TCEQ (as oversight to the Project Navigator remediation process)failsto notify local community groups] about ASARCO El Paso Trustee Legal Motion

As of today 8-April-2010 there has been no acknowledgment or reply from the Trustee or TCEQ to this 26-March letter.   Instead, they wrote (5-April-10) to say he was on vacation.    The "memo" referred to is not the complete confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only document and leaves out about 60% of the content from the original sent from the Federal DOJ in 2006 (NYTIMES 10/06):

"Currently Roberto Puga is out on vacation and will respond to your email when he returns.   Also, I did want to let you know that the Department of Justice memo is now available on our website at http://www.recastingthesmelter.com/?page_id=16.

 

Regards,

Elizabeth Schell"

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Re: TCEQ (as oversight to the Project Navigator remediation process)failsto notify local community groups
Date:	Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:10:45 -0600
To:	Roberto Puga <rpuga[at]projectnavigator.com>, Lorinda Gardner <LGARDNER[at]tceq.state.tx.us>

Mr. Puga,
This motion is significant.  Why wasn't the environmental community notified?   What this motion asks is, "to clarify... that ANY CLAIMS... by third parties WERE EXTINGUISHED BY THE BANKRUPTCY" --- AND -- "that the CONSENT DECREE and Settlement Agreement... approves the conveyance ... [of] the properties to the TX Custodial Trustee free and clear of any and all liens, CLAIMS, or encumbrances...."

The lay-community of El Paso TX, Cd. Juarez and Sunland Park should not be left in the dark on such motions -- it is very sad that a bankruptcy newsletter "abstract"  is all that enabled us to spot what was happening, here.

You, as the Trustee filing this motion, failed to mention the ten years of illegal secret haz-waste incineration that the DOJ Bankruptcy Trustee also failed to require the courts to look-at.   Ignoring the haz-waste during the bankruptcy was an illegal act by the DOJ Bankruptcy Trustee, and although I am not an attorney, your motion "overlooking mention" of the secret toxic waste while still requesting clarification of such looks very suspect.

You fail to mention in that motion that the CONSENT DECREE had a confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only section that ASARCO secretly-signed-off with the DOJ and EPA on condition that details of what it had illegally done would never become public.   That section is now public-domain and none of the details of what occurred should remain secret under FOIA.

Our community wants to know -- and, the International JAC committee from the La Paz Accord also recommends disclosure - what secret toxic wastes ASARCO left here from those years of illegal activity.   We have a right to know.

As the trustee, you have a legal-responsibility, since you should have known about the secret haz-waste, to disclose it to this community.  

I would like a copy of the answer to your ["Texas Custodial Trust"] motion from the court.

If you have a bibliographic summary of the Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr Houston Law Firm handling the TX Custodial Trust, I would like a copy also.

Asarco Trustee "Instructions to Bidders" leave out pertinent facts about what the EPA/DOJ stated ASARCO illegally and secretly did for nearly 10 years in El Paso TX (and E. Helena MT)

As of today (April 8, 2010) there has been no acknowledgment or reply from the Trustee.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Project Navigator leave out pertinent facts in smelter-history for potential bidders
Date:	Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:21:30 -0600

To:  Mr. Puga

sb:  Instructions to Bidders (Bids due by 4/23)

The following history provided to the potential bidders omits mention of the now public Federal DOJ/EPA Asarco confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only document (with attachments - nearly 75 pages) in which the EPA disclosed how Asarco had illegally burned secret unmanifested haz-wastes for profit for nearly ten years.  Because this was a secret-settlement-action it was omitted from disclosure in the civil consent decree you mention [to the bidders].   However, this information is now PUBLIC and you are obligated to include it in the history of this Asarco El Paso site, or you are withholding pertinent information from bidders about what they could be exposed to working at this site.   Also,..., a mandatory site tour for bidders was held 3-30 at the El Paso site.   I would like to know if you provided the bidders with haz-mat gear (masks and clothing) to protect them or not.

ASARCO Trustee group omits key information from the most important EPA/DOJ Asarco document

As of today (Thursday 8-Apr-10) there has been no acknowledgment or reply from the Asarco Trustee.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Project Navigator omits key information from the most important EPA/DOJ Asarco document
Date:	Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:05:47 -0600

To:  RPuga

sb:  Site Reports and Documents, "Department of Justice Memo, July 31, 1998"

Mr. Puga,  the "memo" you posted is not complete and it is not accurate. Please correct these mistakes immediately.

• You have omitted the cover-letter sent detailing how and when that document became public-domain after 8 years of secrecy when the Federal DOJ Attorney decided to honor the TX P.I.A. request (NYTimes 10/2006)
  
• You have added a document that was not part of that record (Mr. Clouse's email).  Mr. Clouse's email was written in response to my queries for that info/report and were meant to cover-up what actually happened.  This was not simply sham recycling - but the deliberate burning of unmanifested toxic-wastes for profit over many years according to that confidential-for-settlement-purposes only DOJ-EPA document.
• You have omitted the remainder of that confidential-for-settlement-purposes only DOJ-EPA document (apparently DELIBERATELY since this has been available off the Newspapertree website and the epGTLO blog for years now) that details the shipments and company/source names of the illegal hazardous-wastes identified by the EPA/DOJ and provides even more text and discussion.
• You placed this document at the very END of your list when it is the single most important document in this ASARCO saga -- so much so that Rep. Reyes, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, made the statement that ASARCO had paid MILLIONS on condition that the details of what it had done would never become public.   The DOJ however has released the information publicly, and this information and all related to it is now PUBLIC DOMAIN, no matter how much ASARCO hopes otherwise.
  
• You titled this CONFIDENTIAL-FOR-SETTLEMENT-PURPOSES-ONLY DOJ-EPA Asarco 73 page document as a "Memo" and cut it down to 28 pages!!
  

Please correct this immediately.

List of Companies wanting to be Contractors for the El Paso ASARCO Trustee include many with CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

List of Respondents to the RFQ
1. AE COM
2. AMEC
3. Brown & Caldwell
4. CCI
5. CDM
6. CH2M Hill
7. CRA
8. CT Environmental
9. EA Engineering
10. ECESI
11. ENVIRON
12. ERM
13. Golder
14. Malcolm Pirnie
15. Premier Chemicals
16. RMT
17. RPS
18. SHAW
19. Solar DeTox
20. Tetra Tech
21. TRC
22. URS
23. Weston Solutions

http://www.recastingthesmelter.com/?page_id=23

Annotated Map of ASARCO site

This map leaves out the old massive Lead (Pb) dump NE of the site next to the NE drainage area.

See Project Navigator site for this slide (PDF format)
http://www.recastingthesmelter.com/?page_id=18

Why is ASARCO using the same contractor to look at Water Contamination remediation at El Paso TX and E. Helena MT?

.... maybe because the illegal toxic secret wastes from ENCYCLE TX all
those years went to both E. Helena and El Paso TX? WE STILL HAVE NOT
BEEN TOLD WHAT POISONS HAVE BEEN LEFT HERE FROM THOSE YEARS OF ILLEGAL
UNMANIFESTED-HAZ-WASTE BURNINGS.

http://www.recastingthesmelter.com/wp-content/themes/recastingasarco/downloads/site_documents/EECA-02-08.pdf

Discharging where?

"The Texas Custodial Trust, in compliance with the storm water discharge permit at the former Asarco Smelter in El Paso, will begin discharging storm water from it’s storage ponds effective Friday, February 19, 2010. The ponds were analyzed and compared to the daily maximum effluent limitations prescribed in the permit for compliance purposes. Click here to view the analysis results."

ASARCO: Fifth Circuit fails to recognize ASARCO's Bankruptcy was fraudulent... what is being covered up, and why?

CHICAGO - (Business Wire) Mayer Brown LLP today announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has vacated a multi-billion dollar judgment entered against Americas Mining Corporation (“AMC”) in litigation over a 2003 transfer of Southern Copper Company stock to AMC from AMC’s subsidiary, ASARCO LLC. AMC had asked the court of appeals to vacate the adverse judgment and dismiss its appeal of the judgment because ASARCO LLC has emerged from bankruptcy pursuant to a reorganization plan that released AMC from the judgment and returned control of ASARCO LLC to AMC. In a March 17, 2010 order, the court of appeals dismissed AMC’s appeal and vacated the judgment against AMC.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/us-appeals-court-vacates-judgment-against-americas-mining-corporation,1210181.shtml#ixzz0iXxolPVO

[click on each image to magnify and read]
From
http://www.ibwc.state.gov/Files/Press_Release_031010.pdf

ASARCO: All about "Closure" and not about "Disclosure"

Why would the DOJ release this press release just last december after the Asarco Bankruptcy ended, without EVER requiring the court(s) to consider what ASARCO had actually done?!? 

The EPA secretly told the DOJ in 1998 that ASARCO had burned illegal dangerous secret hazardous wastes for profit for nearly ten years.  Then they sealed their agreement with Asarco and kept this from the community for eight more years.

It was the DOJ's responsibility (through someone called a "DOJ BANKRUPTCY TRUSTEE") to make the Asarco court consider the liabilities from the secret haz-waste.  The DOJ never did this --  even though SPGEG (Sunland Park, N.M.) requested it through proper legal-court-channels.   The press announcement from last December was made by the DOJ ALONG WITH THE EPA.   That had to be a NATIONAL EPA decision -- higher than the  regional offices that administer the El Paso TX and E. Helena MT Asarco smelter sites where the illegal secret burnings happened for years...  

Representative Reyes said (after the confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only-1998 DOJ/EPA document was publicly released after 8 years of silence, in 2006) that ASARCO had paid MILLIONS OF DOLLARS on condition that the details of what it had done would NEVER BECOME PUBLIC.   For more information use google to search "Asarco Secret Document".

What is going on, that they are not being honest with us? 
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-enrd-1326.html

London Financial Times: Vedanta renews fight for Asarco ownership

"Google News Alert for: asarco

Vedanta revives bid battle for Asarco Financial Times By William MacNamara in London Vedanta, the UK-listed Indian miner, has revived a $2bn (£1.3bn) takeover battle for Asarco, the bankrupt US copper producer, ..."

"Sterlite, a Vedanta subsidiary, has joined the biggest US labour union in seeking to reverse a lower court ruling in November that returned Asarco to Grupo México, its original owner.

Grupo, lawyers for Sterlite and the union said, represented “a self-interested equity holder” that “previously defrauded the debtors [Asarco] and their stakeholders”.

In February, Sterlite and the United Steelworkers union, which represents Asarco’s miners, jointly filed an appeals brief before the appellate court in New Orleans. "

200902 TCEQ Mark Vickery 2/09 memo to Starfield (Acting EPA Region 6 Administrator)

Contamination of El Paso water by ASARCO

ASARCO records available for viewing at TCEQ El Paso Office

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Re: Asarco TCEQ records
Date:	Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:47:22 -0600
From:	Lorinda Gardner <LGARDNER@tceq.state.tx.us>

 

Due to continuing interest in the ASARCO files, the regional office will not be purging those files.  The six boxes will be maintained for community viewing.

 

Thanks

Lorinda

 

Lorinda D Gardner

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

El Paso Regional Director

lgardner[AT]tceq.state.tx.us

==
Hi, Lorinda,

If any ASARCO related paperwork is about to expire its retention-time at
the regional office, I would like to ask the TCEQ to transfer those
documents ...I know that six boxes of Asarco records from Senator
Shapleigh's P.I.A. were sent to the regional office at one time for the
community to access.
Would that be possible.
thanks,

BLOWING DUST FROM ASARCO IN ARIZONA - ARIZONA DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (AEQ)

Videos | KVOA.com | Tucson, Arizona Video - ASARCO releases statement on blowing dust. Posted - 3/2/2010 at 10:12AM ... More News Videos. ASARCO releases statement on blowing dust ...

DUST VIDEO

[PARAPHRASED QUOTE FROM A LOCAL AZ SCIENTIST] 'NO ELEVATED METALS ABOVE REGULAR LEVELS'

WHERE HAVE WE ALL HEARD THAT BEFORE?  SOUND FAMILIAR?

Mexico's state oil company Pemex reported a US$1.94bn trade surplus in January, up 94% from the year-ago month

http://www.bnamericas.com/news/oilandgas/Pemex_posts_US*1,94bn_trade_surplus_in_January

El Paso TX is still waiting waiting waiting for ANYONE to turn over the data telling us what poisons were left here from the illegal waste-burning years....

the silence from government and industry is becoming increasingly silly, deafening, and downright embarrassing for someone or another... in all this time no one can tell the millions of people living in this region some very very basic smelter-contamination data: amount of polonium here, amount of dioxin here (etc.)

"PNL was selected to manage this effort, and bridge the project management gap between industry and academia, because of our data visualization culture and capabilities."
http://www.projectnavigator.com/about_news.html

"Project Navigator, Ltd. named as trustee for ASARCO El Paso remediation

November 23, 2009

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has released a statement announcing the selection of Project Navigator, Ltd. as the custodial trustee for the ASARCO site remediation in El Paso, Texas. For the full release, please click here."

ASARCO Clean-up in El Paso is big business - but NO ONE is telling the Community what the Dioxin level is (for starters...)

http://www.projectnavigator.com/about_news.html

http://www.pnl-a.com/services_trustee.htm

[Fwd: Google Alert - asarco bankruptcy]

Google Web Alert for: asarco bankruptcy

Baker Botts Moves To Protect Asarco Fees - Law360 Baker Botts LLP is up in arms over mining company Asarco LLP's interpretation of some of the events involved in its exit from bankruptcy, saying Asarco's ...

"Law360, New York (March 02, 2010) -- Baker Botts LLP is up in arms over mining company Asarco LLP's interpretation of some of the events involved in its exit from bankruptcy, saying Asarco's assessment of the job the firm did as counsel could affect its ability to collect its fees.     The firm filed an objection Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law filed by Asarco..."

CLEAN WATER ACT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01water.html?th&emc=th

The Rio Grande is a navigable river, protected under the Clean Water Act and NOAA's ORR process. Yet, when ASARCO's storm pond broke and breached/poured thousands and thousands of gallons of extremely concentrated stormwater runoff into the river and old American Canal in 2006, our Rep. called it an "incident". There was no ORR ever done because the EPA refused to enter the spill into the national EPA spills database.

This entire "incident" was glossed over and ignored. The "pulse" of extremely toxic materials was ignored.

And THIS IS A RIVER PROTECTED AS A NAVIGABLE RIVER UNDER THE CLEAN WATER ACT.

After this, the EPA came here and signed an M.O.U. with the University right there by Asarco, promising to funnel monies and projects into the local university. To this day, we do not have basic chemical information (dioxins, polonium etc.) about what is at that site.

When will the silence end?