Scroll to end: click web view. Mrs. Mcmurray 's obtained proof Asarco smelter poisoned El Paso TX through what the EPA & US DOJ said was illegal burning of illegal hazardous/radioactive wastes 1991-98. (see 73 page 1998 conf. for settlement purposes only DOJ EPA Asarco doc,10/06 nytimes) We have never been told what actinides, forever chemicals, dioxins etc are present from illegal Asarco actions 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"
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
New York City sludge HOUSTON company Synagro is owned by "Carlyle Owners", part of the Carlyle Group
"Parent is the sole stockholder of Merger Sub, and Parent is currently wholly-owned by CIP Grey Partnership, L.P. At the effective time of the merger, Parent will be owned by Carlyle Grey Partners, L.P., CIP Direct Partnership, L.P., CIP Grey Partnership, L.P. and CIP Coinvestment, L.P., which we collectively refer to as the “Carlyle Owners.” The Carlyle Owners are managed by and act through their general partner, Carlyle Infrastructure General Partner, L.P., which we refer to as the “General Partner.” The General Partner’s sole general partner is TC Group Infrastructure, L.L.C., the sole member of which is TC Group, L.L.C. The managing member of TC Group, L.L.C. is TCG Holdings, L.L.C. Each of the Carlyle Owners and the General Partner is a Delaware limited partnership, and each of TC Group Infrastructure, L.L.C., TC Group, L.L.C. and TCG Holdings, L.L.C. is a Delaware limited liability company. The Carlyle Owners are a part of The Carlyle Group, which we refer to as “Carlyle,” one of the world’s largest private equity firms.
The business address for each of the Carlyle Owners, the General Partner, TC Group Infrastructure, L.L.C., TC Group, L.L.C. and TCG Holdings, L.L.C. is c/o The Carlyle Group, 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004-2505."
[Remember, Texas G.L.O. is planning on resuming sludge dumping at Sierra Blanca on the old mob-connected NYC MERCO sludge dump/ranch -- at about the same time that Asarco is planning to re-open -- would that sludge dumper be Synagro sludge, also?]
http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/EFX_dll/EDGARpro.dll?FetchFilingHTML1?SessionID=HI_MjTdF57jtWrB&ID=4951885
Folic Acid Lowers Blood Arsenic Levels, Study Shows
Science Daily - A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman
School of Public Health finds that folic acid supplements can dramatically
lower blood arsenic levels in individuals exposed to arsenic through
contaminated drinking water. This toxic element, naturally present in some
aquifers used for drinking, is currently a significant public health problem
in at least 70 countries, including several developing countries and also
parts of the U.S. Chronic arsenic exposure is associated with increased risk
for skin, liver and bladder cancers, skin lesions, cardiovascular disease,
and other adverse health outcomes.
The researchers found that treatment with 400 micrograms a day of folic
acid, the U.S. recommended dietary allowance, reduced total blood arsenic
levels in the study population by 14 percent. Folate, a B vitamin found in
leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, beans, and whole grains, can also be taken
as a vitamin supplement, and in the U.S., is added to flour and other
fortified foods. ...."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Article: "Folic Acid Supplementation Lowers Blood Arsenic," in Am J Clin
Nutr 86:1202-1209 (2007)
Albert Pine
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
San Antonio Express Gary Scharrer Austin Bureau
San Antonio Express - San Antonio,TX,USA
City councils in three states and two countries oppose reopening the ASARCO smelter, whose towering 828-foot stack competes with the neighboring Franklin ...
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Book: The Secret History of the War on Cancer
"Davis writes with passion, driven by the conviction that premature deaths among her family members resulted from exposure to industrial toxins....Davis presents a powerful call to action; recommended." Library Journal
An excerpt:
"Another region of the southern United States haunted by poisonous secrets is that of El Paso, Texas, home of the ASARCO lead smelter. In his 1975 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Philip Landrigan detailed the toxic impact of lead residues on local children that forced the examination of every other smelter in the country. His work for the Centers for Disease Control showed that levels of lead that were insufficient to immediately sicken children permanently dulled their brains and nervous systems.
ASARCO's answer to this crisis was straightforward. Smeltertown families were booted out of their homes. When I visited the area in 2004, only the dead remained. The small local cemetery of marked and nameless graves was covered with blackened, windswept sand. Longer stones or slabs of poured concrete presumably indicate adults, and smaller ones outline those who died as children. The name and short life of Guadaloupe Carmona, 1925–1927, are handwritten on a poured slab1.
In the Environmental Law Institute's report for the Library of Congress in 1980, we described El Paso, along with Times Beach, as well-established cases of mostly historic interest, about which there was little left to learn. We knew that the lawsuit against the company had been settled and that the land surrounding the smelter had been bought by ASARCO for less than half a million dollars. The purchase was made on the condition that all the residents were to be removed so that their former home sites could be used to store acid tanks and railroad cars2.
But when I visited the region three years ago, I learned that some environmental solutions, unlike love, are not forever. El Paso's problems are not nearly as well resolved as I had believed. In fact the story has taken a strange turn. In May 1992, ASARCO set up two3 CONTOP (continuous top-feed oxygen process) furnaces. These hot-burning ovens never slept. All day every day, they burned tons of toxic wastes at 90 percent efficiency. This meant that just 10 percent of what they tried to burn ended up intact. Still, 10 percent of hundreds of thousands of tons of wastes fired over several years left enough metal poisons in the region that the furnaces were put out of business by the U.S. Department of Justice after operating just seven years4. Although many nearby businesses were long shut down, the smelter next to Smeltertown remained, along with the buildings supporting the U.S. Mexico dam and canal system.
A secret government memo released in 2006 from the EPA, written during the Clinton years, showed that so long as the furnaces were running, the company told the world it was recycling materials. Think back to the waste oil that Russell Bliss distributed or took to be burned in mills in Missouri. If this waste is laced with dioxin or heavy metals, then when it gets burned, thousands of tons of toxic agents get finely spewed back into the air over large regions. Recycling thus becomes a neat redistribution system, taking measurable solid wastes and turning them into immeasurable, ultrafine air pollutants.
Pollutants do not need passports. The residents of El Paso and Juarez know this, because they are joined by more than a century's worth of leaden soils and plumes that have crossed back and forth over the U.S.-Mexican border and left many zones uninhabitable. Commerce, of course, crosses borders as well. In 1999 ASARCO was bought for more than $1 billion and today is a completely owned subsidiary of Grupo Mexico5. They have declared their intention to reopen this century-old facility6. What happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that ASARCO had set aside to pay for cleaning up El Paso? In a stunningly cynical move, Grupo Mexico was granted permission by the U.S. government to use that money to pay down corporate debt. Not a penny has been spent to remedy the damage from this longstanding pollution7.
At this time, ASARCO faces bankruptcy because of its responsibilities to clean up dozens of Superfund sites. Of an estimated $2 billion in cleanup costs for old ASARCO areas throughout the United States alone, the firm has set aside less than $100 million. The Steelworkers Union in Dallas used the Freedom of Information Act to unearth an EPA memo warning that any sampling of metals in El Paso could show that the smelter had burned illegal wastes for years. Many locals suspect the plans to reopen the rusted old smelter are just a ploy to keep the plant from being declared a Superfund site. If the company declares its intent to operate, it can't be prosecuted for having abandoned the area.
The signing and sealing of secrecy agreements about contaminated environments — just like those about defective cars or planes — is not a matter of child's play. It's perfectly legal and perfectly bad to allow health and safety information to be kept secret. Such secrets also handicap the ability of science to evaluate hazards. We are left with a policy that perversely allows that you can't ask about what someone doesn't want you to know.
As you open the pages of this book and join me at our web site, you will find long forgotten secrets exposed. You will also find a map that ensures that those of us who want the future of cancer to be different from the past, understand that keeping secrets about the things that cause the disease endangers all of us.
1 Residents of Smeltertown moved upstream two miles to Bueno Vista across from Anapra, New Mexico, and old Anapra, Mexico. In the 1980s New Mexico labeled Anapra, New Mexico, the most lead-contaminated spot in New Mexico and blamed it on the smelter. Since then three generations have grown up in Anapra, and the generations are suffering increasing horrific health problems. Word of mouth accounts are common about babies born without organs, born without a brain, fused-skulls at birth are common and doctors have privately told women it comes from drinking the city water when pregnant. The residents of Anapra have formed a community group and are fighting to get honest assessment of the extent of contamination from the smelter. Meanwhile, New Mexico, Mexico, and Texas continue to turn Anapra into the regional dumping ground — siting three sewage treatment plants, a regional dump, the electric generating plant, a quarry and other toxic developments at this residentially-zoned neighborhood (platted in the early 1900s).
2 Wal-Mart bought several hundred acreas of ASARCO-contaminated land just north of the old smelter cemetery for a whopping five million dollars, just after Wal-Mart was cited millions nationwide by the EPA for failing to observe storm water rules in construction of its properties.
3 The two largest CON0TOPs in the world, designed to smelt toxic waste (shredded automobiles, sludges) for "energy recovery" to provide additional heat for the concurrent melting of the ore concentrates. But ASARCO never got permission to smelt toxic waste — they were supposed to recover metals from all materials that they received.
4 The EPA began testing and residential cleanups in the early 2000s. ASARCO had shut down in 1999, claiming a historic low in copper prices. It wasn't until 2006 that the Federal Department. of Justice released an EPA secret memo from 1998, showing the fake recycling, the secret incineration of toxic waste for profit that ASARCO's ConTop furnaces had conducted for nearly a decade. The government had used ASARCO to dispose of Rocky Mt. Arsenal material (oil bearing materials, chemical weapon quench waters).
5 Carlyle Group is an owner of Grupo Mexico.
6 We believe that this may actually be a sham-intent, and that the fight is over ownership of the carbon credits from the Air permit 20345.
7 We also believe that the Asarco bankruptcy is a test-case for world-wide industrial interests to show how environmental liabilities can be shed — passed onto the people who actually suffered the damages in the first place.
÷ ÷ ÷
Devra Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board in 1994 and also served as Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Science. She lives in Pittsburgh. Visit her website at www.devradavis.org."
TCEQ refuses to answer simple question
They will not answer the question and tell me that my request is closed.
This "non-answer" is backed by Charles Stokes, staff attorney for TCEQ.
It was a simple question. Did they test the lake -- why/why-not? The Toxic Wastes from ENCYCLE would be in that water, from the runoff.
WHY AREN'T THEY LOOKING FOR THESE?
It is getting more appallingly clear that they won't tell us what poison is in our environment from Asarco's illegal toxic waste burning. WHY? Why is it so difficult for a state agency or the federal EPA or anyone with a Chemistry set at a university to tell us what is really in our dirt, air and water from Asarco's illegal activity?
What is so bad that they can't tell us?"
Monday, October 1, 2007
Asarco to miss 2007 450,000 lb moly production target
US copper producer Asarco will not meet its goal of producing approximately 450,000 lb of molybdenum in 2007, a company official told Platts on Monday.
"We're at about half of our projected levels," said John Low, Asarco vice president of mining operations. "It just wasn't in the ore.. It didn't turn out as we projected," he added.
Asarco resumed moly production last December at its Mission complex in Sahurita, Arizona. Molybdenum, which occurs naturally in the Mission ore body, is produced as a byproduct of Asarco's copper operation.
Prior to the moly restart, Joseph Lapinsky, Asarco president and CEO, said restarting the molybdenum circuit would allow the company to better utilize its mineral resources and benefit from favorable market conditions. The company last produced molybdenum in 1996 but stopped because of low market prices and the absence of the mineral in the ore then being mined.
According to Low, Asarco is working on its 2008 moly projects. The company expects to complete its evaluation in about a month, he added.
--Bob Matyi, newsdesk@platts.com"
http://www.platts.com/Metals/News/6487669.xml?src=Metalsrssheadlines1
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Research Article suggests link between leukemias (including CCL and AML) and ionizing radiation over decades of exposure
From: Environmental Health Perspectives | Date: 1/1/2005 | Author: Hoffmann, Wolfgang; Richardson, David B.; Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge; Schroeder, Jane; Wing, Steve
http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G1:136511527
" It is well established that ionizing radiation has the ability to produce double-strand breaks in chromosomal DNA (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation 2000). The primary mechanism by which biologic damage occurs is believed to be via the creation of ionized atoms and molecules that become chemically reactive. This can occur directly via ionization of a critical molecule, such as DNA, or indirectly via ionization of nearby molecules, such as water."...
Please contact me if you know anyone with either CCL or AML
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Utah man poisoned from eating local fish says, "What do we do about it?"
[that is a good question for people along the Frontera facing the legacy of Asarco poison]
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7038749
CSWAB UPDATE: Pentagon Will Fight Wisconsin Water Standards
The Pentagon intends to challenge Wisconsin in regulating all forms of the explosive dinitrotoluene (DNT), Army officials announced on Monday.
Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to establish health-based guidelines for the pervasive military toxin that has contaminated groundwater and dozens of private wells near the Badger Army Ammunition Plant......." Website: www.cswab.org
Public Record request to TCEQ and questions to Terry McMillan about new water in Asarco Lake (between the Smelter cemetery and the overpass) IGNORED
To: Ms. Debbie Wahrmund
Please explain to me why my request for information (information newer than any of the records you have previously made available) is not a records request. I would like you to give me the legal reasons, please.
You sent me the letters I wrote to Mr. McMillan. In those letters I ask:
- "There is a lot of water at the site of the old natural ancient Asarco Lake, now. Has anyone taken water samples and analyzed the samples for ENCYCLE wastes? If not, why?"
- "I have not seen a single analysis from Asarco/TCEQ/EPA that shows that anything has been tested for the wide range of metals and chemicals that would have been incinerated/handled by Asarco from Encycle. We know that a report exists because Archie Clouse referred to it in an El Paso Times interview.I have been unable to get a copy - please explain why
In both, I am asking for current information -- information that has NOT BEEN GIVEN to me. Again, please give me the legal reasons why these are not PIA's ---why these requests for information (information newer than any of the records you have previously made available) are not records requests.
I am copying this to the two congressmen offices which have pushed for investigation of the ENCYCLE wastes that were burned in El Paso, TX at the Asarco smelter; and copying my list of media.
Why is the TCEQ, the EPA and Asarco so unwilling to hand over a full-analysis of the "lake"? or tell me that it has/hasn't been done?
(We'd also like to know why the TCEQ commissioners have not added the motion to overturn the Asarco stormwater permit to their Agenda when peoples from both nations have provided enough evidence to show that the permit should not be renewed.)
Letter: Story ignored on Asarco mass gathering
An historic moment in our city's political life. This was a call to action that broke through the apathy and the cynicism and the unwillingness to speak up on issues that matter.
The El Paso Times editorial page often laments the lack of political participation in our community, so I was surprised, dismayed, angry to see that 1,500 people's participation in a democratic process only warranted one inch of newsprint and no photo in the El Paso Times.
I am including the photo as part of this letter to the editor. I ask that you run it on your editorial page to show El Pasoans what the newsroom thinks is worth only one inch of newsprint.
And I ask that you consider that your newsroom might be contributing to apathy in our community by ignoring the democratic impulses that bring our community together and galvanize us towards action.
Susie Byrd
City representative
District 2"
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_7030329
ALL A SHAM: Asarco asks Bankruptcy court in Corpus Christi to accept El Paso Texas settlement
"Sept. 28, 2007, 10:40PM Asarco asks court to accept settlement" AP newswire "EL PASO, Texas — Asarco LLC said it filed a motion Friday in a Corpus Christi bankruptcy court asking a judge to accept a settlement of about $13.7 million with governmental environmental agencies for the cost of cleanups of lead and arsenic in the soil in some El Paso neighborhoods..."
[IBWC estimates it will cost 24 million ALONE to clean up contamination from Asarco beneath the old upper American Canal ... who will pay for the rest of the clean up? The Taxpayers - you and me. EPA, TCEQ and ASARCO will not disclose the Asarco POISONS that taxpayers will eventually have to pay to remove/dispose of from our Storm-water utility runoff/sludges. The innocent are left living in a pool of poisons while the previous Asarco Environmental Manager left the country for Peru (Asarco Southern Peru Copper company) cashing in Five Million dollars worth of stock options -- almost HALF OF WHAT ASARCO IS WILLING TO PAY YOU FOR CLEANUP HERE.]
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5174183.html
Friday, September 28, 2007
Faces against Asarco
It was a large crowd, we had a good day, and we waved goodbye to Asarco and stood as a group in the photo and no one paid any of us to be there.
Nuff said.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Hi, David, you found the blog
http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinkaboutit/2007/09/still-no-pictur.html
Ah, David, why would you have a problem standing beside the treatment plant? It is only just above the canal that delivers a lot of our drinking water. Do you know something I don't know about that plant?
The Epgtlo blog is not the GTLO blog - that is www.gettheleadout.net. You can see that on the same fliers you mentioned. Please get your facts straight.
"I also heard that there was some interesting visa swapping in order to get some Juarez folks over the border."
Haven't heard this, David. Perhaps you should ask the people directly. Or are you relying on hearsay again?
Sign up for a google alert whenever "Asarco" appears. I have seen many pictures of the event because of the alert. You can always contact one of those bloggers for a better copy of their photo.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
El Paso Times Letter to the Editor on 9-24-07
Facts hidden
We know that for nearly 10 years, Asarco illegally handled and burned toxic waste for big profits, and that they never told us. We know that our government hid that from us for eight years.
Some Asarco workers tell me that it never hurt them to work there; some tell me differently. But no Asarco workers have told me that they trusted Asarco to tell them what went through that plant -- even two people who tested the material for the metals that Asarco wanted to smelt.
We've been lied to by Asarco, the TCEQ and the EPA.
Now the toxins are hidden in the water pumped up the mountain and sent to the city. They are in the dust stirred up in our air, and the rain streaming off our properties. We'll carry the lie as a silent random poison in our lungs, our bones and our bodies and some of it may pass to unborn children from the mothers.
It is time to end the lie, close the smelter, demand honest services from our government and begin the long process of cleanup.
Heather McMurray
El Pasoans gather to protest ASARCO
By: Fernie Castillo (text and photo-credits)
Posted: 9/25/07
"Members of the community gathered in white T-shirts on Sept. 26 for a photo that will be sent to Governor Richard Perry to persuade officials not to grant ASARCO its air permit renewal."
http://www.utepprospector.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a4017618-abb3-41d6-ac74-3ba96cb8ac21
David K. doesn't get out much...
ETHNICITY AND CLASS ARE NOT THE ISSUES HERE however hard he tries to "re-frame" it that way -- the toxins that Asarco, the TCEQ and EPA are hiding do not discriminate between classes or races. The poisons affect us all.
Why is it so difficult to write about the secret EPA document that the DOJ released? It can be hard to face facts...
"September 24, 2007
Update on ASARCO story - Classes, ethiciities at war?
UPDATE: I watched the video of the event rom KFOX (http://www.kfoxtv.com/video/14186394/index.html)
Asarco asks to raise CEO's salary
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sour Grapes ...
The anti-ASARCO crowd is quietly claiming a successful "Faces Against ASARCO" outing this past Sunday. Paul Strelzin, who is a part of their media machine, made sure to focus on the turnout of the pro-ASARCO crowd and less on the anti-ASARCO. I guess the anti-ASARCO group's turnout wasn't worth talking about? [not when Asarco had to PAY their participants 50$ each to show up!] They said they'd have 25,000 people and I've heard numbers from 500 to 1000. Not quite a big turnout.
ASARCO's guest were invited specifically for the commercial they were doing. I saw no call to the public from them, so I didn't expect them to have a bunch of folks.
As for the anti-ASARCO folks, I think they need to rethink their message that all of El Paso wants ASARCO to remain closed. If you give them the higher of the two reported numbers (1000) and you divide that by our estimated population of around 600,000 you get .0016 percent. That means that less than 1% of the people of El Paso cared to gather against ASARCO. So much for "all of El Paso" caring enough about ASARCO to show up in opposition of it. [um, how about recalculating that percentage by the number of people living within the 3 mile EPA official contamination area??]
I think we've been led to believe that there are all kinds of regular El Pasoans up in arms over the opening of ASARCO, when it's obvious that it's only a core group of people who consider themselves "activists." [I would say that Refuse-the-juice classifies as an activist the same as anyone else ... so why imply that being active on community issues is a bad name?] It's the same group who says "no" to everything. They are trying to create a situation where a vocal minority controls the quiet majority. [does this mean that since only a few people in our community are "rich" that those will "create a situation like opening the smelter where a vocal minority (the rich) controls the quiet majority (the ill, the unborn, the babies and the aged)???] Let's hope they are not successful." [Amen, David, the rich shouldn't get off Scot-free from paying their environmental liabilities off or being responsible citizens]
[still no mention of the Toxic waste burning? Why not? Don't want El Pasoans to know?]
http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinkaboutit/2007/09/asarco-turnout-.html
Faces against Asarco Event
"Faces against of Asarco" photo event. Around 5:30, we assembled on land owned by CEMEX at the intersection of I-10 East and Executive Center. Photographs were shot from a crane until about 6:45. We got to see a lot of good friends: Lee, Bobby, and Johnny Byrd; representatives Beto O'Rourke (with new baby) and Suzie Byrd, her husband Eddie Holland, all the little Holland-Byrds; and Rosie Salazar (she's fine, working two jobs). Also, I got to speak to Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (we talked about giving the feds hell about the state of the Ft. Bliss National Cemetery), stood near Nancy from Bordersenses, and was happy to see Mayor John Cook there as well. In all, many, many old and new friends stood in solidarity against Asarco.
All in all it was a great day (impending storm and all) as I believe well over a couple of thousand people stood, raised their hands together to send a message to Austin and wave good bye to Asarco. Thanks to CEMEX for letting us assemble on their land, the EPPD, Ardovino's Desert Crossing (Charlie’s idea for the pix), and all who stood for a very important message: we do not need, nor do we want Asarco to reopen its smelting operations in El Paso, Texas."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chacal/1431054805/
Asarco demonstration
"After hearing Guitar Slim I drove over to the west side of El Paso where there was what to me was the largest demonstration I have ever been involved in. Here in El Paso, Texas the large and heavily polluting ASARCO copper smelter wants to re-open. There were probably 5,000 participants there. Maybe more. It was an interesting group of people. Virtually everyone was either in their late teens to early twenties, or old farts with grey hair who remembered how terrible the air pollution was prior to the smelter closing down.
The mayors of El Paso and Anthony were there as anti-ASARCO demonstration participants. I met a guy who teaches linguistics at UT El Paso and had a nice chat. The artist Hal Marcus was also there.
The neatest guy I met was a fellow who had a long full grey beard much like my own. His name sounded like “Q” the evil fellow on Star Trek, but I finally got it right as Pew. Like myself he grew up in El Paso, and recently lived 20 years in Europe working. He lived in Germany about 50 miles east of my house in Cologne, Germany. He worked for the symphony there. He had also worked for the one in Frankfurt. I really can’t say I am a real symphony buff, but I have attended symphonies at the opera houses in Liege, Belgium, Cologne and Frankfurt. Another example of “Wow, what a small world.”
After the demonstration was finished and I was driving away I took this picture. ... H Paul Garland at 8:22 AM"
http://hpgarland.blogspot.com/2007/09/political-demonstrations.html
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Stand against ASARCO
"Sunday, September 23, 2007
Stand against ASARCO
They say a picture's worth a thousand words. I sure hope so. There was a demonstration today to photograph protesters at the foot of the Asarco smelter to put in the hands of the governor. Many hope this will help sway the reopening of this environmental hazard in the community's favor. It was great to see many people from my neighborhood and the surrounding area at the rally.
The local copper smelter has been a part of this city's existence for the last 120 or so years. It helped spur it's rapid growth, but as the community grew so did the health dangers literally in their backyard. My neighborhood is situated in the shadow of one of the tallest smokestacks in the world. The smelter has been closed down since the 90's. However, the community is in danger once again as Asarco is seeking to regain permission to start up operations this fall. For those of you who haven't seen this monolith, it is huge. And it is equally out of place in the middle of an international community of 3 million people. Hopefully the TCEQ (which will be ruling on this issue) will vote in favor of the community. Our livelihoods and the positive momentum of the region depends on it.
More info about the rally HERE."
http://epfoursquare.blogspot.com/2007/09/stand-against-asarco.html
Faces Against ASARCO
- Sep 23, 2007 at 8:18 PM
A great day (impending storm and all) and I believe well over a couple of thousand people stood, raised their hands together to send a message to Austin and wave good bye to Asarco. Thanks to CEMEX for letting us assemble on their land, the EPPD for traffic control, Ardovino's Desert Crossing (Charlie’s idea for the pix), and all who stood for a very important message: we do not need, nor do we want Asarco to reopen its smelting operations in El Paso, Texas."
http://chacal-la-chaise.vox.com/library/post/faces-against-asarco.html?_c=feed-atom
Opinion...
Thank you, Asarco, for putting it into our river and our aquifer??
Thank you Asarco for this great news that re-opening a smelter next to our drinking water is good science???
http://newspapertree.com/opinion/1674-re-open-asarco
El Pasoans Take a Stand Against Asarco with Community Photograph 9-23 SUNDAY 6 PM!!!
Newspaper Tree - El Paso,TX,USA
However, on Sunday, September 23, thousands of El Pasoans--family, friends and neighbors opposed to the re-opening of Asarco--will gather together in a ...
Friday, September 21, 2007
Faces against Asarco at Executive Center
"(5.30pm Sunday)
September 21, 2007
The cities of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Sunland Park are trying to block the reopening of a massive copper smelter in the heart of town. It’s been mothballed since 1999, but the current owners are trying to get permission from the state of Texas to start up again. I wasn’t here at the time, but apparently when it was open, the pollution was pretty bad on the west side and in Anapra. In any event, this 19th century smelter would provide no significant economic benefit and would run counter to all the recent positive developments in the city.
This is a genius idea from Robert Ardovino. It looks like there’ll be thousands of people in front of Asarco for a photo which will be sent up to Rick Perry and co., posted on billboards in Austin etc. They ask that we show up at 5.30 and wear a white shirt. The picture will be taken at 6pm
Here’s the flyer:
http://gettheleadout.net/files/news_70.pdf "
http://johnsymons.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/mass-photo-in-front-of-asarco-530pm-sunday/
Arizona Governor's statement regarding Hayden and Asarco:
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=7107451&nav=HMO6HMaW
Asarco loses approval to reimburse union
Copper company earlier permitted to pay another $1 million for union's legal expenses.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
One of the USA Founding Fathers: John Quincy Adams' quote
your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
Leon Metz article in El Paso Times
- Leon Metz
Leon Metz hit it exactly. They are like bodies in the Smelter Cemetery. And trying to get real information is like talking to dropped-call.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_6847684?source=email
"They sell the righteous for silver,...
"Ah you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statues, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right. Isaiah 10:1-2a"
"Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land. Amos 8:4"
"Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire . James 5:1-3a"
...You see, slavery still exists. It is alive and well, it’s just that we’ve pushed it far enough out of sight so that we don’t have to confront it daily. But, have no doubt about it, our t-shirts, dinner plates, and tooth brushes – delivered by the container-full – our cheap gold necklaces and wedding bands, are all made by slaves while the earth lies dying. Our job, as those in the north and the west, is to wake up and to resist, to create links of love and friendship with others in far corners, all working to preserve the earth, her creatures, and the fragile communities that have built networks of dependence on one another and on right living.
Our goal as Christians must be to stand as witnesses to what the God of Life came to earth to teach us: to sacrifice wealth and comfort, and to build real alternatives to exploitation with communities like Sipakapa. It is our job to say that what is being done in the name of “Canadians” is not okay by us. Martin and his cows are more important than Mr. Telfer and his share holders. Corn is worth more than silver. Life is worth more than gold.
"Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. James 5:4-6
The Reverend Mother Emilie Smith is an Anglo-Catholic priest at the parish of St. James in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Her most scary monster is greed."
http://www.geezmagazine.org/issue07/demons-rip-creation-where-humans-forget-their-calling
20070920 Asarco Asks Bankruptcy Court to Dismiss $68 Million Claim Filed by State of Texas
"From EnergyLaw360
By Christine Caulfield , christine.caulfield@portfoliomedia.com
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007 --- Bankrupt copper mining company Asarco LLC has urged a bankruptcy court to quash a $68 million claim by Texas officials for environmental damage to the state's coast, a claim it argues was filed too late.
In an objection lodged with the court on Friday, Asarco said the damage claim filed in July 2006 by the Texas attorney general on behalf of the state's natural resource trustees was barred by the statute of limitations. The claim, just one of scores against the bankrupt copper producer for environmental damage, relates to the company's Corpus Christi facility, which processed mineral ore in the production of zinc.
The Tucson, Ariz.-based company, which no longer operates the facility, argues the state was aware of the release of toxins from the site more than three years before making a claim to the court. Claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, otherwise known as Superfund, have a three-year statute of limitations, and that statute begins to run on discovery of a possible claim, Asarco told Judge Richard Schmidt. [our "discovery" from 7/2006 is now over 1 year old]
“The Trustees had knowledge of the alleged release and losses well before July 14, 2003, three years prior to filing a claim,” the company said. The state's knowledge was outlined in the attorney general's own proof of claim and expert report, Asarco told the court, both of which contained surveys, notices, memoranda and orders from the state warning the site was releasing dangerous metals into the Corpus Christi harbor and bay.
“It is undisputed that the state possessed knowledge of the alleged loss and its connection the alleged releases of hazardous substances at the site long before 2003,” said Asarco.
Even assuming the court were to rule that the claim was not time-barred, all portions of the state's claim relating to damage that occurred before the December 1980 effected date of Superfund were barred, the company added. Last month, Judge Schmidt approved a $31 million settlement between Asarco and the federal government over cleanup at its hazardous California Gulch smelter site in Leadville, Colorado.
The settlement resolved a $200 million lawsuit brought by U.S. environment officials and the state of Colorado more than 20 years ago. The site, which encompasses the entire town of Leadville and an 11-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, was added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national priority list as a hazardous wasteland in 1983. In approving the settlement, Judge Schmidt ignored the protests of Asarco's parent company, Asarco Inc., which earlier this month asked the court for an order forcing the company to seek its consent before entering into settlements “over the parent's strong protest.”
The company had slammed Asarco's haste in settling the California Gulch claims, saying the debtors had entered into an agreement despite expert analysis showing the claims were highly inflated.
“Alarmingly, the California Gulch settlement may be just the first of many settlement seeking to resolve the environmental claims that are the subject of the ongoing estimation proceeding and that are asserted in the aggregate amount of over $6.77 billion,” said the company, which lost power over Asarco in December 2005, when the court approved a corporate governance stipulation which shook up the board of directors and effectively excluded it from participation in governance matters.
Asarco, which has been active in mining, smelting and refining for over a century, still faces environmental claims at nearly 100 other sites. Those claims have been asserted by the federal government, state governments, Indian tribes and private parties. The company also faces more than 95,000 asbestos-related personal injury claims, court documents have revealed, with the total value of all claims estimated to be potentially as high as $25 billion. Asarco filed for Chapter 11 protection on Aug. 9, 2005, listing assets and liabilities in excess of $100 million."
El Paso not listed in Superfund ASARCO sites
ASARCO's name is attached to 19 Superfund sites around the U.S. They are:
- The Interstate Lead Company facility in Alabama;
- Vasquez Boulevard and I-70 in Colorado;
- Lowry Landfill in Colorado;
- California Gultch mine and river systems in Colorado;
- Summitville Mine in Colorado;
- Globe Plant in Colorado;
- Bunker Hill Mining in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin in Idaho;
- Circle Smelting Corporation in Illinois;
- NL Industries/Taracorp lead smelter in Illinois;
- Cherokee County lead and zinc mine and surrounding area in Kansas;
- Oronogo-Duenweg mining belt in Missouri;
- East Helena smelter and surrounding residences in Montana;
- Kin-Buc Landfill in New Jersey;
- Tar Creek (Ottawa County) iron and zinc operations and surrounding residences in Oklahoma;
- Tonolli Corporation smelter in Pennsylvania;
- Ross Metals smelter and surface water in Tennessee;
- Murray smelter in Utah;
- Richardson Flat tailings in Utah;
- Commencement Bay, Near Shore/Tide Flats smelter, groundwater, and residences in Tacoma and Ruston, Washington.
- Former location of South side Park in Chicago, old home of the Chicago White Sox
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Blood lead levels were inversely related to the distance to the smelter.
"We carried out an assessment of the residual risk of lead poisoning in the area close to the ASARCO smelting plant in Anapra where remediation occurred in 1973, and determined major predictors of blood lead levels in mothers and children. ...."
"Their blood lead levels ranged from 3.5 - 23.6 μg/dL with an arithmetic mean of 7.35 μg/dL (s ± 3.50), and a percentage of 30% = 10 μg/dL. Blood lead levels were inversely related to the distance to the smelter.
Steelworker Attorneys get a piece of the Asarco pie
It is hardly "Green" to sacrifice the Paso del Norte Region to toxic-waste so that carpetbaggers can make a profit on the South -- in this case, slicing up the Asarco company to "get away" with the profitable sections while dumping/not-disclosing the environmental liabilities. This isn't the Civil War days anymore or the days of Railroad Robber barons (although you've got to admit it is very strange that this all happens within Railroad District 8, headquartered in Midland, TX). We have an educated community who realizes that they are being flim-flammed by the environmental agencies, by Asarco, by the very officials put in place to protect them. And it is hitting our elderly, our ill, our unborn and our children the hardest - and the families' hearts are torn apart watching their loved ones slowly die. The innocent are sacrificed as surely as if we were in a Mel Gibson Mayan-movie, with our hearts ripped out to ensure a plentiful harvest.
"Tucson-based Asarco LLC was authorized by the bankruptcy court to pay another $1 million to the United Steelworkers, mostly to reimburse them for attorneys' fees spent in litigation with Asarco's nominal parent, Grupo Mexico SA de CV. The parent unsuccessfully opposed the request. Last year the bankruptcy court allowed Asarco to reimburse the union for $500,000 in expenses."
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
EPA "Green Group" fast-track air permitting.... approval to pollute in the guise of greening America
http://laurapaskus.blogspot.com/2007/08/epas-flexible-air-permits.html
"Wednesday, August 29, 2007
EPA's "flexible" air permits
I just received a press release from the EPA, which is proposing changes to its air quality permitting rules -- which would include operating permits and New Source Review programs. According to the press release, the agency is doing this to "encourage pollution prevention; provide increased flexibility, enable industrial facilities to make rapid changes to respond to market demands; save resources for state permitting authorities, and improve public information."
EPA will accept comment on this proposed rule for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.From the EPA site: [Remember that ASARCO EL PASO said it was using BACT in 1992 when it installed CONTOP -- and then it proceeded to secretly handle and burn toxic waste]
More about the proposal: http://epa.gov/nsr/actions.html#aug07
Information about EPA's New Source Review program: http://epa.gov/nsr/ "
"The proposed revisions to EPA’s NSR program describe how industrial facilities would obtain advance approvals of certain future changes under major NSR through the use of a new permit option called a “Green Group.” A Green Group consists of a collection of emissions points ducted to a common, high performing air pollution control device. This emissions control device must meet “best available control technology” (BACT) or “lowest achievable emission rate” (LAER), as applicable. The total annual emissions from all the new and existing emissions activities included in the Green Group are restricted to a level determined to be protective of the applicable national ambient air quality standards and the increments established to protect visibility and other air quality values. The state, tribal or local permitting authority would retain the ability to determine if the Green Group permitting approach would be appropriate in a particular situation.
Sources may make changes within the scope of a Green Group approval without further review or approval by the permitting authority. To establish a Green Group, a source must go through the major NSR permitting process and obtain a permit which would limit future emissions growth over a 10-year period."
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Texas Sayings...
and now I think that the piles of black slag look like... "Hind legs of destruction"
Company convicted by D.O.J. in 1990 for Superfund toxic cleanup fraud becomes contractor to test Asarco El Paso waste streams....
Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG) has learned that so-called DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 'confirms for the first time that another individual with very high government security clearance -- Ronald Roughead of SAIC -- was also a customer.' (9/07)
see this link for the following:
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=5624&name=Science-Applications-International-Corporation-(SAIC)
"In 1990 SAIC was indicted by the Justice Department on 10 felony counts for fraud in its management of a Superfund toxic cleanup site. (SAIC pleaded guilty.) “In 1993 the Justice Department sued SAIC, accusing it of civil fraud on an F15 fighter contract.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
I was an Asarco Hostage
Newspaper Tree - El Paso,TX,USA
"I was an Asarco hostage. Really. The day started out normal enough. After polluting our community for over a century, leaving a multi-million lead ..."
Summer's account of what happened to her is terrific, and everyone should read it!
1993: "You can't sweep your mess under the rug, and we felt that is what they (ASARCO) were trying to do,"
Page: 1A Howard Pankratz; Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer DENVER POST
A Denver jury yesterday found that ASARCO Inc. negligently permitted cadmium and arsenic to spread from its Globeville smelter and refinery, and it awarded hundreds of families in the north Denver neighborhood millions of dollars in damages.
"You can't sweep your mess under the rug, and we felt that is what they (ASARCO) were trying to do," said Mark Emmons, one of the jurors who returned two different multimillion-dollar verdicts on behalf of 567 Globeville families. ASARCO attorneys said the company will appeal.
....Pamela Aylsworth, the jury forewoman, said the jurors felt that for decades ASARCO had inadequately controlled dust and other emissions from the plant, .....During the 5-week trial, lawyers Macon Cowles and Kevin Hannon claimed that hundreds of thousands of pounds of dust blowing from the plant had scattered cadmium and arsenic throughout Globeville. Those metals, they claimed, left residents at higher risk for cancer and other illnesses.
"ASARCO thinks that a home's worth is measured only in square feet and has nothing to do with raising babies and growing gardens," said Kane. "ASARCO also thinks that health risk is measured by statistics, not individual human beings - mothers, fathers, children. But the people of Globeville know better and, when they could trust promises no more, they turned to the courts for the justice so long overdue."
ASARCO said there was no proof that the metals harmed anyone. [sound familiar?]...... He said by fighting ASARCO he and his neighbors were sending a message to corporations that if they pollute neighborhoods, those neighborhoods won't tolerate it.
http://www.marykanelaw.com/articles/globevilleSmelter.cfm
TENORM radioactive waste in copper mining and waste
V. Enhanced pollution due to technological processing. Waste elements that are put into the waste heaps release toxins into the environment, in an affect called “technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials” (TENORM) by Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, when you bring toxic metals, which are buried in the ground with no potential to harm human health, to the surface, put them in waste dumps exposed to the air, and subject them to various technological processes, there is a potential for adverse affects on human health. This is particularly true in Arizona where there are abundant deposits of radioactive metals and poisonous arsenic. In 1999, Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D. C. published a report on this uranium and radioactive chemicals in the “Copper Belt” of Southern Arizona. Following is an excerpt from that report:
Nearly all rocks, soils, thorium, radium, radioisotopes,naturally occurring radioactive purposefully or inadvertently technologically enhanced naturally as any naturally occurring human exposure has been activities (NAS, 1999). . . .
Levels in excess of the federal MCLs and state guidelines were found in groundwater and surface water samples, as well as soil and sediment samples at abandoned and active copper mines. TENORM exceedences were also found in groundwater at active and inactive copper mines. Uranium byproducts were recovered from heap leach dumps and in-situ operations that feed SX-EW and ion exchange circuits at several copper mines. Radioactivity was discovered in copper mineral processing waste streams. Elevated levels of radioactivity were also found to occur in the process solutions and process wastes.
For entire report, see: www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/tenorm/402-r-99-002.pdf
May 2007: Los Alamos National Security related-company named as possible buyer for ASARCO AZ copper mines
Washington Group International of Boise, Idaho, has won a $310 million contract to perform mining services at the Pinto Valley Mine near Globe, which is being reopened in response to soaring copper prices. A related company, Washington Corp., has been mentioned as a possible buyer for Asarco LLC's Arizona copper mines, and the Pinto Valley contract gives the organization a foothold in the area. (AZCentral -- Business)
Security lab may face $3.3m fine for data leak Jul 14, 2007
Los Alamos National Security is made up of Bechtel National Inc., BWX Technologies Inc., and the Washington Group International Inc. as well as the University of California, which had managed the lab on its own since its inception in 1943. 2007 The Associated Press. (MSNBC -- Technology)
http://news.surfwax.com/biz/files/Washington_Group_Internat.html
Quote from Atomic scientist
Dr. John Gofman
September 21, 1918 – August 15, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Air pollution 1985: cost benefit
Call, GD
Ecology Law Quarterly [ECOL. LAW Q.]. Vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 567-617. 1985.
The first part of this comment examines section 112 of the Clean Air Act. The second part discusses the ASARCO smelter as a setting for the regulation of arsenic emissions. The third part examines the first substantive issue, the use of cost-benefit analysis in regulating the emissions of hazardous air pollutants, including the application of cost-benefit analysis to situations where increased emission regulation may lead to plant shutdowns. This part also contrasts standards based on a cost-benefit approach with standards based on a health effects approach. The fourth part examines the role of the public in making decisions regarding hazardous air pollutant emissions. This comment examines public participation through both market and nonmarket mechanisms and then contrasts public participation, in general, with expert decisionmaking. The final part examines the extent to which regulated firms engage in strategic behavior to deceive the regulator and the ability of EPA to prevent such behavior.
Descriptors: {Q1}; Clean Air Act; arsenic; smelting; industrial emissions; pollution control; EPA
Thursday, September 6, 2007
FACES AGAINST ASARCO WIDE FORMAT photo event
EL PASOANS TAKE A STAND AGAINST ASARCO WITH COMMUNITY PHOTOGRAPH SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 23 AT 6:00 PM
When: Sunday, September 23 at 6 p.m.
Where: Executive Center between I-10 and Paisano Drive, enter from Paisano
Attire : Casual white shirt
Parking: Enter Executive Center from Paisano and look for signs
For more information, call 544-1990
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
TCEQ in 2002 : Shameful SHAM recycling requirements put in place, while hiding from EL Paso community that ASARCO had committed gross SHAM RECYCLING
[from 2002 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QNZ/is_2002_August_9/ai_n6244533/print]
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on August 7 [2002] was poised to adopt rules aimed at ridding the state of "sham" recyclers, as mandated by section 9.03 of House Bill 2912 (the agency's Sunset legislation). Even after hearing significant complaints that the rules as drafted were unworkable, they held out hope that some compromise might be found between late morning and mid-afternoon, when a related rules package was also up for adoption............. - the proposed rules did not require financial assurance to cover cleanup costs for sham recyclers that go out of business.... El Paso Disposal noted the rules contain no provision for financial assurance to cover cleanup costs for a sham recycler and argued, as did others, for creating such a mechanism. Staff disagreed that financial assurance is needed for recycling facilities that meet the standards and operational requirements of the new rules. There was, they added, no legislative intent to regulate a compliant recycler as a solid waste facility. Moreover, other rules and penalties apply to illegitimate recyclers, including civil suits and criminal prosecution of those who dispose or allow or permit the disposal of over 5 lb of solid waste for a commercial purpose at a site that is not an approved solid waste management site....."
Houston Texas Asarco Thorium contaminated site
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
PO Box 13087
Austin, TX 78711-3087
Ref: Your letters of June 22 and 23, 2006 re: Comments to ASARCO's
Characterization of Radioactive Materials and Comments to January 19,
2006 Groundwater Sampling Report, Federated Metals State Superfund Site,
Houston, Texas.....
.....The site is presently fenced and gates are locked to prevent intrusion.
The perimeter is placarded to alert potential trespassers to the
presence of contaminated materials.....
http://www.terai.com/Ltr_Robbins_to_TCEQ_9_11_06_with_my_section.doc