"Washington receives payout for damages caused by ASARCO's past ..."

Tacoma WA etc. receive almost four times the amount of money that El Paso Texas will receive for clean-up.
Why won't people talk about the massive secret incineration of illegal hazardous wastes at El Paso and E. Helena Asarco sites that affected millions of people and several states and countries, and the sixth largest river system in the USA?   We are dying down here from rampant cancers while the USA and other Asarco sites turn a blind eye to the fraudulent Bankruptcy  -- or talk about the DOJ Trustee who failed to make the Court consider the secret toxic contamination from the years of illegal illicit hazardous waste burning.  God only knows what they burned down here.

google alert

Washington receives payout for damages caused by ASARCO's past ... "By Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal The state of Washington has received roughly $188 million to help repair environmental damage caused by mining giant ASARCO. It's the largest payout in th." MINING.com News - http://admin.news.mining.com/

"That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy",By CHARLES DUHIGG (and El Paso Alpha/Beta Radiative-Particles water data)

"That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy"

By CHARLES DUHIGG

"more than 62 million Americans have been exposed since 2004 to drinking water that did not meet at least one commonly used government health guideline intended to help protect people from cancer or serious disease, according to an analysis by The Times of more than 19 million drinking-water test results from the District of Columbia and the 45 states that made data available."

For more information on El Paso Water Utilities' water contaminant levels click on: TAP WATER DATABASE

For El Paso Water Utilities (westside):

ALPHA Radioactivity Level.
Although the Legal Limit of 15 (pCi/L) was not exceeded there was an actual measurement that appeared rather close: 13.1 pCi/L from March of 2004.

"2004-03-09	13.1 pCi/L	1	0	13.1 pCi/L"

However, anything over 0 pCi/L (zero) exceeds the suggested health limit by the EPA ("which allows an adequate margin of safety"). One Alpha Particle if inhaled or swallowed (ingested) is more toxic than arsenic. The particle may stay inside the body, and would damage the tissues around it with radiation.

"Contaminant	Average/ Maximum Result	Health Limit Exceeded	Legal Limit Exceeded

Alpha particle activityAlpha particles are a form of radiation released from mining waste pollutants and natural sources.

5.44 pCi/L 13.1 pCi/L

Yes MCLGA non-enforceable health goal that is set at a level at which no known or anticipated adverse effect on the health of persons occurs and which allows an adequate margin of safety. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.: 0 pCi/L

No 15 pCi/L"

For Beta Radiation particles, the maximum level recorded in December 2005 was 18.1pCi/L which is above the legal standard of 15 pCi/L. Since the AVERAGE result (all the samples-data put together and averaged) was below 13 pCi/L the report for that period did not state that the legal limit was exceeded.

"Testing Date	Average Result	Samples taken that day	Number of Non-Detects	Range of Results
2005-12-07	12.85 pCi/L	2	0	7.6 to 18.1 pCi/L "

Native American Tribal government lands and Interior managed lands to get nearly 200 million from Asarco settlement

Google News Alert for: asarco bankruptcy

KVOA.com ASARCO Settlement Provides $194 Million for Federal, State and Tribal Wildlife ... KVOA.com Along with federal, state and tribal co-trustees, Interior brought claims at more than a dozen sites which were settled during the ASARCO bankruptcy. ... See all stories on this topic

"WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that an environmental damage settlement with ASARCO LLC, a North American mining conglomerate, would provide about $194 million for the recovery of wildlife, habitat and other natural resources managed by Interior, state, and tribal governments at more than a dozen sites around the nation."

Grupo Mexico's stock values begin rise

Google News Alert for: asarco bankruptcy

Mexico's Stocks Rise, Peso Weakens Early Thursday; IPC +0.7% Wall Street Journal MX) were trading 2% higher at MXN30.60 after the company said Wednesday night that its US subsidiary, Asarco, has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. ... See all stories on this topic

ASARCO bankruptcy settlement brings millions to the great state of Montana, home of W.R.Grace Libby Disaster and E. Helena (also burned the secret illegal toxic wastes for years)

Google Alert
"ASARCO bankruptcy settlement brings millions to MT | MINING.com News
By Montana's News Station
Governor Brian Schweitzer has announced that Montana has received nearly $195 million to clean up ASARCO's contaminated sites in the state. "
MINING.com News - http://admin.news.mining.com/

TCEQ News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   CONTACT: LISA WHEELER

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009  PHONE: 512-239-5003 / PAGER: 512-606-3681
TCEQ Commissioners Welcome New EPA Region 6 Administrator

EPA and TCEQ to discuss new public participation rules

  

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality commissioners today hosted recently appointed EPA Region 6 Administrator Dr. Alfredo “Al” Armendariz at the commission headquarters in Austin. The purpose of the visit was not only to welcome the new administrator to his new position but also to discuss the various rules regarding Texas’ successful air program. Yesterday, commissioners approved for publication a new rule package seeking to expand public participation in the state’s air permit process.

 

"Texas' air quality permitting program is already one of the most robust in the nation,” said Chairman Bryan W. Shaw, Ph.D.  “The TCEQ has taken proactive, aggressive measures to improve air quality in Texas. Air emissions and pollution concentrations in our state are at their lowest level in the past 20 years, while Texas continues to maintain a strong, growing economy.”

 

"I have always viewed public participation as a vital component in the permitting process," said Commissioner Buddy Garcia.  "I appreciate Dr. Armendariz spending time with each of us today, and I look forward to working with him to show the rest of the nation how Texas has been successful and will continue to lead on environmental issues.”  

 

“Texas already has a meaningful and engaging public participation process that directly impacts permits and provides significant environmental safeguards,” said Commissioner Carlos Rubinstein. “I welcome the rule changes that will provide even greater public participation and transparency.”

 

A public hearing to accept comment on the proposed rule revisions will take place January 25, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in Building E, Room 201 S, at the TCEQ campus, 12100 Park 35 Circle, in Austin.   The comment period will end on February 16.

This service is provided to you at no charge by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Visit us on the web at www.tceq.state.tx.us.

GovDelivery, Inc. sending on behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality · 12100 Park 35 Circle · Austin TX 78753 · 512-239-1000

Grupo Mexico: Asarco :: W.R. Grace : Libby Montana disaster

"PHOENIX (AP) -- Mexico City-based mining giant Grupo Mexico SAB has completed its [re-]acquisition of Tucson, Ariz.-based copper miner Asarco LLC.

The transaction Wednesday ended a years long battle waged by Grupo Mexico to reacquire the firm it first bought in 1999 but lost to bankruptcy in 2005 after Asarco was overwhelmed by huge environmental remediation costs." http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Grupo-Mexico-closes-deal-to-apf-372850306.html?x=0&.v=1

------------
"One thing that continues to puzzle some of my contacts in Justice and EPA headquarters is how and why Mercer and David Uhlmann, the then-chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section, got away with pursuing criminal indictments [in 2005] against [W.R.] Grace [for the Libby Montana asbestos disaster]." [and LOST the court case]
http://andrewschneiderinvestigates.com/2009/04/26/the-district-court-website-for-judge-donald-molloys-own-domain-offers-link-and-info-on-filing-charges-of-judicial-misconduct-thank-you/

Asarco cleaned up Spic and Span when it should be the Federal DOJ that is getting cleaned-up

-- Asarco cleaned up Spic and Span with help from the Federal Department of Justice who failed to acknowledge a confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only  document that their fellow DOJ attorney released to a public information request, and that let us know the EPA had told the DOJ in 1998 Asarco had burned unmanifested/secret hazardous-wastes for profit, for years.   The Federal DOJ Bankruptcy trustee FAILED to make the Bankruptcy courts act on this evidence and failed to hold ASARCO accountable for the liabilities from this secret and toxic hazardous-wastes (both industrial and military origins).

What is our nation of laws coming to when huge corporations like ASARCO (its  parent company is partially owned by the Carlyle Group) are allowed to use our courts to "clean up" their financial image by ignoring basic facts which should have been considered in the bankruptcy-setting?

Everyday working people - the same taxpayers that bailed out the banks - are now in-effect bailing out ASARCO and its creditors because a few Government's employees allowed this company escape its culpability (as we speak, the Supreme Court has re-opened the ENRON case to reconsider the "honest services provision" of the mail and wire fraud act that holds such government employees accountable (why?)).

Google Blogs Alert for: asarco bankruptcy

RapidShare Introduces Americas Reseller Program By Rapidshare Ag November 24th, 2009 Exec says new Asarco to be profitable, competitivePHOENIX — A top executive with the company set to take over Asarco LLC says the Tucson-based copper miner will emerge from a grueling four-year bankruptcy court ... PR Hub - http://blog.taragana.com/pr/

Our UTEP students are still walking around exposed to these levels of Arsenic; and the new plan is to build a UTEP research park at Asarco's site

UTEP Campus along Sunbowl Drive and Paisano, showing levels of toxic metals detected by the EPA in 2004...
Red dots: Residential Properties that Exceed 46 ppm (As) and/or 500 ppm (Pb) (883)
Green dots: Residential Properties that are Equal to or Below 46 ppm (As) and/or 500 ppm (Pb) (1640)

from 2/2004 Sample Location Map El Paso County Metals Survey, El Paso, El Paso County, Texas [USEPA REGION 6 START-2]

At a recent TXDOT open-house Mr. Berry indicated that the I-10 & Schuster Interchange Project had found no problems (i.e. no toxic levels of anything). The area he was referring to is shown on this map as where RIM Road extends down to the end of Sunbowl Drive toward Paisano. He stated that UTEP was building that new [Nursing/Health Sciences] building right there, and said that surely there could be no problem if UTEP was building right there...

But, this EPA map shows that the area on Sunbowl Drive where that building has been placed is next to a sea of red dots -- indicating that the dirt was likely very toxic before UTEP started breaking ground.

The TXDOT project and the UTEP building are happening in the midst of this sea of red dots; and, the government is doing nothing.

Asarco AG Swiss Bank

Why is there a Swiss bank called "ASARCO AG" (Asarco SA, Asarco inc)??

The Republicans were right: Sen. Shapleigh wants to develop the Super Toxic Asarco Site

"Our community has a historic opportunity to redevelop one of the key sites in our community, the true Pass of the North," Shapleigh said.

In other communities, stadiums have been placed on Asarco riverfront properties, and in still others, research parks or other key installations have been placed.

"Due to the proximity to Mexico, the historic nature of Peace Park across the river, and the rail and access to UTEP, this site is very important to El Paso's future."
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_13913153

    "Incorporated herein by reference is a copy of
    an internal EPA memorandum dated June 28, 2001, which contains the
    following handwritten sentence:  "The TNRCC is concerned that the
    El Paso sampling plan doesn't undermine the ASARCO Corpus sampling
    delima (sic)."  An inescapable inference from this sentence is the
    fact that ASARCO has compromised employees of both the EPA and
    TCEQ.   Both ASARCO and the regulators are concealing certain
    ASARCO contaminants from the residents of Corpus Christi and the
    Paso del Norte Region.  Every individual who either knows, or
    should know that ASARCO's contamination is being concealed is
    exposed to both criminal and civil liability"
 

TXDOT ignores the ASARCO illegal haz-waste and plans to build elevated toll road on PAISANO...

over the water supply and right next to the ASARCO stacks, in the worst
of the worst contamination

http://www.txdot.gov/public_involvement/town_hall_meetings/elpaso_town_hall.htm

Glencore International AG

"China's $200-billion sovereign wealth fund has added privately-held
commodities trader Glencore International AG to its roster of approved
investment partners"

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-09/19/content_8711325.htm

(do a search within this blog for "Glencore")

20090800 TCEQ Xenco lab report on ASARCO EL Paso water contamination levels

http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/remediation/variousremediationsites/xenco_lab_report_aug2009.pdf
<cid:part1.09020306.06080606@gmail.com>

Asarco "cleaned up" and the Taxpayers "cleaned out"??

It is easy to run a profit when ignoring nearly ten years of contamination from illegal un-manifested hazardous-waste incineration without a license.

And why is there a Swiss Bank called "ASARCO AG" (Asarco SA, Asarco inc)?!

"According to The Wall Street Journal, Asarco now is flush with cash and reporting a total profit, after its bankruptcy filing, of $623.4 million. So in the end, the company is also succeeding.

"Whether this result was due to good stewardship, excellent management, higher copper prices, appropriate judicial oversight by the bankruptcy judge, extraordinary good luck, or a combination of all these factors may be debated," U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen wrote in his ruling of the case, "but the ultimate result is inarguable.""

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13876197

What can the Union leverage for Jobs? To stay Silent??

... no one is talking about the confidential hazardous wastes ASARCO incinerated secretly for nearly a decade!!   Will the United Steelworkers Union continue to NOT talk about the unmanifested-secret hazardous wastes illegally smelted by Asarco for nearly a decade?  Are jobs/contract more important?

"...Lazalde and Robert Moore, an attorney representing Grupo in Asarco's bankruptcy case, met with The Republic to discuss Grupo's plans for Asarco, how it is responding to worries from community members and the status of union negotiations.

High on its to-do list is addressing concerns of the United Steelworkers, which represents about 1,700 Asarco workers. Grupo has until Jan. 15 to present a comprehensive proposal to the union outlining what it would offer in a new contract.

The union's current contract expires in June. Grupo has offered to extend the contract for a year, but the union wants a three-year extension to 2013 similar to its negotiated deal with Sterlite."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2009/11/29/20091129biz-grupo1129.html

Senator Shapleigh's pages on TCEQ in "Grover's Tub"

see:
http://shapleigh.org/news/3739-grover-s-tub-captured-and-corrupted-at-tceq

We agree with the observations about the TCEQ, but the pages (sent to constituents in an email) totally miss mentioning how the EPA proved Asarco secretly burned unknown (unmanifested!) hazardous-wastes for years, for profit, during the 1990's -- and that we only found out after the Federal DOJ made a 1998 confidential-Asarco-EPA-settlement document public in 2006 -- after EIGHT YEARS of silence and secrecy!!

We ask all of our political representatives/senators to let the community know what Asarco actually did here -- and, we want to know what chemicals have been left here from those years of illegal secret-wastes incineration.

The Asarco Workers Union asked to accept a short-term contract extension // The years of unmanifested secret toxic waste incineration - IGNORED

"The [ASARCO] company's Arizona and Texas mining and refining operations will finally be free from environmental liabilities that drove it into bankruptcy in 2005, said Jorge Lazalde, vice president and general counsel for Grupo Mexico subsidiary Asarco Inc. 

[CRIMINAL Disregard by the Government for the secret chemicals (from what the EPA said were military and industrial sources) secretly burned here for years.  WHERE is our Government/Justice?  Can criminals act this way so indiscriminately and get away with it?  Why is the Supreme Court going to review the honest services provision of the mail and wire fraud act this winter for the ENRON case (involving a principal bond holder ASARCO bank?).  WHY is there a SWISS Bank called ASARCO A.G. (Asarco SA, Asarco inc.)?

The EPA-Asarco-DOJ "confidential for settlement purposes only" document (NYTimes 10/06) telling us what really happened here -- IGNORED.   The secret toxic wastes from those years IGNORED.  The recommendation of the La Paz Accord JAC committee to test for these chemicals IGNORED.  The requests of the local community for split samples IGNORED.]

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Lazalde also said the company assumed a contract that makes its 1,500 unionized workers among the best-paid in the industry and has offered to extend the deal through 2011.....The company has until mid-January to provide a contract offer, and the union has until mid-February to accept the short-term contract extension."

http://www.montereyherald.com/business/ci_13858953?nclick_check=1

Exec says new Asarco to be profitable, competitive

... said without any regard for the contamination left here and in E. Helena MT from the years of what the EPA and Federal DOJ finally let us know were YEARS of secret & illegal toxic-waste burning.   Military and Industrial wastes -- incinerated without manifests here.    It is easy to be "profitable, competitive" when you don't pay to clean up the poisons left behind.   ASARCO will pay only  52 million dollars to "clean up" the Rio Grande, the Hueco Bolson, and sister cities of Cd. Juarez, El Paso and Sunland Park.

CRIMINAL

Google Blogs Alert for: asarco bankruptcy

Exec says new Asarco to be profitable, competitive (AP ... By admin A top executive with the company set to take over Asarco LLC says the Tucson-based copper miner will emerge from a grueling four-year bankruptcy court battle. eCommoditiesTrading - http://www.ecommoditiestrading.com/

What do ENRON and Asarco have in common?

Attorneys for the ENRON case are getting the Honest Services provision of the mail & wire fraud act re-visited by the U.S. Supreme Court -- to be decided this spring. 


September 21, 2002

Lawyer Proves a Thorn for Enron's Partners

By DAVID BARBOZA

"Citigroup [Asarco Principle Bondholder] and J. P. Morgan [Asarco had a "$450 million Revolving Credit Agreement with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co."] have been accused by members of Congress and a variety of lawyers of helping Enron disguise billions of dollars worth of debt by creating special-purpose entities offshore with names like Mahonia, which was based in the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel, and Delta, based in the Cayman Islands." [We know that there is a Swiss Bank called "Asarco A.G." (Asarco S.A., Asarco Inc.).]
http://www.alston.com/neal_batson/

"R. Neal Batson is special counsel to Alston & Bird.....was appointed by the United States Department of Justice to serve as the Examiner for Enron Corp. and was authorized to investigate various aspects of the company."

neal.batson@alston.com