Scroll to end: click web view. Heather Mcmurray 's research uncovering poisoning of 1000 square miles around El Paso by Asarco smelter through what the EPA & US DOJ said was illegal burning of illegal hazardous/radioactive wastes 1991 to 1998. We have never been told what actinides, forever chemicals, dioxins etc are present from illegal Asarco actions(see 73 page 1998 conf. for settlement purposes only DOJ EPA Asarco doc,10/06 nytimes) see "Asarco secret document"
Please donate (see sidebar) to help recoup costs of the work to uncover and blog the information contained here"THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING"
Friday, June 22, 2007
Sham Environmental Justice?
sb: EPA visit to El Paso June 20
Please send us a copy of your agenda during your visit to this region. If necessary,please consider this an FOIA request for that information. I would like to know the purpose of your visit to El Paso and this region, and whom you spoke/met with while here.
I live 3 miles from the Asarco smelter that burned toxic waste for nearly a decade without a permit and contaminated our aquifer, much of that time on your watch. I suggest that like the TCEQ's sham-permitting-process for Asarco's sham-recyling, you possibly are in charge of sham-environmental-justice and it is time you delivered actual justice to this regions' peoples.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/5dc6087040a927d3852572a000650c01/b8c7edeba47531b5852570d6005e7e5c!OpenDocument
During that time you had to be aware of the largest TCEQ (Texas-EPA agreement state)hearing ever conducted on the Sierra Blanca nuclear dump, and were on watch when NYC's organized crime railed-and-dumped NYC sludge on the tiny minority town of Sierra Blanca.
Since your visit here, Asarco has canceled a public meeting for this weekend defending their position on re-opening this contaminated smelter. If you visited with anyone connected with Asarco or representing Asarco interests, please let us know.
I am bc'ing this email to media contacts.
Asarco sends up smoke screen
Mr. Lairy Johnson, Environmental Manager of Asarco, has been addressing local groups with a PowerPoint presentation which is not entirely accurate.
Mr. Johnson has stated that the Asarco smelter has not burned hazardous wastes and Asarco's El Paso smelter has not been fined for burning hazardous wastes.
The truth, per a New York Times article and related EPA report, is that the EPA fined Asarco $20 million for burning hazardous chemical weapons waste for several years: (Google New York Times Asarco and look at the third listing, or go to http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/11toxic.html?ex=1318219200&en=3ee634faa2197f28&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss).
Mr. Johnson has stated that the Asarco smelter will not emit more air contaminants than 230 El Paso households.
The truth is that little or no sulfur dioxide would be emitted per year from 230 households, but over 6,000 tons per year of sulfur dioxide would be emitted into El Paso's air per year if Asarco were to reopen per Asarco's permit application
20345: (Google El Paso's smoke and lots or mirrors and look at the first listing, or go to http://www.elpasotimes.com/search//ci_6040830).Noel Roberts
West El Paso
Cancer Risk From Environmental Arsenic Can Last for Generations
Chilean study finds rates for malignancy were still high decades after clean-up
-- Robert Preidt
TUESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- Decades after residents of a region in northern Chile were exposed to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water, they still suffer from high lung and bladder cancer death rates, concludes a study by U.S. and Chilean researchers.
The finding indicates a pattern of long-term arsenic-related health effects that hasn't been documented before, said the authors of a study in the June 12 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"The results show that the risks of concentrated arsenic exposure are extraordinarily high, and that they last a very long time, both after initial exposure, and after the exposure ends," principal investigator Allan Smith, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, said in a prepared statement....
SOURCE: University of California, Berkeley, news release, June 12, 2007"U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, sent a letter this week to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, asking the commissioners to reject Asarco's request to renew its air quality permit."..."I'm posting the whole letter here, so you can read it yourself:Download asarco_tceq_letter_6.18.07.pdf
"
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sault Ste Marie - low water exposes dangerous sediment
Low water levels along the St. Mary's River have likely uncovered more than a century's worth of contaminated sediment, says a member of the joint U.S. and Canadian group charged with monitoring the troubled waterway.....
This message was sent to you via the Sludge Watch list serv
http://list.web.net/lists/listinfo/sludgewatch-l
US Gov. says that Bankruptcy doesn't protect Asarco from YAK Tunnel Colorado mine environmental cleanup
joint-venture structure to absolve itself of the need to prevent a
disaster at its former lead and zinc mine, the US government said.
http://www.mining-journal.com/Breaking_News.aspx?breaking_news_article_id=2904
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
EPA Water Headlines - June 18, 2007 (arsenic)
Administrator Office of Water
Water Headlines is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water
In This Week?s Water Headlines:
1) New Products Released to Help Small Systems Meet Regulations Controlling Arsenic in Drinking Water
2) EPA Seeks Drinking Water Utilities for Contaminant Warning System Pilot Projects
3) Watershed Academy June 21st Webcast to feature STORET?EPA?s repository of water quality monitoring data
4) Subscribe to Water Headlines
ASARCO Is Deceiving the Public
ASARCO can’t be trusted. The people of El Paso have
not been fully informed about the prior occurrences
with ASARCO, nor as to the validity of any research
that ASARCO claims will show that they never polluted.
ASARCO illegally burned DOD hazardous chemical weapons waste here in El Paso during the 1990’s, and they didn’t have a license to do so. They did it once and they will do it again. The CONTOP tower that they hold so highly is used by many European smelters to process hazardous wastes; they used it here in El Paso to process hazardous wastes. They broke the law and got a slap on the wrist when they were caught. Why? Because America (the rest of the country) is foaming at the mouth, or looking for, a place to get rid of all its toxic garbage, and El Paso seems a nice out of the way place to do so.
The aspect of creating jobs is acting as a smokescreen
to keep the focus off of the real issue of environmental racism.
Scott / Central El Paso
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
TCEQ and Sham Permitting
Fr: Heather McMurray, El Paso TX
cc: Mary Mahaney
sb: Sham Permitting
Thank you for your email. The Permit 4151 is a sham in regards to "no-increase". There is no way to re-open the ore-handling process on that ore-handling-pad at Asarco El Paso and say that emissions won't increase unless the TCEQ is ignoring the Toxic Contamination from Encycle, Corpus Christi, TX. There has been no "decontamination" of this Asarco El Paso site. The smoking gun memo (authenticated) that the SOAH Judges refused to allow as evidence during the 2005 Asarco El Paso Air hearing lets us know that contamination is being concealed from the peoples of this region by high officials in the EPA and the TCEQ. To discuss the 4151 permit as a "no-increase" permit as if it is a legitimate process is ludicrous when we now know that illegal toxic-waste was brought in, handled and incinerated in our ConTop furnaces for profit, and that it was stored on that ore-handling pad.
The contamination is still being concealed, and we would like to know what is being concealed, before any more permits are renewed or allowed. The entire permitting/SOAH process has become a sham-process because the TCEQ and EPA continue to hide the contamination from Asarco's sham-recycling; and, the ConTop's permitting in 1992 conned the public into thinking that these furnaces were there to reduce emission when they were there to make monies as hazardous waste incinerators.
We want the responsible EPA and TCEQ officials to step down, and for honest officials to take their place, to let us know what contamination has been concealed, and for clean-up to begin.
Mary Mahaney wrote:
Since the technical review is still on-going for the Asarco El Paso ore-handling permit #4151, please confirm that the public comment period remains open for this permit?
Attached is my original request for party status on this permit.
Heather McMurray
Monday, June 11, 2007
Rocky Flats workers told to go home and die
URL: http://www.rockymou
"Rocky Flats workers face likely denial of compensation
Board members say their hands are tied
By Laura Frank And Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News
June 11, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Water and Air to breathe may become more precious than Copper
The wrath of 2007: America's great drought By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles Published: 11 June 2007
America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still....
...the long-term implications are escaping nobody. Climatologists see a growing volatility in the south-east's weather - today's drought coming close on the heels of devastating hurricanes two to three years ago. In the West, meanwhile, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests a movement towards a state of perpetual drought by the middle of this century. "The 1930s drought lasted less than a decade. This is something that could remain for 100 years," said Richard Seager a climatologist at Columbia University and lead researcher of a report published recently by the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).....Across the West, farmers and city water consumers are locked in a perennial battle over water rights - one that the cities are slowly winning. Down the line, though, there are serious questions about how to keep showers and lawn sprinklers going in the retirement communities of Nevada and Arizona. Lake Powell, the reservoir on the upper Colorado River that helps provide water across a vast expanse of the West, has been less than half full for years, with little prospect of filling up in the foreseeable future.....According to the NOAA's recent report, the West can expect 10-20 per cent less rainfall by mid-century, which will increase air pollution in the cities, kill off trees and water-retaining giant cactus plants and shrink the available water supply by as much as 25 per cent....
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Multimedia Consent decree stated that all operations at the Facility would have materials tracked and a x-ray fluorescence spectrometer used
However, the multimedia consent decree stated that [it] :
Encycle shall manage waste
at the Facility in accordance with this Waste Analysis Plan, which
shall supersede the WAP referenced in the Permit. Immediately upon
entry of this Decree, Settlors shall apply the WAP attached to
this Decree to all operations at the Facility. Settlors shall use
their best efforts to install and operate as soon as possible an
x-ray fluorescence spectrometer for use in analyzing metal content
in Solid Feedstock for compliance with Feedstock acceptance
criteria. Between entry of this Consent Decree and the date on
which the x-ray fluorescence spectrometer is operational, which
shall be no later than June 1, 1999, except for CC-5112,
preshipment samples of bulk Solid Feedstocks shall be taken to
confirm compliance with all applicable acceptance criteria,
including those contained in Paragraph 28 herein. During this
period, confirmation samples shall be analyzed on receipt of each
shipment. If the preshipment sample demonstrates compliance with
the acceptance criteria but the confirmation sample does not
confirm such compliance then future shipments of such material
shall not be unloaded prior to receipt of analysis results
confirming that the materials meet acceptance criteria.
Notice that this paragraph says "ALL OPERATIONS AT THE FACILITY". Even dredging and taking that stuff away to TX US Ecology?
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/decrees/civil/mm/asarcophs2cd.pdf
Since TCEQ deny ever requiring a spectrometer to analyze the waste coming from El Paso to the
dump site then they should explain why they failed to do this when the US DOJ / EPA consent decree required
this be done to "weed out" improper feedstock/materials even after Asarco-el paso closed.
TX US Ecology cannot accept all waste - in order to determine the proper disposal method, a spectrometer or
equivalent sensitive analysis needed to be done because that pond-dirt contains all the stuff that was "missed"
when Encycle had failed to run these tests from 1992 through 1999.
Again, back in December 2006: "We do not usually do not release this client information to anyone other than a regulatory agency without the clients c
Subject: | RE: FW: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15] |
---|---|
Date: | Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:06:52 -0700 |
From: | Ken Knibbs <kknibbs[at]usecology.com> |
To: | <heamc[at]earthlink.net |
We do not usually do not release this client information to anyone other than a regulatory agency without the clients consent. I would be happy to forward this request to our client.
-----Original Message-----
From: heamc[at]earthlink.net [mailto:heamc[at]earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 8:13 PM
To: Ken Knibbs
Subject: Re: FW: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15]
Hi, Ken,
Is there a problem with this request?
Ken Knibbs wrote:
Please contact me regarding this request.
Thank you,
Ken Knibbs
General Manager
361-387-3518 ext. 267
-----Original Message-----
From: Beth Payne [mailto:bpayne[at]americanecology.com]
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 11:01 AM
To: Ken Knibbs
Subject: FW: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15]
-----Original Message-----
From: Jill Albert [mailto:jalbert[at]americanecology.com]
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 6:33 AM
To: 'Beth Payne'
Subject: FW: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15]
Beth not for sure about this
Customer Service Manager
US Ecology Texas
361-387-3518 Ext. 255
From: heamc[at]earthlink.net [mailto:heamc[at]earthlink.net]
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 2:27 AM
To: jalbert[at]americanecology.com
Subject: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15]
Dear Ms. Albert (U.S. Ecology Customer Service Manager),
The TX TCEQ referred me to your company for a copy of the following information, under my Public Information Act Request, PIR 06.11.20.15 .
Asarco El Paso recently dredged materials from its central pond, dried it in its bedding building and then shipped it to US Ecology in Robstown.
They would have been required to fill out a "Waste Product Questionnaire (WPQ)" and they may also have provided an identifying analysis and an applicable Material Safety Data Sheet(s) (MSDS).
Would you email me a copy?
thank you
Back to December 2006 - TX US Ecology Attorney specifies that TCEQ must place a written demand for such information (under law they are allowed to request a copy)
Subject: | Re: [Fwd: Re: FW: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15]] |
---|---|
Date: | Tue, 19 Dec 2006 08:30:36 -0700 |
From: | Wayne Ipsen <WIPSEN[at]americanecology.com> |
To: | <heamc[at]earthlink.net> |
CC: | Ken Knibbs <kknibbs[at]americanecology.com> |
Ms. McMurray:
There is not a specific person/office from which the request must come, however, our ability to provide confidential customer information to the TCEQ (stemming from a third party request) will depend on the TCEQ's written demand for such information.
Regards,
Wayne Ipsen
-----------------------
Sent with ChatterEmail+ (EX)
Direct Exchange Email for the Treo Smartphone
http://get.chatteremail.com
-----Original Message-----
From: "heamc[at]earthlink.net" <heamc[at]earthlink.net>
Date: Monday, Dec 18, 2006 7:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: FW: [Fwd: PIR# 06.11.20.15]]
Thank you, Mr. Ipsen. Who in the TCEQ must write you that letter? What office/administrator?
Correspondence from 1-14-07 through 2-16-07 trying to get release of Robstown US Ecology Asarco manifests, waste profiles and chemical analyses from Stephanie Bergeron, TCEQ Austin
Subject: | Re: [Fwd: American Canal cont., and request for letter to US Ecology from TCEQ] |
---|---|
Date: | Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:53:33 -0600 |
From: | Stephanie Bergeron <SBERGERO@tceq.state.tx.us> |
To: | <heamc[at]earthlink.net>, "Javier Martinez" <Javier.Martinez[at]mail.house.gov>, <thornton.wood[at]oag.state.tx.us>, "Andrea Casey" <ACasey[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Celeste Baker" <CBAKER[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Charles Stokes" <CSTOKES[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Jim Hay" <JHAY[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "John Davis" <JODAVIS[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "WWW - WWW - WWW - OPA" <OPA[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Rosalinda Escalon" <RESCALON[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Ronnie Morgan" <RMORGAN[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Sharmein White" <SHWHITE[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Vickie Stone" <VStone[at]tceq.state.tx.us> |
Subject: Message status - undeliverable |
From: Mailer-Daemon[at]smtpgate.tceq.state.tx.us |
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:50:22 -0600 |
To: SBERGERO[at]tceq.state.tx.us |
The attached file had the following undeliverable recipient(s): heamc[at]earthlink.net Transcript of session follows: Command: MAIL FROM:<SBERGERO[at]tceq.state.tx.us> Response: 552 Message size 20975471 exceeds limits 14680064
Received: from GATEDOM-MTA by smtpgate.tceq.state.tx.us with Novell_GroupWise; Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:50:19 -0600 Message-Id: <s5d48f4b.045[at]smtpgate.tceq.state.tx.us> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 6.5.6 Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:49:47 -0600 From: "Stephanie Bergeron" <SBERGERO[at]tceq.state.tx.us> To: <heamc[at]earthlink.net>, "Javier Martinez" <Javier.Martinez[at]mail.house.gov>, <thornton.wood[at]oag.state.tx.us>, "Andrea Casey" <ACasey[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Celeste Baker" <CBAKER[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Charles Stokes" <CSTOKES[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Jim Hay" <JHAY[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "John Davis" <JODAVIS[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "WWW - WWW - WWW - OPA" <OPA[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Rosalinda Escalon" <RESCALON[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Ronnie Morgan" <RMORGAN[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Sharmein White" <SHWHITE[at]tceq.state.tx.us>, "Vickie Stone" <VStone[at]tceq.state.tx.us> Subject: Re: [Fwd: American Canal cont., and request for letter to US Ecology from TCEQ] Heather, As mentioned, attached please find waste profiles and manifests for shipments made from ASARCO El Paso to US Ecology in Robstown in 2006. Thanks - Stephanie ***************************************************************** Hi Heather, You have requested information relating to "material dredged from the ponds this summer (2006)/dried in the bedding building/and then sent for disposal to US Ecology near Corpus Christi, to you at TCEQ." You also stated the requested information is "not the stormwater containment pond(s)." Rather, "it is the 100+ year old pond in the center of the complex." To address your concern that the agency has not responded to your request, we contacted US Ecology and requested all manifests and profiles for waste received by US Ecology from ASARCO/El Paso in 2006.
>>> <heamc[at]earthlink.net> 2/5/2007 12:53 PM >>>
Please write the letter to Mr. Ipsen and quit dodging.
Regional Office follow up is not what I asked for and will not get the job done. The report should have been on file with my state regulatory agency already and it is not - that is the responsibility of TCEQ Austin, who fined US Ecology in Robstown just last summer. The lack of information on file with TCEQ is keeping me from accessing this data under open records and I don't appreciate this continued run-around.
I have gotten a public commitment from my State Senator about this request. I want a letter from TCEQ Austin asking for that report, and I want access to it under open records, as a citizen living 3 miles from that dredged site.
Please write this letter to Mr. Wayne R. Ipsen, Corporate Counsel at the American Ecology Corporation Fax 208.331.7900 in Corpus Christi (Robstown, TX) and formally ask him to release the Waste Product Questionnaire, identifying analysis, and any applicable Material safety data sheets from the material dredged from the ponds this summer (2006)/dried in the bedding building/and then sent for disposal to US Ecology near Corpus Christi, to you at TCEQ.
I do not want to release the name or date of letter to you without written-assurances that the author at TCEQ will not have any retaliatory action taken against them at the agency for releasing honest information to me.
I am bc'ing this email to interested parties, including press contacts. I want to know what is in the material dredged from that central 100 year old pond, 3 miles from my house and above my drinking-water-supply (the old upper american canal). And I don't appreciate the hedging or stalling from TCEQ legal. If you won't write the letter then someone else on this distribution list should be writing it - Mr. McCalla, Mr. Stokes, Mr. Harrison, Ms. Baker. To pass it along to Regional (Mr. Clouse) is unacceptable when the Asarco illegal hazardous waste burning and cover-up was done at the highest levels of TCEQ and EPA; and, this chemical analysis will show what the TCEQ and EPA are hiding.
We are tired of the cover-up, we are tired of not being told what was burned, and what metal(s) are being hidden. We are tired of seeing inept data reports, like recent ones showing extremely high strontium levels released from storm ponds at Asarco, but no follow-up by TCEQ to ask which isotopes of strontium. If anyone on the distribution list is not helping us uncover what it is, then you are part of the cover-up in my opinion; and, liable for those actions.
Heather McMurray
Stephanie Bergeron wrote:
I will have our regional office follow up again with US Ecology. Do you have a date for the TCEQ document/communication in your possession?Thank you - StephanieDear Ms. Bergeron,
I have a TCEQ communication in my possession stating that dredged material was shipped to American Ecology in Robstown TX (US Ecology). I have communicated with that company, and they will not release the manifest and chemical analysis.
Now you want me to believe that the shipment never was made? This was *NOT* the stormwater containment pond(s). This was the 100+ year old pond in the center of the complex. The material was removed long ago, and dried in the bedding building before it was shipped out. I have been trying to get a copy of the analysis since last summer -- almost six months, now. That is unacceptable and the hedging and problems-emailing are transparent.
All you have to do is write a letter to American Ecology (US Ecology) in Robstown (the same site you fined last year) and request a copy of the information that TCEQ is allowed to legally acquire, being our State regulatory body. The company DOES have that information and I want a copy of it through TCEQ under open records law.
It was shipped to Robstown, I want a copy of the chemical analysis, and I want honest services.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: American Canal cont., and request for letter to US Ecology from TCEQ Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:20:49 -0600 From: Stephanie Bergeron <SBERGERO[at]tceq.state.tx.us> To: <heamc[at]earthlink.net> CC: Javier Martinez <Javier.Martinez[at]mail.house.gov>, <thornton.wood[at]oag.state.tx.us>, WWW - WWW - OPA <OPA[at]tceq.state.tx.us>
I have just been advised by our IR staff, that the PDF documents that I was trying to send are apparently what is resulting in undeliverable error message. We will mail these to you.Thank you - Stephanie********************************************************************Due to error messages indicating that the email exceeds text limits, I am re-sending emails that are limited only to the most recent inquiry and our response.Thank you - Stephanie**************************************************************************Hi Heather,As noted in my 1/19/07 email, I stated I would follow up concerning your request for information regarding dredged material from the ASARCO ponds.
After we received your email, we ran a report of our database regarding waste sent from ASARCO to US Ecology. Based upon our review, we did not locate shipments of dredged material from ASARCO to US Ecology. We also contacted US Ecology in Corpus and verified that they have not yet received stormwater pond dredged material. Attached for your review is ASARCOs Notice of Registration (NOR) and US Ecologys List of Shipments received from ASARCO. Let me know if you would like to have an agency employee go through these documents with you.
The dredged material from the stormwater ponds remains on-site and has not yet been sent to US Ecology for disposal. Dredging activity was not completed until late November due to the stormwater events in August and September; the water in the ponds had to evaporate before dredging could continue. Appropriate waste characterization must be conducted on generated wastes and waste must be shipped under hazardous waste manifest. These documents are available for agency review when we conduct on-site investigations at generating facilities.
Thank you,
Stephanie
*************************************************************************Hi Heather,In response to your first concern, I believe you may be to referring to water quality data which was provided to you in response to your request for information on 12/16/05 regarding "all information concerning the EPA, TCEQ and 'other agencies' handling of the 4-Sept-06 spill of the stormwater containment pond." We do not have information concerning the exposure of the water supply to ASARCO groundwater contamination by the collapse of the canal panels which is what I believe you originally requested. If there was any misunderstanding of your original request on our part, I apologize for that. We have endeavored to be responsive and acted in good faith to your requests for public information.With regard to your request for information regarding dredged material from the ASARCO ponds sent to US Ecology for disposal, we will contact the facility. I will follow up once I have further information.Thank you,Dear Ms. Bergeron,
I have just received data from the TCEQ regarding the water quality data due to recent shifting of the slabs for the American canal. The data specifies the same distance above and below the collapsed slabs and shows the increase in metals below that point. This data was available since at least 9/4/06 but you said that the TCEQ did not have any data.
Please review the records again and send me any information regarding water quality in the old upper american canal as impacted by those collapsed panels, any leaking panels, and the recent '06 storm runoff. I have the material sent from our regional office. I took photos of runoff from the Asarco property entering a public street and onto Paisano - which was later cleared by TXDOT vehicles. Asarco's waste and storm-water permit does not allow the company to direct storm-water to a street, because the company never specified that this would happen.
I am also concerned because I have been trying to get a copy of a chemical analysis that is available to the TCEQ but not available under open records (TCEQ says it doesn't have it) and the US Ecology company Counsel refuses to release it without a formal letter from the TCEQ. The TCEQ is allowed to have a copy as the environmental regulatory body.
Would you write this letter to Mr. Wayne R. Ipsen, Corporate Counsel at the American Ecology Corporation Fax 208.331.7900 in Corpus Christi (Robstown, TX) and formally ask him to release the Waste Product Questionnaire, identifying analysis, and any applicable Material safety data sheets from the material dredged from the ponds this summer (2006)/dried in the bedding building/and then sent for disposal to US Ecology near Corpus Christi, to you at TCEQ so that you in turn could release a copy to me under the TX open records law? I find it very distressing that it is so difficult for a citizen living only three miles from that dredged-pond to get a copy of the chemical analysis of the pond dredgings, that are supposed to be stored in the public view.
If you can't write the letter, please explain why.
thank you,
Heather Mcmurray
El Paso, TX
December 2006 the TX US Ecology Attorney's response when I tried to get the chemical analysis of material sent to their facility from our Asarco El Paso 100 year old pond
Date: | Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:42:20 -0700 |
---|---|
From: | Wayne Ipsen <WIPSEN[at]americanecology.com> |
CC: | Ken Knibbs <kknibb[at]usecology.com> |
You have requested that our subsidiary US Ecology
Regards,
Wayne R. Ipsen
Corporate Counsel
American Ecology Corporation
Phone 208.331.8400
Fax 208.331.7900
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 4:07 PM
To: Ken Knibbs; bbrydson[at]tceq.state.tx.us; WWW - OPA; thornton.wood[at]oag.state.tx.us; Martinez, Javier; David Edmonson; Loretta Akers; SIlo[at]tceq.state.tx.us; WWW - OPENRECS
Dear Mr. Knibbs,
I have not gotten a reply from you since 12-12-06 and wondered if there was a problem. All this back and forth communication is a waste of time when TCEQ should have requested this information from you directly in the first place. I consider this a bad faith action since my original request to TCEQ was on 19-Nov-06; and, I would like the chemical analysis released asap.
This is the same chemical analysis that I approached my elected official(s) about, many months back. Surely someone has access to this analysis/analyses under under public-information-law without "clearing it" with the "client".
If your company wants to show that it operates legally/above-board, then release the analyses to my regulatory officials and elected officials asap (which you indicated did not require the permission of the "client") so that I may get a copy via open records law.
Thank you
Thank you for your public information act request dated May 7, 2007 for a copy of a "paper read out" of spectrometer analysis of material excavated fr
Action:______
Friday, June 8, 2007
The next best thing to a press release....
The easiest way to begin is to go to google.com and sign up to get news on "Asarco". Google will post new stories to your email, and then you can to to those stories and see if it is possible for you to post a comment.
: )
June 9 (SAT) ASARCO Environmental manager to speak at the InForm EL Paso venue Ay Caramba! Restaurant on N. Mesa west of I10 10 AM
AP Article in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, does not mention a decade of illegal sham-recycling
Fort Worth Star Telegram - Fort Worth,TX,USA
Soil tests in 2002 revealed elevated levels of lead and arsenic at 45 homes near the Asarco plant in El Paso, which had to be cleaned up. ...
Thursday, June 7, 2007
La Lorona, the crying woman
At ASARCO we played with the Dragon
"American Smelting And Refining Company"by T.S. Ross
At ASARCO we played with the Dragon.
Making our way across sand, slag, and stones,
To the drainage dragon cave, cliff-face huge,
To the reptilian cloacal abyss.
Climbed down the steep cliff, inched along the lip
Stepped across mountain-ridge steep angle-tip
Blasted out of our minds, we crossed the entry
Way-Gate with an Escherian flip
Inner ears protesting, said, Welcome
To Hell, down, in the deep deep dark shadows.
Half sliding, debouched in the L-shaped cave,
Scramble, the sussuration of bellows
Guide our guests to where the land is a grave
Walls close in, darkness breathes. As Orpheus
Leads Eurydike , gathering black
Till the bend, light comes, low and sulpherous
Forbidden, we forbid all looking back,
Wend the way to the Gate of Tartarus,
This industrial dragon's lair, ASARCO,
To chilled first glimpse of this man-made Hades,
Out the back-gate, our checkpoint Alpo,
Watching for Shelob, or the Satanic
Cerberus, the dreaded Security.
Virgins lead forth by the cid-head herder
The Dragon stretched before us, moldering
Mechanical monster of a murdered
Land, our personal magical Mordor,
In the shrouded shadow of Golgotha,
The Night-forgotten Mont Cristo del Rey,
Wary of dogs, awed by Juggernaut
Fearful from hobbit as freshly dead souls,
We crept over slag to unhallowed ground
Gruesome, desolate, this barren set is
Truly worthy of Frankenstein Unbound
There ASARCO lives, breathes, and even eats.
The Dragon had killed, a oft deadly-beast.
First traces that showed depended on chance.
Three hoboes sleeping were laid to rest when
So it seems, we could see the Dragon dance
At a site hideous and unshriven
Where the dragon might show itself, and stir.
"Beep-Beep-Beep" as truck backed to edge of pit,
Halted, dripped detritus of the Refining Fire,
Slow flow of molten slag, luminescent,
Glowing, Tumbling, half-congealing jelly
Falling down to Sheol, the open grave bed
To the Dragon-kill pit, long ago horror,
Deep down in Sheol, the open grave-bed
The Dragon crapped, as we had seen. "Beep-Beep"
Went the truck's warning. Down flowed the doom
On the hapless tramps. To this day, one sees
The molded outline of their bodies, but
The bodies were burned to ash. Carbonized.
Rumor says one of them at last awoke,
For the mold showed his puzzled expression
At point Bravo, the Orange fire descended
Through the deadly fumes, across the ruined land
Marching, approach to the Dragon's secret
Treasure. The Dragon killed, preened itself, curled
Talons around the bone-yard, some rough beast
Slouching. A half-hill hid devastation,
Death-seeded, from the oblivious cars
Speeding along I-10, on their side a hill
Curtained the view. on our side, the Dragon,
Crouched, killed, feed, shit behind sheer carved cliff-wall
You see, once the people, the workers, the slaves,
Lived on site, a village called Smeltertown.
One by one, two by two, four by four, more
And more, family by family died,
Coughing the black-blood from their lungs until
They could cough no more, they died. None knew why
But we know now. Uneasy the dead did rest
For the Dragon had killed, slow consumption,
Kept the bones as a token of triumph
In the old Smeltertown cemetery,
Hidden by the scarred sepulchral half-hill.
http://www.unlikelystories.org/old/americansmeltingand.html
National Radio Show Features Ohio Network Live Tomorrow June 8
From: THE OHIO NETWORK FOR THE CHEMICALLY INJURED:
Note: We've just been confirmed to do a follow-up to our May 25th show tomorrow. It will air live on Friday, June 8, 11 a.m. EST (8 a.m. Pacific time). If you cannot tune in at that time, it will be available on the web (see below for instructions) soon, for about a month. For further information contact Carrie Crane at (440) 845-1888
RADIO SHOW DISCUSSES NEW TECHNOLOGY
TO IDENTIFY TOXINS IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Cleveland, OH: The “Detect and Protect” project was featured on the national radio show “Your Health Matters,” Dr. Gloria Gilbere’s weekly program that provides “health information you can use.” Her May 25th broadcast addresses how to be your own detective with the use of new technology.
The University of N. Carolina at Asheville, Environmental Quality Institute (EQI); the Ohio Network for the Chemically Injured (ONFCI); and Thermo-Scientific, manufacturer of the NITON x-ray fluorescence analyzer, have joined together to create an educational project that will provide low cost metal/element testing most people could not otherwise afford, while creating data to understand the link between the existence of metals in various media and health problems.
You can listen to a live recording for up to a month after the broadcast by visiting www.healthylife.net and clicking “archives” at the top of the page. Then click on Dr. Gloria Gilbere (Your Health Matters) and scroll down and click on the date 5/25/07.
This is a great opportunity to learn which of the 26 metals/elements may be harming your health, even if you don’t know which ones they are. To learn how to be a participant in this educational study or for additional information about FREE TESTING at ONFCI’s community event to be held on August 11, 2007, visit ONFCI’s website at: www.ohionetwork.org or phone (440) 845-1888.
posted byhttp://www.noccawood.ca
Albert Pine
Last year: Filing for party status for everyone drinking the water (Ore Handling permit #4151)
20060305 (a year ago)
BY: Fax (512) 239-3311 and FEDEX
RE: CONTESTED HEARING FOR ASARCO, LLC AIR QUALITY PERMIT NO. 4151 AUTHORIZING CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE
I file for Affected Party status for all people in this region who drink water originating from the old open-conduit American-canal. From mid-March through mid-October every year
Just a few hundred feet or less from this canal, the ore handling at Asarco emits ultra-fine particulates, PM 2.5’s, and coarse dusts next to our drinking supply. The prevailing winds at Asarco travel that direction (toward the canal, American Dam, and the
IBWC has thoroughly documented many Asarco problems impinging upon the canal. It is not possible for our City’s water system to test and remove many of these contaminants presently (i.e. arsenic). Potentially, these contaminants can disproportionately affect the young, the ill, the elderly, and the unborn. IBWC told TCEQ that the remediation of the Asarco-contaminants already beneath our leaking-canal will cost over 24 Million dollars. The renewal of this Asarco permit #4151 will worsen the problem by enabling dry deposition of dusts from ore handling, when we already face an expensive toxic burden.
Besides being among the City water users relying upon water originating from the old American canal, I live three miles from the Asarco smelter. When my swamp cooler runs, it can bring those same PM 2.5 particulates (which remain suspended for weeks/travel far) into my home, equalizing the dust-levels inside and out. Not even HEPA filters will remove PM 2.5’s (HEPA-filter have a 3 micron limit). I do not have the luxury of closing my windows to keep out this toxic material --- my evaporative swamp coolers are in essence open windows. And most folks in this arid region use this cooling method. All chemical exposure models which make the assumption that being indoors limits your exposure become invalid when homes use evaporative air cooling.
Heather McMurray
M.S. Biological Sciences
Asarco Ore Handling Permit (how can they re-open without one?)
The purpose of this letter is to inform you that we have received your request for information under the Texas Public Information Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 552.
The ASARCO permit 4151 is currently in the Air Permits Division for the technical review. Information relating to this review will be provided to you and others on the mailing list once the review is complete. At this time, there is not an estimated time-frame for completion of the technical review.
If you have any further questions concerning this matter, you may contact me at (512) 239-2427, or e-mail at mmahaney@tceq.state.tx.us.
Sincerely,
Mary Mahaney
Open Records Coordinator
Air Permits Division