Wednesday, October 19, 2011
El Paso Times editorial applauds ex-workers help with chemical testing
Nothing was found. 110 years of smelting; over a decade of illegal unpermitted hazardous waste incineration for profit -- some of it of D.O.E. origin ----- and, nothing bad turned up with the Trust's chemical testing. That is good news for the "smart-code" walkable neighborhood developers who want to site an elementary school and kids playgrounds on the former Asarco ground....
but hardly believable. Incredulous. Makes fools of people who are demanding to know what they were exposed to at Asarco El Paso during the illegal-haz-waste burning years....
google alert:
"Asarco cleanup Exsmelter employees big help El Paso Times
But more testing, especially on the 123-acre plant site of Asarco s total 580-plus acres, is prudent.
www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_19140539
"
Saturday, October 15, 2011
According to this article Asarco El Paso was incinerating stuff until 2005 and that clean-up "A tremendous financial success"
"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
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
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