The city and Asarco signed an agreement in April, and it was filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court April 23. The agreement notes that Asarco agreed to give the city $1.8 million as part of a consent decree, in which the company did not admit to but the federal government agreed to stop pursuing the issue of Asarco illegally disposing of toxic waste in the 1990s.
Asarco paid the city $740,000 before it stopped payments. The agreement signed in April provides that Asarco will pay $1.27 million to the city.
Read the following articles for background, and view the April 23, 2008 agreement via the link below.
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City Seeks to Enforce 1999 Asarco Penalty, March 30, 2005: Asarco allegedly burned illegal hazardous waste from Corpus Christi in the 1990s. As a result, it agreed to spend almost $2 million to pave El Paso streets. The city has yet to receive the bulk of the money.
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Hazardous or Recyclable, EPA Says Asarco Burned It : Aug. 9, 2005: Asarco accepted hazardous waste from a subsidiary metal-recycling company in Corpus Christi and illegally burned the material over an undetermined number of years, according to the EPA, which outlined the charges in a letter seeking prosecutive assistance from the Department of Justice in 1998.
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EPA Memo Adds Fuel to Asarco Fire, Oct. 15, 2006: The memo dug up by a citizens group that opposes the reopening of Asarco may not point to any new allegations, but it does shed more light on the issue, including the source of materials that may have been sent to Asarco.
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GAO Report Sheds Light on Asarco "Misconduct," Reyes Says, Nov. 13, 2007: A GAO report released today found that "Asarco skirted public disclosure requirements that would have been required if Asarco had attempted to acquire permits for its El Paso hazardous waste disposal activities," U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes said in a statement. Read the report and background on the issue.
Related Documents:
Scott Comar
May 9, 2008
This agreement doesn't end anything. ASARCO needs to shut down, clean up, and leave town. Also, ASARCO has agreed to pay $1.8 million, but until it is paid in full, there is nothing more in play than a bunch of lip service.
ASARCO poisoned the citizens of both Mexico and the United States, and they should be held accountable.
Robert Ardovino
May 9, 2008
$1.8 million --- huh? How many life's is that worth? I wonder if that is about 1.8 million % the amount of profit asarco made off that deal at the time...?
Anne Flores
May 9, 2008
It is about time all these closed door shenanigans come to light. I am sure Asarco management does not live anywhere close to that plant, and could care less about the quality of air in El Paso and Juarez. Is the City of El Paso iso poorly managed that they (the City) has to prospitute itself to have the roads paved by Asarco? No wonder the roads are in such bad repair, Asarco will never comply.
voluntarily, so keep up with watching this company closely.
vatoman
May 9, 2008
What ASARCO and the City of El Paso have to agreement on is known as a Supplementary Environmental Project (SEP). When a fine is implemented on an entity that entity can agree to pay part of the fine as a project that enhances the environment in that community. The project selected cannot be something that has anything to do with what the entity has been fined for. In the case, the SEP is to be used to pay for the paving of alleys in parts of El Paso. This action will keep down the dust (particulate matter) thus improving the environment conditions in our community.
Other SEPs have been used to pave streets in Cd. Juarez in order to keep down the particulate matter that impacts all of our air quality.
SEPs
When an entity is fined allowing that firm to use a SEP keeps some of the fine money in the local community instead of having all the fine go the the State of Texas General Fund. For some firms, this is a public relations bonus though with ASARCO no amount of PR is going to create a positive image in our border region.