Scroll to end: click web view. Heather Mcmurray 's work exposing the 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 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, October 6, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Book: The Secret History of the War on Cancer
"Davis writes with passion, driven by the conviction that premature deaths among her family members resulted from exposure to industrial toxins....Davis presents a powerful call to action; recommended." Library Journal
An excerpt:
"Another region of the southern United States haunted by poisonous secrets is that of El Paso, Texas, home of the ASARCO lead smelter. In his 1975 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Philip Landrigan detailed the toxic impact of lead residues on local children that forced the examination of every other smelter in the country. His work for the Centers for Disease Control showed that levels of lead that were insufficient to immediately sicken children permanently dulled their brains and nervous systems.
ASARCO's answer to this crisis was straightforward. Smeltertown families were booted out of their homes. When I visited the area in 2004, only the dead remained. The small local cemetery of marked and nameless graves was covered with blackened, windswept sand. Longer stones or slabs of poured concrete presumably indicate adults, and smaller ones outline those who died as children. The name and short life of Guadaloupe Carmona, 1925–1927, are handwritten on a poured slab1.
In the Environmental Law Institute's report for the Library of Congress in 1980, we described El Paso, along with Times Beach, as well-established cases of mostly historic interest, about which there was little left to learn. We knew that the lawsuit against the company had been settled and that the land surrounding the smelter had been bought by ASARCO for less than half a million dollars. The purchase was made on the condition that all the residents were to be removed so that their former home sites could be used to store acid tanks and railroad cars2.
But when I visited the region three years ago, I learned that some environmental solutions, unlike love, are not forever. El Paso's problems are not nearly as well resolved as I had believed. In fact the story has taken a strange turn. In May 1992, ASARCO set up two3 CONTOP (continuous top-feed oxygen process) furnaces. These hot-burning ovens never slept. All day every day, they burned tons of toxic wastes at 90 percent efficiency. This meant that just 10 percent of what they tried to burn ended up intact. Still, 10 percent of hundreds of thousands of tons of wastes fired over several years left enough metal poisons in the region that the furnaces were put out of business by the U.S. Department of Justice after operating just seven years4. Although many nearby businesses were long shut down, the smelter next to Smeltertown remained, along with the buildings supporting the U.S. Mexico dam and canal system.
A secret government memo released in 2006 from the EPA, written during the Clinton years, showed that so long as the furnaces were running, the company told the world it was recycling materials. Think back to the waste oil that Russell Bliss distributed or took to be burned in mills in Missouri. If this waste is laced with dioxin or heavy metals, then when it gets burned, thousands of tons of toxic agents get finely spewed back into the air over large regions. Recycling thus becomes a neat redistribution system, taking measurable solid wastes and turning them into immeasurable, ultrafine air pollutants.
Pollutants do not need passports. The residents of El Paso and Juarez know this, because they are joined by more than a century's worth of leaden soils and plumes that have crossed back and forth over the U.S.-Mexican border and left many zones uninhabitable. Commerce, of course, crosses borders as well. In 1999 ASARCO was bought for more than $1 billion and today is a completely owned subsidiary of Grupo Mexico5. They have declared their intention to reopen this century-old facility6. What happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that ASARCO had set aside to pay for cleaning up El Paso? In a stunningly cynical move, Grupo Mexico was granted permission by the U.S. government to use that money to pay down corporate debt. Not a penny has been spent to remedy the damage from this longstanding pollution7.
At this time, ASARCO faces bankruptcy because of its responsibilities to clean up dozens of Superfund sites. Of an estimated $2 billion in cleanup costs for old ASARCO areas throughout the United States alone, the firm has set aside less than $100 million. The Steelworkers Union in Dallas used the Freedom of Information Act to unearth an EPA memo warning that any sampling of metals in El Paso could show that the smelter had burned illegal wastes for years. Many locals suspect the plans to reopen the rusted old smelter are just a ploy to keep the plant from being declared a Superfund site. If the company declares its intent to operate, it can't be prosecuted for having abandoned the area.
The signing and sealing of secrecy agreements about contaminated environments — just like those about defective cars or planes — is not a matter of child's play. It's perfectly legal and perfectly bad to allow health and safety information to be kept secret. Such secrets also handicap the ability of science to evaluate hazards. We are left with a policy that perversely allows that you can't ask about what someone doesn't want you to know.
As you open the pages of this book and join me at our web site, you will find long forgotten secrets exposed. You will also find a map that ensures that those of us who want the future of cancer to be different from the past, understand that keeping secrets about the things that cause the disease endangers all of us.
1 Residents of Smeltertown moved upstream two miles to Bueno Vista across from Anapra, New Mexico, and old Anapra, Mexico. In the 1980s New Mexico labeled Anapra, New Mexico, the most lead-contaminated spot in New Mexico and blamed it on the smelter. Since then three generations have grown up in Anapra, and the generations are suffering increasing horrific health problems. Word of mouth accounts are common about babies born without organs, born without a brain, fused-skulls at birth are common and doctors have privately told women it comes from drinking the city water when pregnant. The residents of Anapra have formed a community group and are fighting to get honest assessment of the extent of contamination from the smelter. Meanwhile, New Mexico, Mexico, and Texas continue to turn Anapra into the regional dumping ground — siting three sewage treatment plants, a regional dump, the electric generating plant, a quarry and other toxic developments at this residentially-zoned neighborhood (platted in the early 1900s).
2 Wal-Mart bought several hundred acreas of ASARCO-contaminated land just north of the old smelter cemetery for a whopping five million dollars, just after Wal-Mart was cited millions nationwide by the EPA for failing to observe storm water rules in construction of its properties.
3 The two largest CON0TOPs in the world, designed to smelt toxic waste (shredded automobiles, sludges) for "energy recovery" to provide additional heat for the concurrent melting of the ore concentrates. But ASARCO never got permission to smelt toxic waste — they were supposed to recover metals from all materials that they received.
4 The EPA began testing and residential cleanups in the early 2000s. ASARCO had shut down in 1999, claiming a historic low in copper prices. It wasn't until 2006 that the Federal Department. of Justice released an EPA secret memo from 1998, showing the fake recycling, the secret incineration of toxic waste for profit that ASARCO's ConTop furnaces had conducted for nearly a decade. The government had used ASARCO to dispose of Rocky Mt. Arsenal material (oil bearing materials, chemical weapon quench waters).
5 Carlyle Group is an owner of Grupo Mexico.
6 We believe that this may actually be a sham-intent, and that the fight is over ownership of the carbon credits from the Air permit 20345.
7 We also believe that the Asarco bankruptcy is a test-case for world-wide industrial interests to show how environmental liabilities can be shed — passed onto the people who actually suffered the damages in the first place.
÷ ÷ ÷
Devra Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board in 1994 and also served as Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Science. She lives in Pittsburgh. Visit her website at www.devradavis.org."
TCEQ refuses to answer simple question
They will not answer the question and tell me that my request is closed.
This "non-answer" is backed by Charles Stokes, staff attorney for TCEQ.
It was a simple question. Did they test the lake -- why/why-not? The Toxic Wastes from ENCYCLE would be in that water, from the runoff.
WHY AREN'T THEY LOOKING FOR THESE?
It is getting more appallingly clear that they won't tell us what poison is in our environment from Asarco's illegal toxic waste burning. WHY? Why is it so difficult for a state agency or the federal EPA or anyone with a Chemistry set at a university to tell us what is really in our dirt, air and water from Asarco's illegal activity?
What is so bad that they can't tell us?"
Monday, October 1, 2007
Asarco to miss 2007 450,000 lb moly production target
US copper producer Asarco will not meet its goal of producing approximately 450,000 lb of molybdenum in 2007, a company official told Platts on Monday.
"We're at about half of our projected levels," said John Low, Asarco vice president of mining operations. "It just wasn't in the ore.. It didn't turn out as we projected," he added.
Asarco resumed moly production last December at its Mission complex in Sahurita, Arizona. Molybdenum, which occurs naturally in the Mission ore body, is produced as a byproduct of Asarco's copper operation.
Prior to the moly restart, Joseph Lapinsky, Asarco president and CEO, said restarting the molybdenum circuit would allow the company to better utilize its mineral resources and benefit from favorable market conditions. The company last produced molybdenum in 1996 but stopped because of low market prices and the absence of the mineral in the ore then being mined.
According to Low, Asarco is working on its 2008 moly projects. The company expects to complete its evaluation in about a month, he added.
--Bob Matyi, newsdesk@platts.com"
http://www.platts.com/Metals/News/6487669.xml?src=Metalsrssheadlines1
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Research Article suggests link between leukemias (including CCL and AML) and ionizing radiation over decades of exposure
From: Environmental Health Perspectives | Date: 1/1/2005 | Author: Hoffmann, Wolfgang; Richardson, David B.; Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge; Schroeder, Jane; Wing, Steve
http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G1:136511527
" It is well established that ionizing radiation has the ability to produce double-strand breaks in chromosomal DNA (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation 2000). The primary mechanism by which biologic damage occurs is believed to be via the creation of ionized atoms and molecules that become chemically reactive. This can occur directly via ionization of a critical molecule, such as DNA, or indirectly via ionization of nearby molecules, such as water."...
Please contact me if you know anyone with either CCL or AML
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Utah man poisoned from eating local fish says, "What do we do about it?"
[that is a good question for people along the Frontera facing the legacy of Asarco poison]
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7038749
CSWAB UPDATE: Pentagon Will Fight Wisconsin Water Standards
The Pentagon intends to challenge Wisconsin in regulating all forms of the explosive dinitrotoluene (DNT), Army officials announced on Monday.
Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to establish health-based guidelines for the pervasive military toxin that has contaminated groundwater and dozens of private wells near the Badger Army Ammunition Plant......." Website: www.cswab.org
Public Record request to TCEQ and questions to Terry McMillan about new water in Asarco Lake (between the Smelter cemetery and the overpass) IGNORED
To: Ms. Debbie Wahrmund
Please explain to me why my request for information (information newer than any of the records you have previously made available) is not a records request. I would like you to give me the legal reasons, please.
You sent me the letters I wrote to Mr. McMillan. In those letters I ask:
- "There is a lot of water at the site of the old natural ancient Asarco Lake, now. Has anyone taken water samples and analyzed the samples for ENCYCLE wastes? If not, why?"
- "I have not seen a single analysis from Asarco/TCEQ/EPA that shows that anything has been tested for the wide range of metals and chemicals that would have been incinerated/handled by Asarco from Encycle. We know that a report exists because Archie Clouse referred to it in an El Paso Times interview.I have been unable to get a copy - please explain why
In both, I am asking for current information -- information that has NOT BEEN GIVEN to me. Again, please give me the legal reasons why these are not PIA's ---why these requests for information (information newer than any of the records you have previously made available) are not records requests.
I am copying this to the two congressmen offices which have pushed for investigation of the ENCYCLE wastes that were burned in El Paso, TX at the Asarco smelter; and copying my list of media.
Why is the TCEQ, the EPA and Asarco so unwilling to hand over a full-analysis of the "lake"? or tell me that it has/hasn't been done?
(We'd also like to know why the TCEQ commissioners have not added the motion to overturn the Asarco stormwater permit to their Agenda when peoples from both nations have provided enough evidence to show that the permit should not be renewed.)
Letter: Story ignored on Asarco mass gathering
An historic moment in our city's political life. This was a call to action that broke through the apathy and the cynicism and the unwillingness to speak up on issues that matter.
The El Paso Times editorial page often laments the lack of political participation in our community, so I was surprised, dismayed, angry to see that 1,500 people's participation in a democratic process only warranted one inch of newsprint and no photo in the El Paso Times.
I am including the photo as part of this letter to the editor. I ask that you run it on your editorial page to show El Pasoans what the newsroom thinks is worth only one inch of newsprint.
And I ask that you consider that your newsroom might be contributing to apathy in our community by ignoring the democratic impulses that bring our community together and galvanize us towards action.
Susie Byrd
City representative
District 2"
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_7030329
ALL A SHAM: Asarco asks Bankruptcy court in Corpus Christi to accept El Paso Texas settlement
"Sept. 28, 2007, 10:40PM Asarco asks court to accept settlement" AP newswire "EL PASO, Texas — Asarco LLC said it filed a motion Friday in a Corpus Christi bankruptcy court asking a judge to accept a settlement of about $13.7 million with governmental environmental agencies for the cost of cleanups of lead and arsenic in the soil in some El Paso neighborhoods..."
[IBWC estimates it will cost 24 million ALONE to clean up contamination from Asarco beneath the old upper American Canal ... who will pay for the rest of the clean up? The Taxpayers - you and me. EPA, TCEQ and ASARCO will not disclose the Asarco POISONS that taxpayers will eventually have to pay to remove/dispose of from our Storm-water utility runoff/sludges. The innocent are left living in a pool of poisons while the previous Asarco Environmental Manager left the country for Peru (Asarco Southern Peru Copper company) cashing in Five Million dollars worth of stock options -- almost HALF OF WHAT ASARCO IS WILLING TO PAY YOU FOR CLEANUP HERE.]
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5174183.html
Friday, September 28, 2007
Faces against Asarco
It was a large crowd, we had a good day, and we waved goodbye to Asarco and stood as a group in the photo and no one paid any of us to be there.
Nuff said.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Hi, David, you found the blog
http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinkaboutit/2007/09/still-no-pictur.html
Ah, David, why would you have a problem standing beside the treatment plant? It is only just above the canal that delivers a lot of our drinking water. Do you know something I don't know about that plant?
The Epgtlo blog is not the GTLO blog - that is www.gettheleadout.net. You can see that on the same fliers you mentioned. Please get your facts straight.
"I also heard that there was some interesting visa swapping in order to get some Juarez folks over the border."
Haven't heard this, David. Perhaps you should ask the people directly. Or are you relying on hearsay again?
Sign up for a google alert whenever "Asarco" appears. I have seen many pictures of the event because of the alert. You can always contact one of those bloggers for a better copy of their photo.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
El Paso Times Letter to the Editor on 9-24-07
Facts hidden
We know that for nearly 10 years, Asarco illegally handled and burned toxic waste for big profits, and that they never told us. We know that our government hid that from us for eight years.
Some Asarco workers tell me that it never hurt them to work there; some tell me differently. But no Asarco workers have told me that they trusted Asarco to tell them what went through that plant -- even two people who tested the material for the metals that Asarco wanted to smelt.
We've been lied to by Asarco, the TCEQ and the EPA.
Now the toxins are hidden in the water pumped up the mountain and sent to the city. They are in the dust stirred up in our air, and the rain streaming off our properties. We'll carry the lie as a silent random poison in our lungs, our bones and our bodies and some of it may pass to unborn children from the mothers.
It is time to end the lie, close the smelter, demand honest services from our government and begin the long process of cleanup.
Heather McMurray
El Pasoans gather to protest ASARCO
By: Fernie Castillo (text and photo-credits)
Posted: 9/25/07
"Members of the community gathered in white T-shirts on Sept. 26 for a photo that will be sent to Governor Richard Perry to persuade officials not to grant ASARCO its air permit renewal."
http://www.utepprospector.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a4017618-abb3-41d6-ac74-3ba96cb8ac21
David K. doesn't get out much...
ETHNICITY AND CLASS ARE NOT THE ISSUES HERE however hard he tries to "re-frame" it that way -- the toxins that Asarco, the TCEQ and EPA are hiding do not discriminate between classes or races. The poisons affect us all.
Why is it so difficult to write about the secret EPA document that the DOJ released? It can be hard to face facts...
"September 24, 2007
Update on ASARCO story - Classes, ethiciities at war?
UPDATE: I watched the video of the event rom KFOX (http://www.kfoxtv.com/video/14186394/index.html)
Asarco asks to raise CEO's salary
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sour Grapes ...
The anti-ASARCO crowd is quietly claiming a successful "Faces Against ASARCO" outing this past Sunday. Paul Strelzin, who is a part of their media machine, made sure to focus on the turnout of the pro-ASARCO crowd and less on the anti-ASARCO. I guess the anti-ASARCO group's turnout wasn't worth talking about? [not when Asarco had to PAY their participants 50$ each to show up!] They said they'd have 25,000 people and I've heard numbers from 500 to 1000. Not quite a big turnout.
ASARCO's guest were invited specifically for the commercial they were doing. I saw no call to the public from them, so I didn't expect them to have a bunch of folks.
As for the anti-ASARCO folks, I think they need to rethink their message that all of El Paso wants ASARCO to remain closed. If you give them the higher of the two reported numbers (1000) and you divide that by our estimated population of around 600,000 you get .0016 percent. That means that less than 1% of the people of El Paso cared to gather against ASARCO. So much for "all of El Paso" caring enough about ASARCO to show up in opposition of it. [um, how about recalculating that percentage by the number of people living within the 3 mile EPA official contamination area??]
I think we've been led to believe that there are all kinds of regular El Pasoans up in arms over the opening of ASARCO, when it's obvious that it's only a core group of people who consider themselves "activists." [I would say that Refuse-the-juice classifies as an activist the same as anyone else ... so why imply that being active on community issues is a bad name?] It's the same group who says "no" to everything. They are trying to create a situation where a vocal minority controls the quiet majority. [does this mean that since only a few people in our community are "rich" that those will "create a situation like opening the smelter where a vocal minority (the rich) controls the quiet majority (the ill, the unborn, the babies and the aged)???] Let's hope they are not successful." [Amen, David, the rich shouldn't get off Scot-free from paying their environmental liabilities off or being responsible citizens]
[still no mention of the Toxic waste burning? Why not? Don't want El Pasoans to know?]
http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinkaboutit/2007/09/asarco-turnout-.html