Scroll to end: click web view. Heather Mcmurray 's research uncovering poisoning of 1000 square miles around El Paso by Asarco smelter through what the EPA & US DOJ said was illegal burning of illegal hazardous/radioactive wastes 1991 to 1998. We have never been told what actinides, forever chemicals, dioxins etc are present from illegal Asarco actions(see 73 page 1998 conf. for settlement purposes only DOJ EPA Asarco doc,10/06 nytimes) see "Asarco secret document"
Please donate (see sidebar) to help recoup costs of the work to uncover and blog the information contained here"THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING"
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Secret trade agreement delayed, Peru asked to comply with environmental (and other) standards
"Democratic leaders in Congress put off a vote on trade agreements with Peru and Panama until those countries revamp their laws to comply with new labor and environment standards in the accords. The demand is a blow to the Bush administration, which pressed the Democratic majority in Congress to have the Peru agreement approved next month."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4933661.html
"
"Democratic leaders in Congress put off a vote on trade agreements with Peru and Panama until those countries revamp their laws to comply with new labor and environment standards in the accords. The demand is a blow to the Bush administration, which pressed the Democratic majority in Congress to have the Peru agreement approved next month."
Congress has ordered the EPA to restore its libraries
After considerable pressure by librarians, researchers and the public,
American Library Association
Washington Office Newsline
ALAWON
Volume 16, Number 075
June 29, 2007
Victory for Librarians, EPA Library Funding
After considerable pressure by librarians, researchers and the public, Congress has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restore its library network. In the fiscal year (FY) 2008 Interior Appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee orders EPA to reopen the closed libraries. Last year, EPA closed its Headquarters Library in Washington, DC, to visitors and walk-in patrons. EPA also closed several regional libraries, the toxics and pesticides library and the Ft. Meade Environmental Science Center Library.
The language reads
“$2,000,000 shall be used to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the administration. While the Committee approves of efforts to make environmental data collections available electronically, the Committee does not agree to further library closures or consolidations without evidence of how the public would be served by these changes. Therefore, the Committee expects the EPA to restore publicly available library facilities in each region. EPA is directed to submit a plan on how it will use this funding increase to reopen facilities and maintain a robust collection of environmental data and resources in each region by December 31, 2007.”
The bill is now headed to the full Senate for consideration. The House-passed FY 2008 Interior Appropriations bill doesn’t contain the EPA library language.
In the fiscal year (FY) 2008 Interior Appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee orders EPA to reopen the closed libraries. Last year, EPA closed its Headquarters Library in Washington, DC, to visitors and walk-in patrons. EPA also closed several regional libraries, the toxics and pesticides library and the Ft. Meade Environmental Science Center Library.
The language reads
“$2,000,000 shall be used to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the administration. While the Committee approves of efforts to make environmental data collections available electronically, the Committee does not agree to further library closures or consolidations without evidence of how the public would be served by these changes. Therefore, the Committee expects the EPA to restore publicly available library facilities in each region. EPA is directed to submit a plan on how it will use this funding increase to reopen facilities and maintain a robust collection of environmental data and resources in each region by December 31, 2007.”
The bill is now headed to the full Senate for consideration. The House-passed FY 2008 Interior Appropriations bill doesn’t contain the EPA library language.
Friday, June 29, 2007
May 1999 BHP smelter in AZ idled
BHP Billiton have altered the status of their copper smelting and refining plant at San Manuel,[AZ] USA from care and maintenance to permanent closure. [Used Pierce converters and flash furnace]
The plant has been idle since May 1999 when it entered into care an maintenance mode. Since then they have looked at numerous strategies to bring the plant back online, but none proved economically viable.The remaining staff will be focus on safety and environmental issues, while the decommissioning and reclamation of the site will be completed over the next 5 to 7 years.
The closure brings to an end 50 years of operation for the San Manuel smelter....
Posted October 27th, 2003
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=864
"1997: After next year's major rebuild, the San Manuel [BHP] smelter will operate for another 10 years on mini-shutdowns. This strategy will save BHP roughly $200 million over the next 10 years before the next major rebuild, resulting in more cash flow and value for BHP
Craig Steinke is Group General Manager and Senior Vice President of Metals in San Francisco and Pj Cannon, an Assistant Editor for On Cu.
This article is reprinted with permission from the publication,
On CU, April – June, 1997,Vol. 1, No. 3."
Asarco Noose Tightens, But Who Will Hang?
"Asarco Noose Tightens, But Who Will Hang?
by Sito Negron
It’s possible the issue could be decided by August, although because the process already has taken many twists, various elements could slow it down. That includes a potential change on the Commission that will decide the issue. Meanwhile, the TCEQ is reviewing the comments filed June 18.
Posted on June 29, 2007
The Asarco saga will come to a head this summer. Or not. But the noose is tightening …........................................"
[complete story is on page
http://www.newspapertree.com/politics/1504-asarco-noose-tightens-but-who-will-hang]
"But Asarco’s history also is an issue raised by permit opponents. The single largest issue is the question of hazardous waste illegally disposed at Asarco – how much, and what type? That question was raised in an agreed order in 1999, in which Asarco agreed to pay a fine but did not admit to wrongdoing. However, an EPA memo indicated that the agency wanted to take legal action. [Read the background for that story.]
As a result of that order, Asarco agreed to pay the city for paving alleys. [story]
For a primer on the Asarco issue, please see
Asarco Links.
Back to the most recent: Newspaper Tree presents seven documents filed June 18, 2007, outlining the issues now being argued by permit opponents and by Asarco.
Asarco [link]
New Mexico Department of Environmental Quality [link]
Office of Public Interest Counsel [link]
City of El Paso [link]
State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh [link]
Sierra Club [link]
Sunset Heights Acorn [link]"
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Constellation Copper Corporation to Proceed with
Bankable Feasibility Study on the Terrazas Copper-Zinc
Oxide
DENVER, COLORADO--(CCNMatthews - Apr 26, 2004) - Constellation Copper Corporation is pleased to nnounce it will proceed with a bankable feasibility study on the Terrazas copper-zinc oxide open pit heap leach project,[the Phelps Dodge Mining Company, for example, at its Morenci, AZ mine, has completely disassembled its smelter and has converted the mine to a mine-for-leach operation. It takes fewer employees and is more cost effective.] located in
analytical work.....
http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show_print.jsp?action=toolbox&showText=all&actionFor=427099&industry=false
Asarco acted as the Atomic Energy Commission uranium ore-buyer in 1948
Confirmation of buried barrels of waste at Asarco’s Troy mine comes to the surface
Digging deep
Confirmation of buried barrels of waste at Asarco’s Troy mine comes to the surface
Written by MICHAEL MOORE and MICHAEL JAMISON Photographed by MICHAEL GALLACHER of the Missoulian
TROY – For more than half a year, attorneys for the companies involved in the Troy mine’s past and future have denied an environmental group’s claim that barrels of waste are buried in the mine’s tailings impoundment.
The mining attorneys asked a federal judge in Missoula to dismiss that claim, made in December 2002 in a lawsuit brought by the Cabinet Resource Group, at the most fundamental level – they simply said it never happened.
“Neither the state nor any of the defendants are aware of, nor can they find any evidence of, any such violations,” attorneys for Asarco and the Sterling Mining Co. of Montana wrote in a March brief seeking dismissal of the case.
Then a strange thing happened. Tim Bechtold, one of CRG’s attorneys, filed a notice alerting the company attorneys that he planned to depose Lee McKinney, a former mill manager at the Troy mine.
On Oct. 14, Bechtold had a telephone call from Asarco attorney John Davis, who said the company would now admit that at least some waste had been “deposited” in the 400-acre impoundment, which stores waste rock from the mining process:
“On the basis of information obtained from a former employee of Defendant ASARCO, Mr. Lee McKinney, Defendant ASARCO admits that a quantity of barrels containing flocculant and absorbent material were deposited into the tailings impoundment at the Troy mine in approximately 1988,”http://www.missoulian.com/specials/troy/troy01.html
Asarco finally admitted to having buried 55 gallon drums of hazardous waste....
“I’ll be real interested to find out what’s down there,” Arrigo said."
(Asarco Troy mine, 2003)
" Specifically, Meyer said Asarco’s tailings impoundment, which captures waste from the mining operation, was leaking into nearby Lake Creek.
He also said the company bypassed part of its wastewater treatment plant, sending sewage and other waste directly into the tailings impoundment. And, perhaps most surprising, Meyer claimed Asarco was burying 55-gallon drums of hazardous waste in what he termed “midnight burials.”
All of those claims have been disputed by the company, and the matter has recently found its way into federal court. But long before the first motions were filed, some eight years ago, to be exact, Jim Meyer blew his whistle in the Troy woods, expecting state regulators to hear his alarm."
http://www.missoulian.com/specials/troy/troy03.html
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
A giant burial mound in Ruston holds the ruins of Asarco's copper smelter...
Published: Sunday, March 19, 2006
TACOMA - A giant burial mound in Ruston holds the ruins of Asarco's copper smelter: bricks, mortar and soil so saturated with arsenic and lead that the crypt they are buried in will have to be monitored indefinitely to prevent leaks.
Asarco is poised to sell its waterfront property to a Lacey developer, including the tomb and the responsibility for the hazardous waste in it.
An estimated $45 million in cleanup work remains to be done. But the developer, MC Construction, is expected to assume responsibility only for half, depending on how negotiations with federal regulators go.
Still untouched are as many as 500 contaminated residential yards, adjacent industrial properties and nearby aquatic lands.
The former Fortune 500 company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2005, and might be able to walk away from some of the nation's most vexing and expensive environmental cleanups.
That would burden taxpayers with more than $1 billion in obligations. And some regulators say that estimate is low.
The remaining cleanup in Ruston and Tacoma is just a fraction of Asarco's heritage nationwide. Asarco has told a federal bankruptcy judge that state and federal officials blame the company for contamination at 94 sites in 21 states.
Creditors fighting over the remains of the company could raid a small trust fund established to pay for cleaning up some of the worst pollution problems, officials said. But because trust fund distributions are prioritized based on human health risks, cleanup efforts in the Pacific Northwest could take a back seat to such places as:
* Omaha, Neb., home of the largest residential lead cleanup in the United States.
* El Paso, Texas, where contamination from a mothballed smelter and its 800-foot smokestack extends into Mexico and New Mexico.
see:
http://heraldnet.com/stories/06/03/19/100loc_a1asarco001.cfm