March 13, 1993
Page: 1A Howard Pankratz; Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer DENVER POST
A Denver jury yesterday found that ASARCO Inc. negligently permitted cadmium and arsenic to spread from its Globeville smelter and refinery, and it awarded hundreds of families in the north Denver neighborhood millions of dollars in damages.
"You can't sweep your mess under the rug, and we felt that is what they (ASARCO) were trying to do," said Mark Emmons, one of the jurors who returned two different multimillion-dollar verdicts on behalf of 567 Globeville families. ASARCO attorneys said the company will appeal.
....Pamela Aylsworth, the jury forewoman, said the jurors felt that for decades ASARCO had inadequately controlled dust and other emissions from the plant, .....During the 5-week trial, lawyers Macon Cowles and Kevin Hannon claimed that hundreds of thousands of pounds of dust blowing from the plant had scattered cadmium and arsenic throughout Globeville. Those metals, they claimed, left residents at higher risk for cancer and other illnesses.
"ASARCO thinks that a home's worth is measured only in square feet and has nothing to do with raising babies and growing gardens," said Kane. "ASARCO also thinks that health risk is measured by statistics, not individual human beings - mothers, fathers, children. But the people of Globeville know better and, when they could trust promises no more, they turned to the courts for the justice so long overdue."
ASARCO said there was no proof that the metals harmed anyone. [sound familiar?]...... He said by fighting ASARCO he and his neighbors were sending a message to corporations that if they pollute neighborhoods, those neighborhoods won't tolerate it.
http://www.marykanelaw.com/articles/globevilleSmelter.cfm
Sunday, September 9, 2007
TENORM radioactive waste in copper mining and waste
V. Enhanced pollution due to technological processing. Waste elements that are put into the waste heaps release toxins into the environment, in an affect called “technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials” (TENORM) by Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, when you bring toxic metals, which are buried in the ground with no potential to harm human health, to the surface, put them in waste dumps exposed to the air, and subject them to various technological processes, there is a potential for adverse affects on human health. This is particularly true in Arizona where there are abundant deposits of radioactive metals and poisonous arsenic. In 1999, Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D. C. published a report on this uranium and radioactive chemicals in the “Copper Belt” of Southern Arizona. Following is an excerpt from that report:
Nearly all rocks, soils, thorium, radium, radioisotopes,naturally occurring radioactive purposefully or inadvertently technologically enhanced naturally as any naturally occurring human exposure has been activities (NAS, 1999). . . .
Levels in excess of the federal MCLs and state guidelines were found in groundwater and surface water samples, as well as soil and sediment samples at abandoned and active copper mines. TENORM exceedences were also found in groundwater at active and inactive copper mines. Uranium byproducts were recovered from heap leach dumps and in-situ operations that feed SX-EW and ion exchange circuits at several copper mines. Radioactivity was discovered in copper mineral processing waste streams. Elevated levels of radioactivity were also found to occur in the process solutions and process wastes.
For entire report, see: www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/tenorm/402-r-99-002.pdf
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