May 9, 2008
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.
***
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.
------------------
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.
------------------
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.
------------------
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.