"Sham Recycling Creates Sham Decision?
The TCEQ Executive Director's Asarco Air Permit Renewal decision ignores
hidden contamination in international waters, soils and air from secret
burning of toxic waste; What are elected officials, TCEQ and EPA
concealing? EL PASO, Texas, May 8 [
2007]/PRNewswire/ -- Representative Reyes and the GAO
fail to investigate the specific incident that involved Asarco - instead,
"will focus on the overall procedures and processes that DOD follows for
disposing of hazardous waste that is created by military facilities and how
the transport and disposal of this type of waste by the contractors is
monitored and tracked."
At the base of the Asarco smelter, the International Boundary and Water
Commission's (IBWC) American Dam diverts Rio Grande River water to over 70
miles of public drinking supply and irrigation canals. American Dam
employees are sick, and the State Department Office of the Inspector
General (OIG) recommended bringing in expert independent medical review.
The first canal travels along the Asarco ore handling staging area and
chemical ponds. Representative Reyes' office calls the 9-04-06 Asarco levee
collapse, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of poisons into this
drinking water, a "minor incident." El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU) reports
showed elevated poisons at the Canal Street station after the event. The
EPWU Canal St. plant pumps water up the Franklin Mt. and distributes it
throughout El Paso.
IBWC data shows leakage of 24 million dollars worth of Asarco
groundwater contamination into the canal, near where Asarco Hydrometrics
consultants found groundwater arsenic levels at 35,000 times the legal
limit. Alluvial sediment beneath the Rio Grande is filled with faultlines
above the international Hueco Bolson aquifer.
EPA Water officials cannot find any data for Rio Grande water tests at
the smelter meant to confirm EPA data taken five years earlier, even though
EPA mentioned the testing on public radio.
Asarco is sending poisons from the bottom of its ponds to TX US
Ecology, the company that also manages Hanford Reservation Nuclear Waste in
Washington State. A complete chemical analysis of these poisons has not
been made available despite requests.
The El Paso GTLO, SPEG (Sunland Park Environmental Group), El Paso
Sierra Club members and concerned groups want the Asarco Contamination
exposed, the responsible officials to "step down," and correct clean-up to
begin."
