well showed 302 ppm.

Would you explain this, please?

Thank you,



Obama Nominee Moreno to DOJ environ. division defended General Electric and polluters (?!?)


"The Obama administration's nomination of Ignacia Moreno to head the environment division of the Department of Justice... as environmental counsel for General Electric -- has raised eyebrows among Environmental Protection Agency attorneys. Before Moreno worked for GE, she spent five years defending other companies in pollution-related lawsuits....Six EPA attorneys interviewed by ProPublica criticized the nomination, but asked that their names not be used in this story because they fear retribution. They said they doubt that anyone who has recently defended GE would be effective in the role...."

 

http://www.propublica.org/article/epa-attorneys-criticize-obama-nominee-706

 

 

 


Friday, July 17, 2009

The EPA said Asarco burned illegal hazardous wastes for years for profit in El Paso

In 1998, the EPA told the Federal Dept. of Justice in a confidential for settlement purposes only document that ASARCO El Paso  had handled and burned secret toxic wastes just to make money, and had done this for years.

Asarco signed the SECRET settlement and "paid millions on the condition that details of its activities would never become public" (Rep. Reyes 2007).

The 1998 document became PUBLIC RECORD in 7/2006 and was released to the NYTIMES for a front page story 10/2006.  Months after that, the principal bond-holder for ASARCO threw 500 Million dollars at the NYTIMES in an effort to gain control of its board.  It failed.   The NYTimes faced financial trouble.  Carlos Slim, richest man in Mexico, bailed out the NYTIMES with a very large loan in 2009.

Asarco Attorney(s) still act as if the confidential for settlement purposes only document is still a secret.  They deny that the secret toxic waste burning happened.  They claim that the GAO report from 2007 proves that it did not happen when actually the GAO report was NOT an investigation of ASARCO but instead looked at military handling of waste across the USA and only one instance at Asarco.

Asarco counts on El Paso not reading the confidential for settlement purposes only document and counts on its clout to keep all mention of it out of the newspapers including your own El Paso Times.

El Paso WAKE UP.

Developing "cross-border" gulf of mexico oil deposits

by Robert Pawlowski - Chevron [who used to own Western Refinery in El Paso TX] Energy Technology Co. and Ricardo Fernandez - Fugro Chance de Mexico

"....One issue not adequately addressed by existing frameworks for US-Mexico cross-border relations is the development of fields that truly straddle the border, or fields whose development has the potential for draining hydrocarbons from one side of the border to the other. In this context, it is interesting to note that the 2001 Trident discovery in US waters is only about 3 mi (4.8 km) north of the border.

The energy security of the United States and Mexico are intertwined. ... For 2009, PEMEX has a record investment budget equal to approximately $19.4 billion (roughly double that of recent years)."

WE HAVE BEEN SOLD OUT : Foxconn and Megacon in same industry

http://www.crmz.com/directory/Industry1024C.htm

" Electronic Instr. & Controls"

Federal DOJ document being IGNORED and laws broken as ASARCO toxic land given over to NAFTA concerns

"The court document also revealed that Asarco was authorized to sell 125.9 acres in West El Paso to Megacon LLC for $4.1 million."
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12855969

"Megacon, LLC
Incorporated by [??] , Megacon, LLC is located at 4023 Tampa Rd Ste 2400 Oldsmar, FL 34677. Megacon, LLC was incorporated on Thursday, March 27, 2003 in the State of FL and is currently not active. F & L Corp. represents Megacon, LLC as their registered agent.
Source: Public Record data from Florida Department of State - Division of Corporations" http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Oldsmar/megacon-llc-4503844.aspx

However, there is a "MegaCon" http://www.megacon.com/  that makes electronic parts internationally.  Here are just the Asia companies:  GUANGDONG PROVINCE, PRC  Guamgzhou Gaotian Hign Tech Development Industries Company Limited, PAKISTAN ZEB TRADERS, SINGAPORE Pan-Amp Control Pte Ltd, INDONESIA PT Panamptara Kontrol, MALAYSIA Pan-Amp Controls Sdn Bhd, KOREA Dongnam Engineering, TAIWAN LUNG-TEH SHIPBUILDING CO. LTD











Wednesday, July 15, 2009

news- Feinstein Says Law May Have Been Broken

"July 13, 2009
By MARIA NEWMAN

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said on Sunday that the Bush administration may have broken
the law if the Central Intelligence Agency concealed a covert spy
program from Congress.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the agency's current
director, Leon E. Panetta, had told the Senate and House intelligence
committees that the C.I.A. withheld the information about a secret
counterterrorism program on direct orders from then Vice President Dick
Cheney."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/us/politics/13cheney.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Monday, July 13, 2009

Google Alert - PEMEX Natural Gas

Mexico's Pemex To Take Bids On Corindon Gas Block In Sep: WSJ ...
By oswaldoacosta
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)–State-run Petroleos Mexicanos will receive bids in September for the Coridon natural gas project in northern Mexico, marking Pemex's latest effort to pay outside oil companies to increase gas production. ...



Sunday, July 12, 2009

we pledge to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice...

Click for Video

"the pledge to resist:
we believe that as people living in the united states it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names.

not in our name will you wage endless war.
there can be no more deaths.
no more transfusions of blood for oil.

not in our name will you invade countries, bomb civilians, kill more children, letting history take its course over the graves of the nameless.

not in our name will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for.

not by our hands will we supply weapons and funding for the annihilation of families on foreign soil.

not by our mouths will we let fear silence us.

not by our hearts will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil.

not by our will and not in our name.

we pledge resistance.
we pledge alliance with those who have come under attack for voicing opposition to the war or for their religion or ethnicity.

we pledge to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice, freedom and peace.

another world is possible and we pledge to make it real."

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

Play Video

"Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light


You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
Sooner or later God'll cut you down"

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnnycash/godsgonnacutyoudown.html