Wal-mart land by Executive-N.Mesa Drive to be developed next to Monticello by Geltmore

"EPT Land Communities, meantime, breaks ground May 12 [2011] on its massive $777-million Westside urban village named Montecillo. It will be located on almost 300 acres along Mesa Street between Castellano Drive and Festival Drive, and extending to Interstate 10. Less is known about a smart growth community[near Montecillo called "Aldea"] being developed by Geltmore, LLC... The property at Executive and I-10, adjacent to the Montecillo community, is owned by retail giant Wal-Mart, according to city economic development officials. ...."

http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_24b835f2-7738-11e0-bb50-0019bb30f31a.html

Geltmore has a history of doing land/retail development and sale to clients such as Wal-Mart (e.g. http://www.geltmore.com/geltmorestory.html ), which included at least one slap-suit (that the developers lost) against local citizen group(s) who did not want that development in their neighborhood.

The Aldea development would be located next to the El Paso west side sewage treatment plant, and the former Asarco facility (that the federal EPA and Dept. of Justice stated burned illegal hazardous wastes from 1991-1998).

Wal Mart installing concrete parking lots (2004)

"So why is the notoriously pennypinching company installing concrete parking lots? Simple – it recognizes that minimizing maintenance maximizes its investment in distribution centers that
serve an ever-growing number of stores. "

http://www.tnconcrete.org/tnconcrete/images/pdf_files/magazine/winter2004.pdf

USA Concrete Block maker in a China joint-venture

"In 1997, US-based SureBlock entered a joint venture with China's Tianjin People's Building Material Products Factory to make concrete masonry units (CMUs). Commonly known as concrete blocks....

"The ongoing challenge is to develop a [China] market for products for which there are no industry standards or construction codes. "This hinders sales until codes can be written," Crowley said....We often reprocess raw materials because of contamination."

http://www.munsonmachinery.com/CaseHistories/article.asp?ArtID=704

Wal-Mart citing green reasons for requiring fly-ash in its concrete flooring

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has changed their construction specifications to require all interior steel-troweled concrete floors placed at Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, Sam's Clubs, and Distribution Centers to contain 15% to 20% fly ash by cement substitution."
,
Fly ash is the residue left from incineration of various materials and can contain extremely hazardous chemicals. As methods for disposing of this toxic material at a low cost are few, many industries have looked to road building and building materials as means to dispose of this stuff cheaply. However, it remains controversial how safe these disposal methods are, because the chemicals are not permanently sealed within the concrete forever and ever.

Wal-Mart is the company that originally purchased around 300 acres of land at the N.Mesa-Executive Drive El Paso TX corner in 2005 from a realty-intermediary. Now development has begun on that site (less than one mile from the Asarco epi-center) to cluster high-density ("Smart code" i.e. "walkable" ) neighborhoods on that land, which is subjected to Asarco fugitive dusts and 100 years of chemical-deposition from the Asarco smelter emissions...

http://www.concreteconstruction.net/concrete-construction/adding-fly-ash-to-concrete-mixes-for-floor-constr.aspx

Foxconn Chair says that he wants to find out how the Taipei zoo manages animals because managing over one million human-animals gives him a headache

Foxconn is the main anchor industry at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry along the New Mexico- Mexico border within ten miles of the Asarco "epicenter"...

" 'Hon Hai (i.e. Foxconn) has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,' said Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou at a recent year-end party, adding that he wants to learn from Chin Shih-chien, director of Taipei Zoo, regarding how animals should be managed..."

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20120119000111&cid=1102

FoxConn V.P. Latin America was heard at Sunland Park Racetrack annual Nafta business meeting several years ago telling the audience that "Foxconn keeps the employees in dorms they are easier to control".... since that date Foxconn/Hon Hai has made international news because its employees were jumping out of the windows in suicidal leaps, requiring that the company install nets below to prevent more deaths. Hon Hai has since raised the salary levels.