Group says Asarco illegally burned wasteBy: Darren Meritz / El Paso Times October 03, 2007 -- A community organization fighting to stop Asarco from resuming smelter operations in El Paso has requested that County Attorney José Rodríguez seek criminal prosecution of the copper company for allegedly illegally burning hazardous materials. The Get The Lead Out Coalition has asked that Rodríguez act as peace officer and request that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's executive director conduct a criminal enforcement review of Asarco's activities from 1992 to 1997. "We know that Asarco burned illegal toxic waste for nearly a decade for money," said Heather McMurray, a Get The Lead Out member. The Get The Lead Out Coalition has distributed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents from an investigation that indicate Asarco accepted more than 46,000 tons of hazardous materials from Encycle, an Asarco subsidiary. A memo from the EPA written in 1998 indicates a meeting between the Department of Justice, Encycle and Asarco El Paso "revealed that (Asarco El Paso) was accepting materials from (Encycle) that EPA had determined were hazardous wastes." The memo goes on to say Asarco failed to notify the EPA and operated without a permit. Asarco officials have said they've never burned anything illegally at the El Paso plant. They have also called the allegations unfounded and have said that the issue was resolved in 1999 when Asarco made a settlement in a civil action with the EPA. County attorney spokesman Elhiu Dominguez said Rodríguez will review documentation for about the next week and a half before deciding whether to submit a request to the commission. Karl McElhaney, a representative of El Paso Democratic U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes' office, said the office has yet to see any documentation that details what Asarco might have been burning illegally, if anything at all. "We've asked the (Government Accountability Office) to examine the processes that are in place to try to prevent something like this from happening," he said. "We have not seen any specific documentation, but I'm not saying that those might not arise through this investigation." State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh said he suspects Asarco took Department of Defense waste from a military facility in Colorado, repackaged it at the now closed Corpus Christi Encycle plant and then burned it in El Paso without a permit. "We're trying to find out what was in there," Shapleigh said. He added that it might have been materials from a military-operated weapons depot. Related Links El Paso Times article |
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