DAY 13

There is a small "however" in the PROHIBITED SUBSTANCES section of the Camino Real landfill that would let them (with state authorization - but they can't state what that means) accept radioactive Uranium mining wastes and milling wastes into this landfill.

V.P. Mr. Little actually went home Monday from the hearing and it is Exec. V.P. Mr. Bob (Robert D.) Evans, general counsel to Waste Connnections Inc. who is here since late Monday evening. He has a law degree from Berkley CA and a background in economics. When he went to work for WCN in 2002 he quit his general partnership in a large CA law firm. He has sat through all the testimonies and questions since then.

There is also a UTEP Economist here.

Do you want uranium mining waste in a landfill on the Rio Grande that will supply drinking water? Come and listen. The meeting starts at 8:30 AM at DESERT VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in sunland park in the morning. Tonight it is at the Parrish Hall and they don't know how long it will go.

The Judge is Honorable Rudy Apodaca and his hearing-fees are posted on his website.

Landfill hearing

... if you are a reporter and you are not covering this landfill
hearing, you are missing a humdinger of a story.

DAY 12

The V.P. (Mr. J.M.Little) for Waste Control inc. (owner of El Paso Disposal, the Camino Real Landfill, and involved in the Andrews County Nuclear facilty) arrived last evening and has stayed through the day.

Waste Control Inc. (ticker WCN) makes about one billion in revenue a year; and has profits of about 1/4 of that.

This morning NMED (nm envir. dept) cabinet sec. Ms. Cindy Padilla was here to testify and announced that of yesterday she has a different Cabinet position (aging).

Meetings will continue to be held at the Catholic church community center Wednesday (end of sunland park rd, north on mcnutt - on the left) and after that it is likely to be at a school, perhaps desert elementary through friday. Usually it is 8 am to 9 pm. Last evening it went through 11 pm. It is cold - wear a warm coat (no heat except a few space heaters and a propane picnic heater).

Profits to the landfill from maquiladoras is declining year to year because of movement of companies to China one expert said; hypothetically it seems as if the landfill will need to find other revenue streams for Waste Control Inc.

They claim that although they deal with radioactive/toxic wastes that they don't need a non hazmat landfill. That is what they say.

Camino Real Landfill Hearing Day 11

Today the hearing ran from 9 am through 11 PM - we got an hour for lunch and one hour for dinner. The propane heater had disappeared but the opposing party went out and bought another.

We covered geological faulting today. NMED (NM Envir. dept) wasn't willing to accept evidence of the surface faulting even when a lot of the research came from Petroleum company and Asarco's own consulting company.

Malaysia : toxic waste in landfill

DAY 10 (Yesterday - Saturday) of the Camino Real Dump Hearing

At the hearing (it was at Desert View for just Saturday) the Judge berated a few people for getting started after 8:30 AM, skipped lunch and ran the hearing through to 10 P.M.   The Landfill attorneys provided soda and pizza at lunchtime.     There was a dinner break. 

The interpreters left at 9:30 pm (a bit hoarse), but instead of recessing, the Judge granted the opposing party's request to go to 10 PM, which meant that the retired attorney had to do Cross Examination at the end of a 14 hour day.  He was given only 30 minutes to cross-examine the Border Health guy.

One El Paso resident told the Judge, during a break, that the Judge was biased (which you don't do to a Judge) and was told to leave. 

Tomorrow the hearing moves back to the Catholic Church community center, just west of Sunland Park Drive where it dead-ends onto McNutt Rd.  It will start at 8 am, I think - although it is possible that the Judge said 9 am, since the sound-crew has to re-install all the equipment.

If you live in Texas or Mexico you should DEFINITELY attend these last few days of the hearing because the lady lobbyist from the opposing team last week pretty much said that all that matters is New Mexico and New Mexicans.   The dump sits up-river from your water supply, and within the 10 mile area-shed of most of the west side of El Paso.  They are not telling us what Asarco dumped there; also said that to let the invoices about Asarco zinc-plant demolition material being dumped there into evidence would be incriminating.

Workers-on-strike came to the meeting and now, since they lost their jobs and are not afraid to speak anymore, were telling about regularly dumping medical wastes and dead animals at the dump.

Day NINE of the Grueling Marathon Hearing

The community of Sunland Park moves into DAY NINE of the grueling
marathon hearing at the Parrish Hall (Community Center), Catholic church
off of McNutt just west of the Sunland Park Intersection.

The audience learned that the people representing the Landfill work for
the nuclear and waste industry, lobbying for dumps in poor and
disadvantaged communities. A N.M. supreme court decision had ruled that
the state must consider the cumulative impact of industries on a
community when siting a new one. The Camino Real dump does not want to
have the impact from ASARCO considered when renewing the Landfill's permit.

The Hearing Days run from 8 to 9 PM daily, including Saturdays. Sunland
Park is represented by a volunteer group and retired attorney.

The hall is unheated except for 2 space heaters and a propane picnic
heater. The chairs are metal and cold for the audience. There is no
pay for the volunteers, or monies for exhibits, copying, gasoline etc.

The opposing team for the Landfill has two law firms with a total of
over 80 attorneys. The witnesses yesterday had two attorneys, and no
medical doctors.

It is possible that the dump leaks water into the aquifer and Rio Grande
and it is not possible to determine what has been dumped there. The
Landfill wants to renew their permit for 10 more years.

Camino Real Dump Hearing: Thursday

Many of the affected parties and attorneys went on a Dump tour, and the proceedings started later at the community center. It was warmer, the Dump attorneys had bought a huge number of seat cushions at WalMart, so that many regular attendees could use those and be warmer than sitting on a metal chair ... but many still came who had no cushions. The central heating fan is off because of long-term construction.

One after another the residents of the region came forward to speak about esophageal cancers, lung cancer, eye surgeries, diabetes (which we now know is regulated by a 2nd hormone produced in bones), asthma, a feeling of being smothered, not being able to swallow, overly/unusual dry skin, and other problems that occur at high rates. They were worried about the dust, the odors, the dripping-fluids from the waste-trucks headed toward the dump (dump doesn't accept fluids), and the drinking-water.

IBWC Filed $27 Million Contamination Claim Against Asarco

"by NPT Staff

NPT presents three bankruptcy court documents related to a $27 million claim for contamination of IBWC property adjacent to Asarco. The IBWC cites a "potential threat to the Rio Grande," a source of drinking and irrigation water for El Paso.

Posted on December 5, 2007

Editor's note: The following is to be heard by bankruptcy court Dec. 7. The three court documents -- linked to below these brief excerpts -- relate to a $27 million claim by the International Boundary and Water Commission against Asarco for contamination on IBWC property.

***
http://newspapertree.com/politics/1883-ibwc-filed-27-million-contamination-claim-against-asarco

Related Documents:

IBWC Nov. 29, 2007

Asarco 1, Nov. 29, 2007

Asarco 2, Nov. 29, 2007
"

Camino Real Dump Hearing

The hearing started this morning and will run 8 AM to 9PM from today through Saturday and then next week Monday through Saturday at the Catholic church community center on McNutt just west of the Sunland Park road intersection. The community center is unheated, the chairs are hard and metal and the center was never designed for 13 hour marathons in the wintertime.

Despite objections from all of us without money and health insurance (for the antibiotics to cure us when we all get sick from this) the hearing continues as planned through this holiday season.

We unpaid and affected community members are facing two law firms - one with 40 local attorneys alone.

Governor Richardson's environmental Justice in action, folks. God help us all.

The Border in 1989, when ENCYCLE began

http://web.njit.edu/~pro3/NJIT/Options/Opt-S05Border/ANAPRA.pdf

(published 2004)

Lead particulates in air at UTEP monitor site

Lead: (quarterly mean in micrograms/cubic meter) El Paso, TX
All the data points are from the East Robinson UTEP monitor site.
This is a chart of the quarterly Pb (lead) readings for the eleven years.

The values begin to get smaller after the smelter closed, in 2/1999

United Press International publishes Forecast: U.S. dollar could plunge 90 pct

By UPI  11/24/07 -- -, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A financial crisis will likely send the U.S. dollar into a free fall of as much as 90 percent...
The Panic of 2008 will lead to a lower U.S. standard of living, he said."....
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18776.htm

Financial Depression of 1873
Townsend builds the smelter 1887

1929: Great Depression
1929-1933 "At the height of the Great Depression, Smeltertown spanned about 25 acres and the population had grown to about 5,000 residents."

1930's : "[Asarco's] company's recovery was aided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's silver-purchase plan and his devaluation of the dollar, which caused the prices of precious metals to rise."
http://www.answers.com/topic/asarco-incorporated

since 2001 a Russian smelter has illegally smelted radioactive scrap

"ECOMET-S has illegally melted thousands of tons of radioactive scrap metal from the LNPP as well as 150 tons of scrap metal from the Chepetsk Mechanical Plant (the city of Glazov, Udmurt Republic, Volga basin)."
http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/index.html?http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/561/5360.html

from 1989: Tin smelter at Hull in Britain discharges radioactive polonium (LEAD) from stack

"DISCHARGES of radioactivity and other forms of pollution from Europe's biggest tin smelter at Hull in Britain are not to blame for causing abnormally high numbers of childhood cancers in villages close to the site, according to Britain's pollution 'police'.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution cleared the Capper Pass complex on Humberside, pictured here, of blame last week in a report that describes one of the most detailed investigations ever undertaken by the organisation's air pollution and radiochemical inspectors.

The chimney at the plant, which is 180 metres high, discharges radioactive polonium-210 [LEAD/Pb] as well as a cocktail of other toxic pollutants including antimony, arsenic, cadmium, lead, tin and zinc.

The inspectorate says that, on the basis of environmental data, predictions of dispersion patterns, radiological assessments and epidemio-logical studies, there is no evidence to link unusually high incidence of leukemia in the area with radioactive pollution from the plant. The report concludes that with the exception of cadmium, the concentrations of pollutants would not be expected to damage health.

From issue 1658 of New Scientist magazine, 01 April 1989"

Smelting radioactive material

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:38:05 GMT
" Johannesburg - South Africa's Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Friday gave the green light for the construction of a smelter for radioactive nuclear waste at the site of the Pelindaba nuclear facility outside Pretoria. The facility would be used to process about 140,000 tons of waste of varying levels of radioactivity, said van Schalkwyk. No "viable alternative" for treating nuclear waste in South Africa had been found, he said in his written decision. Some of the radioactive metal equipment used in South Africa's secretive apartheid-era uranium enrichment programme, under which it developed six and a half nuclear bombs, are to be melted down. The green light for the smelter came despite objections from residents and anti-nuclear and environmental activists. South Africa recently approved plans to resume uranium enrichment. The country has a nuclear-fired electricity plant at Koeberg near Cape Town."
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/100620.html

1976 Jun 01 Feasibility study of a portable smelter for scrap metals

"The use of a portable smelter to process uranium-contaminated scrap metals was studied.^Objectives were to convert scrap metal located at many diverse sites into a form which would be suitable for unlicensed sale and reduce the problems associated with storing the scrap.^The Foundry Design Company study indicated the portable smelter concept was feasible from an equipment and transportation standpoint.^Capital costs for a 5-ton/hour (steel) nominal capacity unit were estimated to be $2,349,000.^Technical evaluation indicates that all the common metals considered, i.e., iron, nickel, copper, and aluminum, are amenable to uranium decontamination by smelting except aluminum.^An economic evaluation of the processing of the 30,000 tons of steel scrap to be generated by the Cascade Improvement Program by a portable smelter was made based upon information supplied by Foundry Design Company, plus the assumption that the product metal could be sold for $120.00 per ton.^This evaluation indicated a net return of $2,424,000 to the government could be realized.^The Health and Safety study indicated no major problems of this nature would be encountered in operating a portable smelter.^The legal review indicated the proposed operation fell within the authority of existing regulations.^Consideration of possible conflicts with regard to competition with the private sector was suggested.^(DLC)"
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=7269860

Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Detected In Newborns

Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Detected In Newborns

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2007) — MIT researchers have found that the children of mothers whose water supplies were contaminated with arsenic during their pregnancies harbored gene expression changes that may lead to cancer and other diseases later in life. In addition to establishing the potential harmful effects of these prenatal exposures, the new study also provides a possible method for screening populations to detect signs of arsenic contamination.

This is the first time evidence of such genome-wide changes resulting from prenatal exposure has ever been documented from any environmental contaminant. It suggests that even when water supplies are cleaned up and the children never experience any direct exposure to the pollutant, they may suffer lasting damage.

The evidence comes from studies of 32 mothers and their children in a province of Thailand that experienced heavy arsenic contamination from tin mining. Similar levels of arsenic are also found in many other regions, including the US Southwest.

The research was led by Mathuros Ruchirawat, Director of the Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology of the Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI) in Thailand, and Leona D. Samson, Director of MIT's Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) and the American Cancer Society Professor in the Departments of Biological Engineering and Biology at MIT. The first author of the study is Rebecca C. Fry, a research scientist at CEHS. Coauthors include Panida Navasumrit of the CRI and Chandni Valiathan, graduate student at MIT's Computational and Systems Biology Initiative.

The team analyzed blood that had been collected from umbilical cords at birth. The exposure of mothers to arsenic during their pregnancy was independently determined by analyzing toenail clippings -- the most reliable way of detecting past arsenic exposure.

The team found a collection of about 450 genes whose expression had been turned on or turned off in babies who had been exposed to arsenic while in the womb. That is, these genes had either become significantly more active (in most cases) or less active than in unexposed babies.

"We were looking to see whether we could have figured out that these babies were exposed in utero" just by using the gene expression screening on the stored blood samples, Samson says. "The answer was a resounding yes."

Further, the team found that a subset of just 11 of these genes could be used as a highly reliable test for determining whether babies had been born to mothers exposed to arsenic during pregnancy. Since blood samples are already taken routinely for medical tests this may provide an easier way of screening for such exposure.

The gene expression changes the group found in the exposed children are mostly associated with inflammation, which can lead to increased cancer risk. Recognizing the damaging effects of the arsenic exposure, "the government has provided alternative water sources" to the affected villages, Fry says, which means that following these children as they grow older (they are now toddlers) has the potential to show how long-lasting the effects of the prenatal exposure may be. However, she adds, this may be complicated by the fact that many people are still using the local water for cooking.

It's not yet clear how long the changes may last. "We will be testing whether these gene expression changes have persisted in these children," Fry says.

This is the first time such a response to prenatal arsenic exposure has been found in humans. But it is not entirely unexpected, Samson explains, because "in mice, when mothers are transiently exposed to arsenic in the drinking water, their progeny, in their adult life, are much more cancer-prone."

Further research could include studies of possible ways of reversing or mitigating the damage, perhaps through dietary changes, nutritional supplements, or drug treatments to counteract the gene expression changes.

Also, the group plans to do follow-up studies in different locations and with larger groups of subjects to confirm the value of the 11 "marker" genes as a reliable indicator of arsenic exposure. The researchers also aim to determine whether the gene expression changes are specific to arsenic.

This study is an example of the CEHS's efforts to promote collaborative interdisciplinary research into global environmental health issues, specifically in the developing world.

The research will be reported in the Nov. 23 issue of PLoS Genetics.

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and the Chulabhorn Research Institute.

Adapted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:

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MLA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007, November 23). Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Detected In Newborns. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 23, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/11/071122225245.htm

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071122225245.htm

 

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