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"
Monday, March 8, 2010
El Paso TX is still waiting waiting waiting for ANYONE to turn over the data telling us what poisons were left here from the illegal waste-burning years....
"PNL was selected to manage this effort, and bridge the project management gap between industry and academia, because of our data visualization culture and capabilities."
http://www.projectnavigator.com/about_news.html
"Project Navigator, Ltd. named as trustee for ASARCO El Paso remediation
November 23, 2009
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has released a statement announcing the selection of Project Navigator, Ltd. as the custodial trustee for the ASARCO site remediation in El Paso, Texas. For the full release, please click here."
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
[Fwd: Google Alert - asarco bankruptcy]
Baker Botts Moves To Protect Asarco Fees - Law360 Baker Botts LLP is up in arms over mining company Asarco LLP's interpretation of some of the events involved in its exit from bankruptcy, saying Asarco's ... |
"Law360, New York (March 02, 2010) -- Baker Botts LLP is up in arms over mining company Asarco LLP's interpretation of some of the events involved in its exit from bankruptcy, saying Asarco's assessment of the job the firm did as counsel could affect its ability to collect its fees. The firm filed an objection Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law filed by Asarco..."
Monday, March 1, 2010
CLEAN WATER ACT
The Rio Grande is a navigable river, protected under the Clean Water Act and NOAA's ORR process. Yet, when ASARCO's storm pond broke and breached/poured thousands and thousands of gallons of extremely concentrated stormwater runoff into the river and old American Canal in 2006, our Rep. called it an "incident". There was no ORR ever done because the EPA refused to enter the spill into the national EPA spills database.
This entire "incident" was glossed over and ignored. The "pulse" of extremely toxic materials was ignored.
And THIS IS A RIVER PROTECTED AS A NAVIGABLE RIVER UNDER THE CLEAN WATER ACT.
After this, the EPA came here and signed an M.O.U. with the University right there by Asarco, promising to funnel monies and projects into the local university. To this day, we do not have basic chemical information (dioxins, polonium etc.) about what is at that site.
When will the silence end?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
E. Helena ASARCO clean-up "plan" eerily resembles the El Paso TX Asarco clean-up plan
"Cindy Brooks is president of the Massachusetts-based Greenfield Environmental Trust Group, which is the custodial trust that’s temporarily taken possession of the Asarco land. They’re working with state, federal and local organizations to deal with soils contaminated by lead from the smelter, and also two underground plumes containing high levels of arsenic and selenium. The plan calls for the Asarco lands to be sold at some point, with proceeds returning to the trust to pay for environmental cleanup."
"Google News Alert for: asarco
E. Helena looks to future with first-ever growth plan Helena Independent Record Asarco owns almost all of the land immediately adjacent to the city about 1000 ... With the unlocking of the Asarco property, I think our growth will ... |
Monday, February 15, 2010
"Asarco's miners have agreed with Grupo Mexico to extend their existing contract for another year"
Daily podcast February 15, 2010 Creamer Media's Mining Weekly Asarco's miners have agreed with Grupo Mexico to extend their existing contract for another year, staving off fears of labour troubles after the Mexican ... See all stories on this topic " |
Monday, February 8, 2010
Big Surprise
"Meanwhile, Grupo Mexico's hard-fought reacquisition of U.S. copper miner Asarco will generate tax benefits of US$1.024 billion for Grupo, which will be realized beginning the second quarter of this year." (the tax benefits ALONE for that 2nd quarter will be TWENTY TIMES the TOTAL AMOUNT that El Paso TX will get to "clean up" over 100 years of smelting wastes and nearly ten years of secret toxic-waste incineration (of only god-knows-what) to make this entire region safe for its millions of residents -- mostly Mexican-American or Mexican origin. THIS IS CRIMINAL and our GOVERNMENT IS LETTING IT HAPPEN DESPITE EVIDENCE THAT COULD HAVE STOPPED IT. The big question is.... why haven't they stopped it?).
...and now that the environmental liabilities from the secret toxic-waste incinerator in El Paso TX have been swept under the proverbial rug, Copper is suddenly King Again.
"Google News Alert for: asarco
Grupo Mexico predicts growth in copper and other metals, reversing ... Mineweb With the re-acquisition of US copper miner Asarco, Grupo Mexico claims it is now the world's top company in terms of copper reserves. ..." |
Contaminated ASARCO land -- Powers that be want to convert it to STUDENT HOUSING for UTEP
Google Web Alert for: asarco
YouTube - ASARCO Land The ASARCO land presents the student population with a great opportunity to develop a student community. A community that will foster relationships, ... |
Friday, February 5, 2010
In 3 months, Grupo Mexico reports 342.1 mil profit
One hundred years of smelting contamination and less than one week's of net-profits...
"Google News Alert for: asarco bankruptcy
UPDATE: Miner Grupo Mexico Reports 4Q Net Profit Of $342.1 Million FOXBusiness The company highlighted the restructuring of US mining unit Asarco following its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It said Asarco will have ..." |
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Verde IPO Offering and scrapping of plans for USA side of the International City that had been planned within the ten-to-15 mile zone from ASARCO El Paso toxic stacks
http://www.elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=270&xrec=4910
"by Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times Posted: 01/28/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_14281005?source=most_emailed
Monday, February 1, 2010
ASARCO El Paso DID operate the worlds two largest Con-Top furnaces as a secret Hazardous-Waste Incinerator for nearly 10 years...
El Paso TX also has a rash of teratogenic birth defects (also heart defects) - especially during the mid-1990's at the height of Asarco's illegal activities. Word of mouth, off the record, is that OBYN's and family doctors have told parents that the birth defects were due to something that they ingested, something in the water. But no one is willing to go on record to state that.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered two state agencies to investigate a rash of birth defects that have confounded impoverished Kettleman City for more than a year....The birth defects became a rallying point last year for residents trying to stop the expansion plans of the West's largest hazardous waste facility by Chemical Waste Management Inc. Their stories of miscarriages and the photographs they carried of children with facial defects failed to convince the Kings County Board of Supervisors that the company's expansion plans should not go forward."It seems like we're finally getting justice," said resident Maricela Mares-Alatorre, whose family first butted heads with Waste Management 20 years ago [1986 - the year that Asarco Encycle started-up] over plans to build an incinerator."
Saturday, January 30, 2010
State Senator Shapleigh makes ASARCO announcement at UTEP last Thursday night
One of the founding UTEP-Student-members of Get the Lead Out Analisa Cordova was ecstatic at the news, which would allow for development of that land by UTEP. Suggested uses for that land presented that night included a UTEP research facility or expanded student-housing. Students explained that there wasn't enough housing at the present Miner Village location."
Back in 2006 Potomac River neighborhood discovered that Charles County was dumping radioactive Polonium (common around smelters) into wastewater effluent
The county could have dug another well, until they found one without polonium (the stuff is very rare) but instead chose to use a $300K filtration system that is expensive to operate to filter the water (which still leaves significant amounts in the drinking water, but below EPA standards). THEN, they will truck the radioactive waste to the Mattawoman Wastewater treatment plant, and dump it UNTREATED into the effluent stream that goes into the Potomac.
I wrote a private letter to the Commissioners giving them 15 days to reverse their decision, and telling them that I would publicly applaud them if they did the right thing. I also told them that after 15 days, I would do whatever I could to stop them, including going public, and whatever else it takes. On the 19th day, I had no response at all, so I FILED SUIT AGAINST THE COUNTY, claiming that it violates the zoning ordinance, and asking for an injunction.
For more, please see the Md. Independent article below:
www.somdnews.com/stories/071406/indymor185910_32103.shtml
If you are concerned, I would like tohear from you. Thanks.
Kurt Wolfgang wolfgangcommissioner.com
ASARCO El Paso: UTEP student government event with Custodial Trustee and State Senator announces push to develop the El Paso ASARCO site
We don't even know what chemicals have been left there from the years of illegal and secret Toxic-waste burning that the EPA and Federal DOJ kept under wraps from 1998 through to 2006, when an honest DOJ attorney and the NYTimes broke the story. We don't know what has been left in our soils, air and water from what the EPA and DOJ secretly-admitted had been secret-burnings of military and industrial wastes by Asarco for profit for YEARS.
The entire ASARCO bankruptcy was based on the fraudulent concealment of this toxic-waste and its liabilities in El Paso TX and E. Helena MT. The DOJ Trustee would not require the courts to consider the DOJ/EPA document (a 1998 formerly confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only document and its d*mning evidence of what ASARCO had done for nearly ten years). The contract for the custodial-trustee does not mandate that the trustee look for or clean-up anything other than what the Bankruptcy court discussed -- and the secret wastes/poisons were never discussed.
Why? And why did the organizers of this UTEP event conveniently forget to mention that the lands around this El Paso ASARCO site --- 1000 square miles of it --- are likely extremely toxic from only god-knows-what Asarco burned all those years. 60% of the El Paso drinking water supply passes within a hundred feet of the smelter through an open over-70-year-old cracked and leaking concrete ditch. A little known fact in the area is that waters from the Rio Grande to Mexico and the USA are officially separated at the IBWC "American Dam" and that this dam sits at the foot of the smelter.
Why isn't our government protecting us? And why is our community so beaten-down that they have given up trying to make their government act? It is appalling that our governmental officials - both in the EPA, the TCEQ, the NMED and others refuse to disclose any details about what happened here. During the winter of 1998 just before the smelter shut down, the EPA said that the Beta Radiation level around the smelter was the HIGHEST IN THE NATION. Official(s) assure us that this was normal background radiation and nothing to worry about -- but, they fail to produce any reports or studies to substantiate their claim that this radiation level was "safe".
Next week the University next to the El Paso ASARCO smelter will discuss buying ASARCO toxic-land next to their campus -- all the while conveniently allowed to "forget" and "ignore" the poisons left on that land from the activities disclosed to the NYTIMES 10/2006 -- and still "forgotten" and "ignored" by those left in charge of our health and safety. These officials should be some of the first to tell the community what toxins are left on that land from the near-decade that Asarco burned unmanifested and also known illegal and secret toxic wastes for profit -- but so far this has not happened.
Asarco TCEQ announcement of El Paso Clean up Trustee Appointment -- but not about the Bankruptcy Fraud
Why? Why has this evidence been ignored by the DOJ Federal Bankruptcy Trustee and courts?
Someone in the Federal DOJ DID make the facts of what ASARCO had done public (NYTimes 10/2006) - and the community wants the details. The government owes the community the truth of what is now in its soils, air and water from the nearly ten years of illicit military and industrial waste burning.
Google Web Alert for: asarco bankruptcy
Custodial Trustee of the ASARCO Site, El Paso, Texas - Texas ... Under the settlement agreement approved by the bankruptcy court, ASARCO's El Paso smelter property was placed in an environmental custodial trust and is ... |
Saturday, January 23, 2010
[Fwd: Google Alert - asarco] Dust making People Sick - Asarco suddenly volunteering to clean up INDOOR DUST
El Pasoans, N.M. and old Anapra SHOULD BE GETTING SOME HELP HERE to install effective windows, refrigerated air, electrostatic furnace filters, air-tight-wind-seals, clean-up of indoor dust -- and, even buy-out of homes by those folks who want to move away from the ASARCO El Paso smelter site.
Google News Alert for: asarco
Asarco helps in dust cleanup Green Valley News [AZ] By Philip Franchine, www.gvnews.com Asarco officials said they will pay for some cleanup of homes hit by recent dust storms from the mine tailings as they ... See all stories on this topic |
"US Calls Off Asarco Criminal Enviro Probe" WHY!?!?!?!
Isn't ANYONE in our Federal Government in a position to do anything about this - or have we (and the Rio Grande) all been sacrificed (ARE being sacrificed) to lives poisoned by the still illegal/secret military/industrial haz-wastes that the EPA/DOJ let us know were burned here (and in E. Helena) for nearly ten years?
Isn't E. Helena angry about this?????????
"US Calls Off Asarco Criminal Enviro Probe
Law360, New York (January 22, 2010) -- Federal prosecutors have dropped their criminal investigation into whether Asarco LLC violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by storing hazardous materials without the proper environmental permits at a former facility in East Helena, Mont.
William W. Mercer, the U.S. attorney for the District of Montana, wrote in a letter dated Wednesday that the government had decided not to indict the company on criminal charges,..."
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://environmental.law360.com/articles/145156&ct=ga&cd=x3vO1VWq6RQ&usg=AFQjCNEYWJEvr6i2C7Apgl3GBMV4XaMCVA
Friday, January 22, 2010
Jan. 2010 : "Supreme Court Decision Marks the End of Democracy"
"Supreme Court Decision Marks the End of Democracy-A Special Newsletter from the Texas Climate Emergency Campaign"
"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816
The words above were written by Thomas Jefferson, one of the distinguished founding fathers of this nation. Clearly, neither he nor any of the other signers of the declaration of independence thought they were declaring freedom for big corporations, and yet that's what happened in the Supreme Court yesterday. Many are calling it the End of Democracy, for we have now sold our souls down the river of corporate greed. As one pundit put it, we are looking at our last President and our last Congress which will not fully be funded by corporate giants. It is a sad day for issue advocacy, it is a sad day for all of us as Americans..."