- What happened to the JAC International-Committee Recommendation (Paz Accord group) to test for Asarco background contamination in our region?
- It is appalling that there is no TCEQ (or EPA) DIOXIN DATA for the communities surrounding this 100 year old custom-smelter which the EPA said illegally burned secret haz-waste for nearly a decade.
- Why can't the EPA or TCEQ tell the JAC committee what poisons remain in our community from that illegal activity. Polonium is a common by-product of some types of smelting -- so why can't we get reports showing the amounts of Polonium here?
- Why are Camino Real Mobility Authority, TXDOT and the City of El Paso planning to build an elevated toll-road over Paisano right by ASARCO --- and over our drinking water supply -- before our Federal State Department ever resolves the 03/2005 State Department's own-observation that the IBWC workers at American Dam (by Asarco and Paisano) are sick and cannot get independent medical review in the region?
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"
Sunday, April 11, 2010
What about the JAC International-Committee Recommendation to the La Paz Accord group to test for Asarco background contamination in our region?
ASARCO El Paso/Santa Teresa N.M. area: Senator Shapleigh was in Vietnam
Last Updated: 10 April 2010
Shapleigh: Historic Rewrite of U.S.-Mexico Policies Now Underway
By Steve Taylor
“When 100,000 jobs have left Juarez out of 320,000, what you have is an erosion of the manufacturing base historic in nature... Those are jobs that are not coming back. They are going to Vietnam,” Shapleigh said. The senator was in Vietnam four weeks ago."
BELOW: Historic info. from epgtlo blog concerning Vietnam and the Santa Teresa International City that Asarco Owner Grupo Mexico (Mexico Railroad "Ferromex" is controlled by Grupo Mexico). Grupo Mexico's Ferromex wants to run a new rail line to to Santa Teresa's port of entry from a new seaport called "Punta Colonet" -- and potentially win the bid for the 50 year contract to run that seaport, also.
1.
epgtlo: 6/28/09 - 7/5/09 (google custom search)
Jun 28, 2009 ... Taiwanese firm Hon Hai (also known by the trade name Foxconn) recently announced plans for a US$5 billion five-year expansion in Vietnam. ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009_06_28_archive.html
2.
Vietnam: Mitra Energy group completes seismic acquisition (the ...
"03 Sep 2009 ...Two wildcat exploration wells are planned for the PSC in 2010. In January 2009, Mitra farmed out 50% of its 100% equity in the PSC to BHP ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/12/vietnam-mitra-energy-group-completes.html
3.
epgtlo: gambling debts in Bahamas, Las Vegas, Atlantic City
Jul 8, 2009 ... Irving Drobny is the same name as an attorney representing the imperial family of Vietnam. A Chicago Attorney by that same name also serves ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/07/gambling-debts-in-bahamas-las-vegas.html
4.
epgtlo: Investor who controls a Swiss Bank called ASARCO "facing ...
Aug 17, 2009 ... [Irving Drobny also represents the Royal Family of Vietnam]. Mr. Katamanin has made two interest payments totaling about $1.67 million, ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/08/investor-who-controls-swiss-bank-called.html
5.
epgtlo: "ARCELOR MITTAL starts operations on Puerto de Guaymas "
20050000 Milbank Firm and Citigroup · Vietnam: Mitra Energy group completes seismic acqu... 20081121 Milbank firm advised Mitra Group on buyou. ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/09/arcelor-mittal-starts-operations-on.html
6.
Swiss Asarco AG attorney
... Attorney representing the Swiss Asarco Bank's Chicago lake-front home has the same name as the attorney representing the imperial family of Vietnam. ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/06/swiss-asarco-ag-attorney.html
7.
BHP Billiton and Tio Tinto Joint Venture (worth a predicted excess ...
"International mining giants, BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT, ASX: BHP) [who in 1/09 assumed 50% of Mitra's Vietnam well equity] ('BHP') and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO, ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/12/bhp-billiton-and-tio-tinto-joint.html
8.
Asarco AG Swiss Bank
WHY IS THERE A SWISS ASARCO BANK (Asarco SA, Asarco Inc) represented by a Chicago Attorney (Irving Drobny) who also represents the Royal Family of Vietnam? ...
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/12/asarco-ag-swiss-bank_26.html
Saturday, April 10, 2010
"Asarco Accused Of Foot-Dragging In Interest Feud"
"Asarco Accused Of Foot-Dragging In Interest Feud
Law360, New York (April 09, 2010) -- ASM Capital LP and other bondholders battling Asarco LLC over post-petition interest on their claims have attacked the reorganized mining company for trying to prolong the dispute and sap creditors’ will to carry out a costly fight.
A chorus of roughly 12 different investment funds objected to Asarco’s recent bid to extend discovery deadlines in their dispute over post-petition interest on the unsecured claims, contending that the..."
ASM Capital LP and other bondholders battling Asarco LLC over post-petition interest on their claims have attacked the reorganized mining company for trying ...
bankruptcy.law360.com/articles/160979"
Friday, April 9, 2010
City of El Paso TX unanimously votes $600,000 ---awards contract for Asarco [development] study
WHAT IS GOING ON? Even the International La Paz JAC committee recommended a background contamination study be done (hasn't been - and, that resolution was passed a year ago)
And, when we ask for this data, the ASARCO El Paso clean-up Trustee (after four months) still does not address its absence.
This is appalling. El Paso is starting up a MEDICAL SCHOOL, and wants to move UTEP into Tier ONE status --- and, the Federal State Dept. says (3/05) that the FEDERAL WORKERS by ASARCO can't get independent medical review?
UPDATE: City Council awards contract for Asarco Study - El Paso ... From elpasotimes.com EL PASO - The city is moving forward with a new long-range plan that will look at what to do with about 460 acres of Asarco-owned land ... www.upi.com/Top_News/Local/2010/04/07/UPDATE.../60-03e88dd058 |
Thursday, April 8, 2010
TCEQ (as oversight to the Project Navigator remediation process)failsto notify local community groups] about ASARCO El Paso Trustee Legal Motion
"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,
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> |
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)
-------- 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
-------- 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.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
List of Companies wanting to be Contractors for the El Paso ASARCO Trustee include many with CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
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
Annotated Map of ASARCO site
Why is ASARCO using the same contractor to look at Water Contamination remediation at El Paso TX and E. Helena MT?
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.
Discharging where?
Thursday, March 18, 2010
ASARCO: Fifth Circuit fails to recognize ASARCO's Bankruptcy was fraudulent... what is being covered up, and why?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
ASARCO: All about "Closure" and not about "Disclosure"
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
Monday, March 15, 2010
London Financial Times: Vedanta renews fight for Asarco ownership
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. "
ASARCO records available for viewing at TCEQ El Paso Office
Subject: | Re: Asarco TCEQ records |
---|---|
Date: | Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:47:22 -0600 |
From: | Lorinda Gardner <LGARDNER@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?