ASARCO hiding data

"...Grupo Mexico SAB's Asarco Inc. unit said it wants an examiner to investigate reorganization talks involving Asarco LLC, the bankrupt copper miner run by a court-appointed independent board of directors.  Asarco LLC is hiding "crucial information regarding claims and valuation," Asarco Inc. said Thursday in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas...."

Grupo Mexico: Asarco hides data
Arizona Daily Star - Tucson,AZ,USA
By Edvard Pettersson

The story of the dumps around Naples Italy, mounting rubbish, and organized crime

The rotten heart of Italy: See Naples and die (of the stench)

The Campania Italy dump scandal...

"The hunt for Pecoraro Scanio has begun. He’s the guilty one. Not Bassolino, not Jervolino, not the Presidents of the Council for the last 15 years, not the Camorra [organized crime], not the companies of the North that got rid of toxic waste in Campania to save money, not the ones that took the billions of Euro from the European Community for public works that never got done, not the municipal companies that got politicized, not the parties, not the regional cabinets, not the mayors that are a continuation of organised crime, not those who didn’t allow recycling, not the magistrates who didn’t start enquiring, not the journalists who didn’t denounce a thing, not the parliamentarians from Campania who stay in Rome, not the health authorities who should check up on food products, not those who should check up on air pollution.
No one. No damned institution is responsible for a Region that is ruined, with radioactive detritus under the tomato fields and an alarming increase in cancers.
The ones at fault are the Greens, the people who want clean water, clean air, meat, eggs and mozzarella without dioxin. The ones at fault are those who want a park, a tree, a beach without sewage,, functioning purification systems.
The ones at fault are those who want recycling, zero refuse. The ones at fault are those who think that the people of Campania are civilised people like others who can get the same results for the environment as the Danes or the Californians.
The ones at fault are those who tell the truth about incinerators and Cip6, the tax on our Enel utility bill, that has taken away billions of Euro for renewable energy to gift it to the oil barons.
One of the greatest political failures of the Italian Republic has been transformed into a problem of public order. Bassolino reigns with De Gennaro at his right hand.
The ones at fault are Pecoraro the Scapegoat and all the inhabitants of Pianura who were promised that the tip would never be reopened...."

http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2008/01/pecoraro_the_scapegoat.html

Asarco asks court to boost Lehman's pay -- 2.6 MILLION so far.....

"Harbinger said Lehman has been paid $2.6 million for its work so far.

In August, Asarco asked the bankruptcy court to boost Lehman's monthly compensation and increase the fees the firm could earn based on a sale of Asarco's assets or the sale of debt or equity as part of a bankruptcy-exit plan."

Harbinger Blames Lehman in Asarco Case
Houston Chronicle - United States

ASARCO bond holder Harbinger trying to shoot down Lehman Brothers' bid to get paid in ASARCO bankruptcy hearing....

[it isn't called a "feeding frenzy" for nothing... note the Piranha-like effect!... meanwhile word-of-mouth gossip is that ASARCO is advertising in Louisiana for steelworkers to start work in El Paso for ASARCO when it opens....]

"Associated Press - January 9, 2008 3:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners is trying to shoot down Lehman Brothers Holdings' bid to get paid in Asarco LLC's bankruptcy case..."

http://www.kswo.com/global/category.asp?c=84964

Edgren on ASARCO...

"Seems as if the Asarco types have been breathing their own emissions for too long.

When City Council announced that it would use a new strategy in the fight against Asarco by citing Texas environmental rules, Asarco vice president for environmental affairs Thomas L. Aldrich lashed back with "Never in our 110 years in El Paso has there been such an anti-business council ..."

Uh, hold it right there. Tommy. Better check your gas mask; probably the air-inlet filters are clogged and you're experiencing oxygen deprivation.

Calling this City Council anti-business is like calling Attila the Hun anti-violence. It just ain't so.

This city tosses out tax abatements like confetti at a political convention. It's bending over backward to do everything possible to welcome and make comfortable the new troops and dependents at Fort Bliss. Public-private partnerships with key business entities have been expanded. Downtown revitalization on the scale we're experiencing and anticipating is hardly anti-business. The list goes on and on and on.

Asarco is a 19th century polluter trying desperately to function in a 21st century environment whose inhabitants are cognizant of the huge dangers Asarco-type pollution poses.

We don't want Asarco. We don't need Asarco. No wonder Tommy is a bit churlish these days."

Posted by Charlie Edgren on January 09, 2008 at 11:24 AM in Environment | Permalink

Charlie's Angles - http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/politicsopinion/

Naples' trash crisis tied to mob, toxic waste

"Expert: Organized crime gets garbage contracts, then mixes in pollutants

updated 10:12 a.m. MT, Wed., Jan. 9, 2008

ROME - The Italian government's plan to resolve Naples' garbage crisis may clear trash temporarily, but mafia control of waste disposal and politicians' inability to guarantee safe dumps means the problem will return, a noted expert on organized crime said Wednesday...

... But Roberto Saviano, a writer and expert on the Neapolitan organized crime syndicate, the Camorra, said such measures do not address the underlying causes of the problem: the mob and politicians who are powerless to fight it."....

"Saviano said the Camorra controls the entire cycle of garbage disposal in Campania, running the dumps, waste transport companies and other businesses, raking in what anti-mafia prosecutors estimate is $880 million per year.".......

...."Saviano said Camorra-run companies routinely win contracts to dispose of toxic waste from northern Italian industries by underbidding competitors, then dispose of it illegally and untreated in Campania's rivers and dumps. Camorra-run companies also mix toxic waste with other materials and resell it as fertilizer, he said."...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22573281/

City New Action in Asarco Legal Battle

City starting new legal battle to keep Asarco closed
"El Paso Times - El Paso,TX,USA
By David Crowder / El Paso Times The city of El Paso is starting a second legal action in its battle to keep Asarco from reopening. ..."

"by Rene Leon   City Has Takes New Action in Asarco Legal Battle

The City Council voted on Tuesday to take a new step in its legal fight to keep Asarco closed, but Asarco claims it is just part of an "anti-business" environment.

Posted on January 8, 2008

The El Paso City Council on Tuesday took a new move in its legal battle against the possible reopening of Asarco.

With a unanimous vote, the council moved to allow the city’s outside counsel to file a petition calling for the revocation of the smelter’s air emissions permit issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ...."

Toxic waste

"Google News Alert for: toxic waste

Naples rubbish crisis turns nasty
Independent - London,England,UK
... angry residents and the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, continues to make money by controlling the illegal dumping of millions of tonnes of toxic waste. ..."

Two Letters

"Readers Respond 1.2.08: "Offensive Blather"

from the NPT Inbox

The first batch of response from the New Year! Readers respond to readers respond, and Asarco, and Leon and Burton.

Posted on January 2, 2008

Readers Respond 12.27.07

.....

As a party in the Contested Case Hearing for the Camino Real Landfill in SP, NM and One Who Stand Against Asarco, we as a regional community must wake up and smell the contaminating industries and the conflicted agencies that allow them to continue to cluster. The cumulative effects of the decades of environmental injustice will continue to harm our quality of life, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.

Join in with all the people yelling out loud for the cause and help take control of our community. To them - CHEERS! To NPT thanks for covering the story, To the EP Times where were/are you? and to the rest of you - How about a New Year’s resolution of meaningful involvement!! Get UP, GET Out and Get Involved. -- Robert

---

"Readers Respond to Asarco - volcanic rock?" If anyone is interested, - i.e. David claims that the hills around ASARCO are black because they are volcanic rock!!! - check out the Google Maps for ASARCO, El Paso, Texas, and you will see, that black is not volcanic rock, but the soot from ASARCO! You will see the black scar on the land and the rocks came from the smoke stacks at ASARCO. Do notbe fooled folks, as ASARCO is known for pulling the sooty wool over the public's eyes, that the real culprit is and always will be ASARCO/Grupo De Mexico. So if the Grupo De Mexico bankers want ASARCO so badly, let them dismantle the system, and smoke stacks and rebuild it in their own backyards and see how they like it. And if they don't do that, then why should they expect Americans to allow it back into smelting duty. It’s all that copper value - greed over public health and welfare. Business as usual - down and dirty. -- Lynda Duke"

Chamizal 1967

President Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One on October 28, 1967 with Senator Wayne Morse, Senator Bourke Hickenlooper flying to Andrews Air Force Base, El Paso, Texas for the visit of President Diaz Ordaz of Mexico.

--also see "Remarks at the Chamizal Ceremony, Juarez, Mexico.
October 28th, 1967" by President Johnson:

The great Mexican patriot, Benito Juarez, said: "Respect for the rights of others is peace." That principle is the foundation stone of our hemispheric relations.....we know that the American States must stand together if we are to assure that the weak are protected, that might does not make right, that our peoples are to have the privilege of democratic choice.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=28509

The Railroad Bridge Sixteen Years later, in 1936

KFOX update on ASARCO permit

"...El Paso Mayor John Cook said in a written statement, “The City hopes the commissioners will consider all of the evidence and do the right thing for the citizens by denying the ASARCO renewal application. The international opposition to ASARCO’s permit requests cuts across all political, partisan and geographical lines – and includes federal, state, city and county elected officials, the mayors of Sunland Park, N.M, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, local residents, prominent business owners, civic leaders, and health officials. This widespread opposition to the ASARCO renewal application is a result of ASARCO's flagrant record of non-compliance with environmental protection rules and its threat to public health.”"
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/14946096/detail.html

YES Magazine "The story of Stuff"

Letter to EP Times

"Asarco overstates

Asarco is probably the worst polluter in America. They have burned hazardous wastes and failed to meet the burden of proof that they would not detrimentally contribute to air quality in the El Paso area.

In addition, they are currently being assessed for legitimate IBWC liability claims in bankruptcy court. Common sense tells us that air quality effects soil and water, and that Asarco's proposed allowable per TCEQ permit No. 20345 would harm air, soil and water.

In response to Bob Litle's Dec. 12 letter, The IBWC is, too, an "affected party," because the smelter runs next to the Rio Grande and American Canal: a substantial source of our water. Further, the "legacy of environmental claims," against Asarco, has everything "to do with the permit renewal process," and disconnecting the facts only obscures the truth.

Asarco plant manager Litle's letter does not deny that Asarco is indeed environmentally liable, or even contesting the $27 million in liability. He is merely suggesting that environmental claims were "overstated."

However, by doing so he doesn't deny the actual damage that was done, he only denies the interpretations of that damage, and nothing more.

Scott Comar
Central El Paso"
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_7831774

TCEQ CAN'T ADDRESS THE EVIDENCE *AND* THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO TELL US WHAT ASARCO POISONED US WITH...

"TCEQ Finally Sets Asarco Hearing   by Khushroo Ghadiali

The long-awaited hearing that could determine the fate of the Asarco smelter has finally been set by the TCEQ in Austin.

Posted on December 28, 2007

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, has announced a hearing date for ASARCO’s appeal. The hearing, scheduled for Feb. 13, will be held in Austin.
This comes after Bruce Manvell, the investigator for the County Attorney's office replied to TCEQ’sletter of Dec 17 asking the TCEQ, in writing, to determine whether criminal prosecution against Asarco is warranted, and to explain why or why not.
NPT seeking a clarification of the letter was told that the agency would not comment any further. A spokeswoman for the agency said "What the executive director said (in the letter) is what we're going to say."   "
http://www.newspapertree.com/news/1953-tceq-finally-sets-asarco-hearing

New Mexico URANIUM mining and milling waste waiting for disposal :: Camino Real Landfill on Rio Grande (Sunland Park N.M.) has hidden clause allowing disposal of URANIUM Mining and milling waste with approval of the State...

[is it a coincidence that Camino Real Landfill hearing experts were lobbyists and experts from the Nuclear disposal industry; and, that a "however" clause in its permit would allow the disposal of toxic uranium mining and milling wastes next-to/on our water supply?]

"...The colorful printout of the abandoned [URANIUM] mines and mill sites was the size of a conference table. The most contaminated site was ranked number one. It ....is known to those who live there as Coyote Canyon [New Mexico].

With the data so clearly showing that Coyote Canyon posed a danger to residents, the EPA moved the Nez family and others into temporary shelters. Workers began cleaning up--basically digging up a foot of soil and stockpiling it at the United Nuclear Corporation site next to the Nezes' property. General Electric, which now owns the property, was supposed to haul the soil away and safely dispose of it.

When I visit Coyote Canyon in August 2007, the Nezes are back home, and the place doesn't look the same. I drive past the hogan where Bertha's father lived. The flags are gone; the dirt surrounding the octagonal structure has been scraped. So has the earth around the Nezes' home and horse corral.

But the massive mound of contaminated earth, which the EPA had covered in heavy black plastic, has not been moved. The plastic is torn and blowing in the wind, along with fine particles of contaminated soil--a threat to the Navajos that seems, in my mind, a metaphor for the nuclear waste problem downstream."
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200801/powerhungry/

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.