Public comments IGNORED by both the DOJ, TCEQ and EPA in their public response to Asarco El Paso bankruptcy FRAUD statement

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Public comments IGNORED by both the DOJ, TCEQ and EPA in their public response to Asarco El Paso bankruptcy FRAUD statement
Date:	Mon, 18 May 2009 13:31:01 -0600
To:	Lorinda Gardner <LGARDNER@tceq.state.tx.us>, "pubcomment- ees.enrd"[AT]usdoj.gov, tonia.fleetwood[AT]usdoj.gov, AskDOJ[AT]usdoj.gov, jackson.lisa[AT]epa.gov, jackson.lisap[AT]epa.gov, AskDOJ[AT]usdoj.gov, pubcomment-ees.enrd[AT]usdoj.gov, Peter.Ambler[AT]mail.house.gov, eliot.shapleigh[AT]senate.state.tx.us

To: TCEQ, EPA and DOJ
Fr:  Heather McMurray
cc/bc: Concerned parties, including media and the IBWC
sb: Public comments IGNORED by both the DOJ, TCEQ and EPA in their public response to Asarco El Paso bankruptcy FRAUD statement

The Federal Department of Justice "update" to the official response to public comments concerning the ASARCO EL PASO BANKRUPTCY is excerpted below.   The link is at the bottom of this email.   The list of comments received mentions 1738 timely comments and 25 transcribed comments.    The table below and the document does not mention ANY of the concerns that I expressed.

I would like to know why.

I know from the transcribed-public-comments session that no one raised the concerns that I gave; and, that I said AT THAT SESSION that the concerned citizens of Sunland Park (Sunland Park Grassroots environmental Group/SPGEG) are tired of not having their questions answered.

In my opinion, this ongoing silence regarding the SPGEG's letter to the Governor -- handed in person to him twice over 2 years (and to the U.S. DOJ Bankruptcy Trustee) and the absence of ANY RESPONSE to these questions shows that the EPA, the TCEQ and the DOJ are failing to address the evidence in these documents.

That the EPA, the DOJ and the TCEQ have failed to mention or address the concerns in my public-comments; that they have failed to mention or address the concerns expressed by Bill Guerra Addington regarding content of the formerly confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only EPA/DOJ 1998 document and what happened at ASARCO EL PASO TEXAS; and that they have failed to do so despite multiple opportunities when they received these concerns and could have replied to these is significant.

We in the Paso del Norte Region (El Paso TX, the community of old Anapra Mexico and the residents living in Sunland Park NM) want honest answers from our government.

We are tired of the continued cover-up.

We are tired of the inability of our government to give honest answers while:

• Grupo Mexico (Ferromex/UP) (owned 20% by Carlyle Group) bids on a 45 year freight rail contract to operate and carry freight from the new Punta Colonet Baja-Mexico-seaport along northern Mexico up through the new international city of San Jeronimo/Santa Teresa, within a 15 mile-radius of the ASARCO EL PASO illegal/secret toxic-waste stacks WITHOUT DECLARING THE ILLEGAL AND STILL-SECRET TOXIC WASTE. 
• EPA/TCEQ have known for some time that Asarco contaminated the international Hueco Bolson and the Rio Grande (and, a huge desalinization-plant has since been built on Fort Bliss property for the City of El Paso to remove 99% of the contaminants from the Hueco Bolson waters) yet they are only now telling the public.  
• The IBWC workers remain sick from working right next to the old ASARCO EL PASO smelter stacks, while the OIG from our STATE DEPARTMENT (3/05) agreed that they were sick and that they couldn't get independent medical review in our region; and, while the IBWC has consistently been asking for help for the ASARCO contamination and the cracking-old American canal (build over 70 years ago after International-Treaty at American dam to separate Mexico from American waters) since 2001 -- eight long years ago.

Our government, as the CNN video on ASARCO EL PASO aptly said, is "broken government"; and we respectfully ask those within the new Presidential Administration to pay attention to our plight down here; and, begin to make things right.

[see page 33 and 34 of document linked below for the table that is mentioned]

You are subscribed to receive updates from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regarding the ASARCO site in El Paso, TX. 

We have added the Department of Justice's responses to public comments regarding the El Paso settlement as well as other environmental settlements under consideration by the bankruptcy court. To go directly to that 74 page document, click here.

To go directly to the ASARCO webpage,  click here.