CLEAN WATER ACT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01water.html?th&emc=th

The Rio Grande is a navigable river, protected under the Clean Water Act and NOAA's ORR process. Yet, when ASARCO's storm pond broke and breached/poured thousands and thousands of gallons of extremely concentrated stormwater runoff into the river and old American Canal in 2006, our Rep. called it an "incident". There was no ORR ever done because the EPA refused to enter the spill into the national EPA spills database.

This entire "incident" was glossed over and ignored. The "pulse" of extremely toxic materials was ignored.

And THIS IS A RIVER PROTECTED AS A NAVIGABLE RIVER UNDER THE CLEAN WATER ACT.

After this, the EPA came here and signed an M.O.U. with the University right there by Asarco, promising to funnel monies and projects into the local university. To this day, we do not have basic chemical information (dioxins, polonium etc.) about what is at that site.

When will the silence end?

E. Helena ASARCO clean-up "plan" eerily resembles the El Paso TX Asarco clean-up plan

The E. Helena ASARCO clean-up "plan" eerily resembles the El Paso TX Asarco clean-up plan -- get an independent contractor who knows "nothing" about the illegal hazardous waste document, sell the land as soon as possible and pump the monies back into the clean-up.    What everyone forgets is the "smoking gun memo" (20010628) that shows how the EPA deliberately covered-up the Asarco contamination problem in El Paso/Corpus Christi (E. Helena also handled the secret wastes).   We have all been lied to, and they continue to lie to us.

"Cindy Brooks is president of the Massachusetts-based Greenfield Environmental Trust Group, which is the custodial trust that’s temporarily taken possession of the Asarco land. They’re working with state, federal and local organizations to deal with soils contaminated by lead from the smelter, and also two underground plumes containing high levels of arsenic and selenium. The plan calls for the Asarco lands to be sold at some point, with proceeds returning to the trust to pay for environmental cleanup."

"Google News Alert for: asarco

E. Helena looks to future with first-ever growth plan Helena Independent Record Asarco owns almost all of the land immediately adjacent to the city — about 1000 ... “With the unlocking of the Asarco property, I think our growth will ...

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