"The second addressed sham recycling, the illegal treatment and disposal of hazardous waste. "
Please give correct citation for this reference because it wasn't public knowledge, and i lost my work as a teacher uncovering it (and how it relates to our water). This was the 1998 73 page confidential for settlement purposes only us doj epa asarco document. It took much work to uncover it, i had to do this work alone, and with what Christians would call "God moments" (us doj was mass firing attorneys at that time, and a tceq director just happened to mention a "report" in the el paso times that i happened to see and just "knew" was document i had never seen. It's mention in a newspaper then i knew it made it become public domain.) I followed up with a FOIA and we just happened to have a pro foia texas attorney general, who contacted the us doj. I received it within days. It wasn't an easy document to get, nor to ring it to national attention. I wrote a press release, and paid $300 of personal money in 2006 to release it electronically. That brought it to attention of the new york times who made an exclusive front page story from it. Bill Addington of the sierra nuclear dump fight had recommended going national so that the company could never entirely bury the document. I had the right computer and right skills asking the right questions at the right time to have a small chance of getting it revealed (Thank you, God!). The invoices in back of the 73 page document were NEVER revealed, and would likely take a news reporter with much money and backing to dig out further. I was told that had i not uncovered it then it is likely that the smelter would have reopened for business as usual, as asarco had kept its El Paso water and ore permits current). By the way, the illegal wastes went from corpus cristi texas first to el paso by rail, and then onto the east helena mt site. Over the years i keep reminding the el paso trustee/buyers and east helena MT community about what happened as it is rapidly forgotten. We know it was high in dioxins, likely had forever chemicals, had norm waste. But we are not told to this day how much because these are not the "public" chemicals of concern.
Uncovering the "73 page 1998 confidential for settlement purposes only us doj epa asarco document" proving that there had been sham recycling was not a team investigation effort as stated above. I did that part without telling anyone, working alone. Taking the risks, alone. Filing requests, alone. Anyone was free to take part and speak in the national press conference that informed the community of this proof.
-Dual certified biology and general science teacher Mrs mcmurray, ms biological sciences
