"Mike Casbon, who is based in Indiana with multi-national contractor ERM Inc., has spent much of the past 10 months in El Paso, Texas, helping oversee the demolition of a copper smelting facility that is spread out over 200 acres.
ERM hired Brandenburg Industrial Service Co., Chicago, as its demolition subcontractor for the project. Malcolm Pirnie, Highlands Ranch, Colo., was the lead remediation contractor.
Metals were smelted at the site, adjacent to the border with Mexico, from 1887 until Asarco closed the facility in 2005. In part because owners prior to Asarco smelted lead on the site, decontamination has been a vital part of the demolition and recycling process, said Casbon.
While the decontamination process has been costly, the variety and volume of metals harvested has yielded generous returns. That harvest has included some 3,500 tons of copper; 1.5 million pounds of lead; 44,000 ounces of silver; and 1,200 ounces of gold.
Much of this material has been harvested and sold during a time of record-high metals prices, benefiting the trust entity that now owns the land.
In addition to recycling metal for an eager scrap market, Casbon indicated that the project has also entailed recycling sulfuric acid, Douglas fir timber and some salvageable equipment.
Casbon said the efforts of ERM, Brandenburg and others working on the project have provided a tremendous financial success for the Asarco site land trust. Rather than spending down the trust’s $52 million cash reserves for the project, work done thus far has provided an additional $25 million to the trust’s value.
The 2011 C&D Recycling Forum was Sept. 25-27 at the Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center in Ellicott City, Md."
http://www.cdrecycler.com/cdr-forum-rising-and-falling-LEED-Asarco-Nationals-Park.aspx
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Shades of "Fire down Below" illicit poisoning of community(s): Asarco Encycle (Dona Park Corpus Christi) that EPA secretly told DOJ 1998 sent massive secret hazardous wastes to El Paso TX and East Helena MT
"CORPUS CHRISTI — Test results of soil taken near the site of a shuttered zinc smelting plant produced no elevated levels of chemicals of concern, the Texas Commission on Environmental Equality reported. [as they say on Saturday Night live News,..... "REALLY!!"]
The commission has investigated residents' claims for about a year that parts of the Dona Park neighborhood were a dumping ground in the 1980s for toxic chemicals from the ASARCO/Encycle plant on Up River Road.....
...The Texas Department of State Health Services also is working with residents, having taken voluntary blood and urine samples to test for harmful chemicals.
The most recent tests inspected soil in drainage pathways leading from the former plant out into the neighborhood, said Omar Valdez, project manager with the commission."http://www.caller.com/news/2011/oct/05/tests-near-former-zinc-smelting-plant-show-no-of/
| Tests near former zinc smelting plant show no elevated levels of ... Corpus Christi Caller Times ... chemicals from the ASARCO/Encycle plant in the 1300 block of Lantana Street. TCEQ officials tested the site, and nearly 3500 neighborhood homes nearby. ... |
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