Shapleigh calls for reassessing Asarco El Paso settlement

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, wrote a letter to the Texas attorney general's office yesterday and asked for a reassessment of the remediation plan between the state and Asarco for cleanup in El Paso.

The $52 million remediation plan the AG's office agreed to in bankruptcy proceedings, he said, does the "bare minimum" to rehabilitate the site and would limit future use of the land. Because a U.S. district court judge awarded Asarco won $6 billion in damages from Grupo Mexico, Shapleigh said, the plan should be reassessed.

Here's the text of Shapleigh's letter:

April 7, 2009

Dear Mr. Morris and Ms. Bartram:

            I write to comment on the proposed settlement of environmental claims resulting from a century of pollution from ASARCO LLC. 

            In short, I am asking that you work with your counterparts in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reassess the true cost of cleanup of ASARCO's onsite property in El Paso.  The century-old polluter is attempting to shed $250 million of cleanup costs with a remediation plan developed by a Bush-era EPA, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and ASARCO itself.  What happens in this case matters across the country, as it will set a precedent for polluters regarding their ability to shed environmental liabilities through the bankruptcy process. 

            Here are our specific concerns with the proposed settlement:

1.      The El Paso settlement was negotiated prior to the addition of approximately $6 billion from the Americas Mining Corporation/ASARCO LLC litigation.  On April 1, 2009 in Brownsville, Texas, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled that Grupo Mexico must pay ASARCO LLC about $6 billion in damages.  The damages ruling stems from an August decision by Judge Hanen that Grupo Mexico's Americas Mining Corporation unit harmed ASARCO creditors by stripping the company's stake in a valuable Peruvian copper mine.  In August, Hanen found Americas Mining Corporation liable for fraudulent transfer, aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, and civil conspiracy.  In terms of damages, Hanen specifically ruled that Grupo Mexico must return ASARCO's 30 percent stake in Peruvian copper miner Southern Copper Corporation and pay $1.9 billion in related dividends and interest. When the bankruptcy estate more than triples, it merits reexamining and renegotiating settlements previously reached when the estate was significantly smaller.  This enormous difference can have a large impact on communities such as El Paso.  For example, the current settlement calls for $52 million to remediate onsite environmental liabilities.  In previous conversations with EPA officials, however, I was told that the cost is likely—at a minimum—$250 million.  Ample funds now exist in the debtor's estate to pay for a full cleanup.

2.      The cleanup standard is the minimum standard and will severely restrict any future use.  Under the cost estimate agreed upon by EPA, TCEQ, and ASARCO, 100 acres of the ASARCO facility would be remediated to an industrial standard based on present use.  Such a standard will bar future uses such as a park, residential use, and perhaps even research facilities for the University of Texas at El Paso.  Why should our community have to settle for 100 acres of capped asphalt that is sitting on top of millions of gallons of arsenic-laden water and tons of lead, ringed by monitoring wells, and containing a permanent 500' x 500' x 33' crypt for toxic waste?  Why should El Paso be left with 75 feet of slag towering over the Rio Grande—a monument to a century of pollution and disregard for our community's health?  We ask that the cleanup standard be reevaluated and raised to allow for a broader set of potential future uses.

3.      The ASARCO cleanup plan fails to address 250 acres of contiguous property owned by ASARCO but not located on the principal 100 acre smelter site.  Despite the fact that this land is owned by ASARCO, is contiguous to the smelter site, and has served as a dumping ground for ASARCO's slag runoff, TCEQ failed to include this acreage in their cleanup cost estimates.  To make matters worse, this land is upstream from the smelter site in terms of groundwater flow, thus negatively impacting any groundwater cleanup efforts at the 100 acre smelter site.  All of the lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals on the eastern acreage will flow to the smelter site, over 100 acres of impervious coverage, and down toward the Rio Grande and American Canal.  Contamination on this additional property must be fully examined, and the cost of cleanup needs to be included in any settlement considered by the bankruptcy court.

 

4.      Amarillo and El Paso.  The cleanups for the El Paso and Amarillo sites and their respective allocations under the settlement should be listed separately and placed in separate, segregated accounts. 

5.      The Bush administration's DOJ negotiated this settlement, and we fear that the El Paso's interests were less of a priority than ASARCO's.  We are concerned that any settlements negotiated under the Bush administration's DOJ may be tainted by values that polluting companies should win, not communities; that profits be maximized, not the public good.  As such, we ask that the current administration's DOJ reexamine the conclusions reached by its predecessor. 

6.      For years, ASARCO's slag was used as a fertilizer and now contaminates properties across El Paso.  Ionate, an El Paso-based fertilizer company, sold a fertilizer that contained slag from the Oglebay Norton slag-crushing company in west El Paso.  Oglebay Norton obtained the slag, a byproduct of the smelting process, from ASARCO.  The settlement does not address this contamination.  What do we tell those homeowners when they have to spend $30,000 to clean lead and arsenic from Mom’s home before they sell it?

7.      Over a century of ASARCO's pollution has created a 233 million cubic foot contaminated groundwater plume around the smelter.  We have concerns as to whether the cleanup plan will adequately address the groundwater issues.  The remediation plan calls for monitoring and extraction wells, as well as a slurry wall, to be placed around the ASARCO facility in an attempt to prevent contaminants from migrating into our community's drinking water.  El Paso residents must be completely assured that their drinking water will not be polluted by ASARCO's arsenic and lead.

            Again, I ask that the proposed settlement of environmental claims against ASARCO LLC be reexamined and renegotiated to the benefit of El Paso.

 

Very truly yours,

Eliot Shapleigh

Comments

[Heather]

I could not find any mention of the secret illegal toxic wastes that the EPA let the DOJ know was burned by ASARCO El Paso for nearly a decade. I am very concerned that this is omitted when it has had such a toxic-impact on our region.

Why should the citizens of this region have to settle for more secrecy, and denial about what happened? Our government has not disclosed the amounts of hexavalent chromium, pcb, dioxin, actinides, polonium (radioactive lead), mercury, strontium and other chemicals remaining around that toxic stack. We should be asking why they haven't disclosed these.

I am glad that the comments include mention of the Asarco groundwater plume (that at one point has arsenic concentrations 20,000 times the legal limit for arsenic) and concern for its containment. Five years ago they claimed that the plume had not reached the river. Now it has. That plume will contain Asarco illegal and secret waste received from ENCYCLE, eventually if not already.

[sucio]

Senator Shapleigh is a hero to the El Paso community. He has made it his mission to understand and clean-up the toxic tragedy that is Asarco. It will be a crime against humanity if his findings and solutions are not given the full support of the state of Texas in terms of legislative, administrative and agency action. The government and / or Asarco must provide all the finincial aid necessary to turn the toxic Asarco site in El Paso into a pristine river spot that is completely healthy to human life and wildlife.