Asarco El Paso could be theoretically modeled after Tacoma Asarco site "more than 1,000 square miles" contaminated

"For close to 100 years, the Asarco Tacoma Smelter emitted arsenic, lead and other heavy metals into the air. These windborne emissions contaminated more than 1,000 square miles covering four counties and 26 cities and towns, including University Place.

Since the smelter’s designation as an EPA Superfund site in 1983, efforts have been underway to clean up heavily contaminated soils.

According to Cynthia Walker, State Dept. of Ecology (DOE) project manager, exposure to high levels of arsenic can contribute to cancer and cardio vascular diseases while high exposure to lead is linked to neurological and developmental problems. Since 2000, the DOE and Pierce County Health Department have worked on education campaigns regarding handwashing and other measures along with providing free soil sampling and clean up at play areas at existing and new schools, childcares, parks and similar areas."

http://universityplace.patch.com/articles/e-mail-to-the-editor-mayor-recaps-flood-control-district-presentation

The El Paso TX City Council with Beto O'Rourke (now running for Federal House of Representatives) voted to make the Asarco El Paso site a walkable neighborhood (i.e. zone it "smartcode"), with future designs for school(s) and playgrounds.  Was this "smart"?

More evidence of what ASARCO did between 1991 and 1998 slowly being demolished and removed

the evidence not just being covered up - but removed

Google alert:
"Asacro/Encycle Zinc Smelting Plant Demolition Continues
KIII TV3
One of the last things to come down at the site will be iconic Asarco smoke stack, all 315 feet of it. After towering over the community or decades, ...
"

Fwd: October 6 - Public Hearing on the Texas Rail Plan [Asarco Ferromex UP BNSF modal station]

Fellow Texan:

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is in the process of developing a comprehensive rail plan for Texas. The Texas Rail Plan will serve to guide future actions of TxDOT in cooperation with our rail partners as we work to meet the freight and passenger rail needs of the state.

We have traveled throughout the state this year conducting seven rail visioning workshops and ten public meetings to hear your ideas and get your input regarding the future of our state's rail system. Through this process we have developed a draft of the Texas Rail Plan that is ready for your review and feedback at the link referenced below.

We will hold a final public hearing on October 6, 2010, at 1:30 p.m. (CST) at the TxDOT Auditorium in Building 200, Room 1A-1 at 200 East Riverside Drive, Austin, Texas. If you are unable to attend the hearing, we encourage you to visit our website at: http://www.txdot.gov/public_involvement/rail_plan/default.htm to review the draft document and provide comments. The mailing address, if preferred, is also available at this link.

Following the public hearing, and a 30-day comment period, we will analyze the feedback and finalize the plan for submittal to the Texas Transportation Commission for adoption. Afterwards, TxDOT will submit the Texas Rail Plan to the Federal Railroad Administration for coordination with the National Rail Plan.  The plan will also be made available to the Texas legislature for their consideration.

TxDOT values your participation in laying the foundation for the Texas Rail Plan and creating a vision for the future of rail in Texas. We hope you will participate in this important planning process.

   All other inquiries may be directed to AskTxDOT@dot.state.tx.us

Texas Department of Transportation * 125 E. 11th Street * Austin, TX 78701 * (512) 463-8585

Asarco: "Fifth Circuit upholds expense reimbursement for non-stalking horse"

Google Alert: " Fifth Circuit upholds expense reimbursement for non-stalking horse ... Lexology Factually, in Asarco, the debtor conducted a sale of a potentially valuable asset ... ASARCO, 2011 US App. LEXIS 16892 at 11. In addressing the substantive ...

Texas: Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme

"Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation." [note that UBS was also involved in analyzing Railroad Revenue from Mexico Pacific port Lazaro Cardenas... ]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/rick-perry-texas-life-insurance-scheme_n_935666.html 

"Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme

WASHINGTON -- Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003...According to the notes, which were authenticated by a meeting participant,....Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS  set up a business of teacher death speculation....When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing...."

See also[search for "UBS" in blog search engine and/or search for railroad] [note, there is an Asarco Swiss Bank associated with Asarco Inc. and Asarco SA]

"*  Analysts at UBS project KCSM revenue from Lazaro Cardenas [Pacific port in Mexico] rail traffic will soar from some $30 million in 2007 to almost $100 million by 2015, and $255 million by 2025;

*  In terms of lifts, UBS projects an almost two-million 20-foot equivalent container throughput by 2025, compared with some nine million currently at Long Beach/Los Angeles, 1.8 million at Seattle, and some 1.5 million at Oakland. The U.S. West Coast ports, meanwhile, already are operating at near capacity with little room for expansion;"

"Wal-Mart, whose second biggest market is Mexico, has it’s eyes on Lazara Cardenas as a crucial North American port of entry."

[in 2005 Asarco sold several hundred acres of land next to its El Paso Asarco TX smelter site to WAL-MART, who had just been fined million dollars for failure to handle storm runoff on its properties nationwide.  Now that site and the Asarco industrial-smelter-land-itself has been rezoned "smartcode" (i.e."walkable") and a New Mexico Developer who has a long record internationally-of-developing-with-Wal-Mart is converting some of that acreage to rapid bus transit, businesses, a Wal-Mart, senior citizen housing etc -- all the while completely ignoring the EPA-DOJ Asarco confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only 1998 73 page document stating that Asarco ran an unpermitted illegal and secret multi-state hazardous-waste disposal operation for profit from at least 1992-1998.  That land would still be contaminated with those still undisclosed chemicals.   Grupo Mexico (owns Ferromex and Asarco) wants to run a rail line from the Pacific coast of Mexico up along the northern edge of Mexico, to enter the USA at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, just under ten miles from the El Paso Asarco site.]

http://epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/04/grupo-mexicos-ferromex-bidding-on-45-yr.html

Asarco Amarillo "consumption is picking up and will continue to outpace production [i.e. refining] for five years...."

Google Alert
"Research and Markets: United States Metals Report Q3 2011 - A Recovery Is ...
Business Wire (press release)
Output is also undermined by ongoing problems at the 450000 tonnes per annum (tpa) Asarco refinery in Amarillo, TX, one of the country's largest copper refiners. Consumption is picking up and will continue to outpace production over the next five years ...
"
"Despite growth in demand, US copper refining/smelting was at its lowest level in 20 years by Q111 as the industry continued to deal with cutbacks imposed in 2008. High copper and by-product prices favoured the restart of concentrate production at the expense of refined copper. Output is also undermined by ongoing problems at the 450,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) Asarco refinery in Amarillo, TX, one of the country's largest copper refiners. Consumption is picking up and will continue to outpace production over the next five years, leading to net imports of well over 1mn tonnes by 2015."


Asarco Amarillo received product from the Asarco site(s) that disposed of nearly ten years of illegal hazardous wastes for profit.  

Asarco Bankruptcy: "big judgment and a unique procedure to auction off that judgment"

Saturday, August 20, 2011
Bidders Reimbursed For Auction Which Never Occurred: The Fifth Circuit's ASARCO Opinion.........."This was a case about a big judgment and a unique procedure to auction off that judgment....(I have included the citations here because they are informative opinions for fraudulent transfer litigation). ...  In order to entice the bidders to perform the expensive legal due diligence necessary to evaluate the asset, ASARCO sought and obtained an order from the Bankruptcy Court authorizing it to reimburse qualified bidders for their due diligence expenses.... it can be used to tilt the auction procedures in favor of the stalking horse. ......"

"Court Awards Fees, Applauds Baker Botts’ performance in Multi-Billion Dollar ASARCO Bankruptcy"

http://www.bakerbotts.com/court-awards-fees-applauds-baker-botts-performance-in-multi-billion-dollar-asarco-bankruptcy-08-19-2011/

In my opinion, this reminds me of foxes congratulating themselves outside of the hen house (the "hens" being the residents living around the various Asarco locations with their pockets inside out...).   How else to describe a performance that ignored all liability from Asarco's illegal multi-state unpermitted hazardous-waste disposal operation; and, that earned profits for just one of the many law firms involved which exceeded twice the amount given to just ONE of the communities to clean up over 100 years of wastes.....(the Paso del Norte region received only 52 million dollars -- and the clean-up of the old american canal that delivers over 60% of the drinking water and all the irrigation water was estimated to be almost half of that alone....)

"Privatizing profits and socializing costs" ...

EPA Final Analytical Report and Data From ENCYCLE ASARCO TX area

The EPA sample data including split sample data for the organics screening of Encycle has been posted to the Dona Park project Web Page which include :

• EPA Final Analytical Report 
• Data

 

El Paso TX SIP Revision to Incorporate a Revised MOA with the City of El Paso

On August 17, 2011, the commission approved proposal of the El Paso SIP Revision to incorporate a revised Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the City of El Paso into the El Paso SIP for particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 10 micrometers (PM10) (Project No. 2011-010-SIP-NR). This SIP revision would incorporate the changes to 30 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §111.147 proposed in a concurrent rulemaking (Rule Project No. 2010-046-111-EN) and the revised MOA between the City of El Paso and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) (Project No. 2011-026-MIS-NR) into the El Paso PM10 SIP. The 2001 MOA with the City of El Paso is being revised to reflect the alternative control measures proposed in the revisions to 30 TAC §111.147 and the respective responsibilities of the City of El Paso and the TCEQ under the SIP.

The public comment period for this proposed SIP revision, proposed rule revision, and MOA will open on September 2, 2011, and close on October 3, 2011. The public hearing on this proposal will be held in El Paso, Texas, on September 27, 2011, at 2:00 p.m., at the El Paso State Office Building, 401 E. Franklin Ave., Room 570.

For the complete SIP package, including appendices, please visit the TCEQ's El Paso: Particulate Matter, Latest Planning Activities Web page.

PCB's found at Asarco sites in Corpus Christi and El Paso TX

Aroclor 1268 (heaviest PCB, found mainly at a GA EPA superfund site) was
found at an Encycle Asarco lagoon in Corpus Christi TX.

PCB's have been found also at the Asarco El Paso TX site. Authorities
have not publicly released the name(s) of the PCB's.

August 16 2011 "Fifth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a bankruptcy court ruling ... bidders for mining company Asarco LLC's major asset ...to be reimbursed"

"5th Circ. Backs Payment Of Asarco Auction Costs

By Dan Rivoli

Law360, New York (August 16, 2011) -- The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a bankruptcy court ruling that allowed bidders for mining company Asarco LLC's major asset — a $1.4 billion judgment related to a wrongful stock transfer — to be reimbursed for the legal costs required to analyze the transaction.

The appeals court said the bankruptcy court correctly authorized the reimbursement to auction bidders, finding that there was no clear error in its decision.

The judgment, Asarco's most substantial asset, was the result of an adversary proceeding over the wrongful transfer of..."

http://www.law360.com/bankruptcy/articles/265348/5th-circ-backs-payment-of-asarco-auction-costs

"Grupo Unit Appeals $1.4B Ruling In Asarco Case" 20090722

"Grupo Unit Appeals $1.4B Ruling In Asarco Case

By Tina Peng

Law360, New York (July 22, 2009) -- A unit of mining giant Grupo Mexico SAB is appealing a ruling that it is on the hook for $1.38 billion in cash and a stake in lucrative Peruvian copper operations to Asarco LLC, in a case alleging Grupo fraudulently shifted the shares, tipping Asarco into bankruptcy.

Grupo subsidiary Americas Mining Corp. on Monday filed notice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas that it was appealing the case's final judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the..."

http://www.law360.com/bankruptcy/articles/112581/grupo-unit-appeals-1-4b-ruling-in-asarco-case

"Report of PCBs at ASARCO disputed" The Asarco dilemma makes the news in Encycle-Asarco Corpus Christi TX and at Asarco site in El Paso TX

In El Paso TX:
"Report of PCBs at Asarco disputed
Commodity futures news: Report of PCBs at Asarco disputed, updated 2011-08-13 05:26:15. Watch for more news articles, provided throughout the day courtesy ...
futures.tradingcharts.com/.../Report_of_PCBs_at_Asarco_disp..."

Additional Information:

• Aroclor 1268 (heaviest of the PCB's) was also recently found at ENCYCLE-Asarco in Corpus Christi, TX.  This is not a common PCB and is a signature PCB for the Linden Chemicals and Plastics (LCP) EPA-Superfund-site in Brunswick, Georgia.  Aroclor 1268 " is a recognized developmental toxicant and exposure to it has the potential to negatively affect a developing baby." (see symptoms of Developmental toxicity -- Aroclor 1268 )
• EPA and the Federal Dept. of Justice admitted in a 1998-confidential-for-settlement-purposes only 73 page document (uncovered/released to public domain by a schoolteacher and then covered 10/2006 by  NYTIMES) that Asarco had been running an unpermitted illegal (and secret) multi-state hazardous waste disposal operation for profit from at least 1992 through 1998 --- that the wastes first went to ENCYCLE-Asarco in Corpus Christi TX and then were shipped on to at least Asarco's smelters in El Paso TX and E. Helena, MT.  God only knows what terrible chemicals remain on those sites.  The communities have been demanding full disclosure from the EPA for years.
• The Asarco Bankruptcy Court did not hold Asarco accountable for *any* of the illegal/secret haz-wastes disposed of between 1992 and 1998 even though the Sunland Park Grassroots Environmental Group (SPGEG) legally notified the DOJ Bankruptcy Trustee during the hearings that Asarco had handled massive amounts of these undisclosed chemicals and would have liability from such. Rep. Reyes said to the El Paso Times in 2006 that "Asarco had paid millions of dollars on the condition that the details of what it had done would never become public".

Nero Fiddle's, While Rome Burns: Grupo Mexico mining subsidiaries (including ASARCO) making lots of money as the children in Paso del Norte endure paltry 52 million for 110-yr-old-smelter's Clean-up

"google alert:
Grupo Mexico reports mixed bag of metals production in 2Q, 1H
Mineweb
Grupo Mexico says its mining subsidiaries-Asarco and Southern Copper Corp.--have already been paying a windfall mining tax over the past decade as metals prices soared. Grupo Mexico reported its mining division increased production by 39% during the ...
See all stories on this topic »
"
Children in the Paso del Norte endure arsenic, lead, cadmium and still undeclared-illegally-disposed-hazardous-wastes from the now-closed ASARCO site as ASARCO (Grupo Mexico) makes record profits.    ASARCO was never made to face the liabilities from nearly ten years of illegal waste disposal at the ASARCO El Paso site (1992-1998) and we have never been told why.

Despite many years of asking for full disclosure of the chemicals left here from Asarco's illegal "sham recycling" operation -- we have never received the chemical disclosure.   We do know that Asarco handled PCB's, and Radioactive wastes.  The dioxin levels have to be high.  So why this continued silence?

Why was ASARCO allowed to get away with disclosing these liabilities in our court bankruptcy system? 

"Grupo Mexico net doubles..."

"google alert:
Grupo Mexico net doubles as metals prices rise
Reuters Africa
Sales were likely boosted by the reincorporation of Arizona-based miner Asarco and higher freight traffic from Grupo Mexico's railroad division. The company did not give details in an early filing with Mexico's stock exchange. Asarco was under Grupo ...
See all stories on this topic »
"

WOULD THE NET DOUBLE IF THE FEDERAL DEPT OF JUSTICE HAD MADE THE BANKRUPTCY COURT FORCE ASARCO TO ADDRESS THE LIABILITY FROM THE ILLEGAL MULTI-STATE WASTE DISPOSAL OPERATION ASARCO RAN FROM 1992-1998??  (see the DOJ-EPA Asarco 'confidential for settlement purposes only' 73 page document (Corpus Christi TX, El Paso TX and E. Helena MT))

Asarco clean-up El Paso Trustee and Demolition NOT DISCLOSING THE ILLEGAL CHEMICALS INCINERATED THERE FROM 1992-1998

"Google Alert - asarco bankruptcy
Asarco is disappearing 30 percent of copper smelter demolished
El Paso Inc
To help pay for the cleanup, a trust of $52 million was put aside in the $1.8-billion Asarco bankruptcy settlement. It's enough to essentially demolish the ..."

Gelmore ALDEA smartcode ASARCO EL PASO development

The full plan for this Geltmore ALDEA development can be viewed at
http://www.geltmore.com/aldeaelpaso.html/

ALDEA is being planned for extremely contaminated land by ASARCO El Paso
TX (East Helena MT ASARCO site is also now being rezoned for development).

The ALDEA developers may not be aware that their development is being
planned for land that is a stone's throw from the world's largest
unpermitted and illegally-operated toxic waste disposal operation
(1992-1998). This has been fully documented by the EPA to the Federal
DOJ in 1998 (publicly released in 2006 see 10/2006 NYTIMES story and 73
page confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only document detailing the
waste shipments) and again in a 2011 publicly-release copy of the 1994
ASARCO Supervisor's whistleblower report detailing the blatant receipt
and hiding and mixing of the poisons for shipment to the El Paso smelter
for burning.

This smelter may be CLOSED but the poisons remaining in the land around
it were never disclosed because the EPA made that 1998 secret agreement
with the Federal DOJ (For more information about these secret
agreements, see the recent Financial Times article covering hedge funds,
Horizon Shipping lines, the Federal DOJ and Asarco (use internal google
engine).)

It is not prudent to build on the old ASARCO site and expose anyone to
the associated risks from those chemicals. Young college students have
not yet had children and their bodies, and future children will be
exposed to those risks. If any women living there are carrying unborn
infants, or raising young children - - those unborn and/or infants will
be disproportionately affected by the chemical toxins.

ASARCO had the worlds two LARGEST CONTOP Incinerators -- and ran these
hot and long from 1992-1998 spewing out incompletely-burned toxic and
hazardous wastes including radioactive material all that time.

We don't know why Walmart (or whomever owned that land) did not give the
developers full disclosure -- or, why our City of El Pasodid not do the
same (i.e. deliver the full chemical picture to the developers). Our
City and government would rather ignore the toxins than disclose these
to us -- but, slowly slowly the truth is coming out, and we know now
that PCB's are involved, dioxins, radioactive materials, mercury etc.

For copies of the documents about the contamination see this blog, or
look at the EPA ASARCO document page.

Asarco merger rumors

"Re: Asarco     21-Jun-11 08:26 pm    

<<If the merger goes through, you can forget any signicant dividend. >>>

...Grupo owns almost 100% of AMC.   AMC [American Mining Corp.]owns 100% of Asarco and 80% of SCCO [Southern Copper Co.]. AMC borrowed 1.5 billion to get Asarco out of bankruptcy.................  No question: To the extent amc uses a scco dividend to pay debt we get 20% now and zip if this merger goes through."

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_S/threadview?m=tm&bn=13898&tid=59232&mid=59242&tof=12&off=1

East Helena MT follows El Paso Texas lead and makes contaminated ASARCO land zoned for development: The secret waste stays SECRET

How very sad for El Paso Texas and East Helena MT that the citizens are not being told about the massive amounts of illegal hazardous wastes.   EPA secretly told the Federal DOJ in 1998 that ASARCO was running an unpermitted and illegal secret hazardous-waste disposal operation for profit.   ASARCO Encycle in Corpus Christi (see the whistleblower report) would take the stuff in internationally, mix it up and hide it, and send it along via the railroad to El Paso Asarco and East Helena Asarco for secret disposal.  PCB's, Dioxins, radioactive materials -- all were handled and smelted.   The DOJ kept it such a secret that the DOJ Trustee failed to act on a legal-request to inform the bankruptcy court; and, the bankruptcy courts were allowed to IGNORE THE LIABILITIES from the years of secret waste disposal.   To this day although the sites are closed, there has not been DISclosure of the chemicals involved.  Whatever it was, it was very very bad.

"While the lack of a zoning ordinance certainly made it easier on them the first time around, the Johnsons know that the new codes will help businesses looking to expand into East Helena as more and more property becomes readily available with the bankruptcy of Asarco.

For decades, the smelter had a stranglehold on the city’s outlying property, making it difficult for people who wanted to build into the valley. With the foreclosure on its property and the recent cleanups after it was determined a Superfund site, the area is primed for change."

Read more: http://helenair.com/news/article_8f4bbf64-9fb6-11e0-98f2-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1QV4KnSxe