Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Gibt´s Neuigkeiten bei der Klage DB gegen Asarco? - Hirscherl, 09.07.2002, 11:43
- Re: Gibt´s Neuigkeiten bei der Klage DB gegen Asarco? - leibovitz, 09.07.2002, 17:40
Re: Gibt´s Neuigkeiten bei der Klage DB gegen Asarco?
gruss
Mexican Conglomerate Could Go South On U.S. Cleanup Work (3/25/02)
By Stephen H. Daniels
SPOIL Asarco faces $90 million in cleanup work in Tacoma.
Fearful that mexican-owned Asarco may try to duck its cleanup responsibilities in the U.S. by filing for bankruptcy, the Environmental Protection Agency is scrutinizing 30 Asarco-owned properties in 14 states. Total cleanup costs for waste from over a century of copper, lead and zinc mining are estimated to exceed $1 billion.
Taxpayers may end up footing the bill. Superfund is running out of money. The trust fund that underwrites waste cleanup at the country's worst sites had $3.8 billion in it in 1996, when Congress let corporate taxes expire. The fund is now below $30 million and President George W. Bush's proposed budget does not request reauthorization. Federal Superfund law is designed to make polluters pay for cleanup, but the administration wants to shift the burden to the general public, starting in 2004.
in for a penny In October 1999, when Grupo Mexico's $2.25-billion bid topped Phelps Dodge's offer for Asarco to become the third-largest copper producer in the world, prices for the commodity were already slipping from their 1980's high of $1.70 per lb. Since the purchase, the market has been in free-fall. Copper is currently about 73 cents a pound, up from below 60 cents last November.
The company, which also owns a railroad and has mining properties in Mexico and Peru, reported a $254-million loss for 2001. The Asarco division has $450 million of debt coming due this year and is currently negotiating with banks and investors.
EPA, previously at odds with Asarco over other sites (see chart), is getting nervous. The agency and the U.S. Justice Dept. are"collecting all the financial data on Asarco we can," says Bill Dunbar, EPA spokesman in the Seattle office.
"As we understand it, Grupo Mexico is looking to restructure so that all of Asarco's assets are gone, leaving only its liabilities," says Alan Septoff, research director for the Washington, D.C.-based Mineral Policy Center."Asarco would then declare bankruptcy to avoid environmental responsibility. We believe that's what EPA [is] looking into."
Joe Tieger, an analyst for EPA's Superfund division in Washington, D.C., says conversations between EPA and Asarco are either shielded by confidentiality agreements or cloaked in litigation. Grupo Mexico officials did not return calls.
If headquarters is keeping quiet, EPA's field agents are making noise. On March 5, the agency ordered Asarco to proceed with a $22-million sediment cleanup at a former smelter site on the Tacoma, Wash., waterfront or risk $27,500 per day in fines.
In January, Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) conditionally agreed with the EPA's proposal to place about one-third of Omaha on Superfund's National Priority List of the most toxic sites. An Asarco smelter, closed since 1996, is the source of lead and other metallic contaminants, EPA says.
Hundreds of children living in the designated area have recorded elevated lead levels in their blood and other assorted medical problems.
RUNNING A RISK Omaha-based bonding agent Harry D. Koch says that contractors working anywhere in the city-even on projects unrelated to the clean-up-face the prospect of becoming unwitting potentially responsible parties (PRPs). Without specific indemnity language in their contracts, especially small contractors face"potentially catastrophic risk," says Koch, and surety firms are increasingly reluctant to bond anything in the city.
In Tacoma,"we are still weighing our options," says Tom Martin, Asarco's site manager. The company has already spent an estimated $180 million since closing its copper smelter in 1986. EPA estimates sediment cleanup will cost up to $90 million more. But a cleanup subcontractor has removed pumps from the property because it has not been paid, according to Lee Marshall, EPA Seattle project manager.
Asarco is not disputing its cleanup responsibility, says Martin, but"copper prices are at a 50-year low, and we are clearly squeezed."
ASARCO'S PROPERTIES
SITE NAME LOCATION NPL/not NPL
Big River
Mine Tailings St. Francois County, Mo. NPL
Bunker Hill Kellogg, Idaho NPL
Butte Mine Flooding Butte, Mont. NPL
California Gulch Leadville, Colo. NPL
Circle Smelting Beckemeyer, Il not NPL
Coeur d' Alene Basin Idaho NPL
East Helena East Helena, Mont. NPL
El Paso Smelter El Paso, Texas not NPL
Federal
Mine Tailings St. Francois County, Mo. not NPL
Globe Smelter Globeville, Colo. proposed
Hayden Smelter Hayden, Ariz. not NPL
Jack Waite Mine Shoshone County, Idaho not NPL
Murray Smelter Murray, Utah proposed
Newton County Newton County, Mo. not NPL
Omaha Smelter Omaha proposed
Cherokee County Kansas NPL
Jasper County Mo. NPL
Tar Creek Ottowa County, Okla. NPL
Richardson Flat Summit County, Utah proposed
Ruston-Tacoma Tacoma, Wash. NPL
Stephenson-Bennett Mine Dona Ana County, N.M. not NPL
Vasquez Blvd/I-7 Denver NPL
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CLICK HERE FOR MORE NEWS
<ul> ~ quelle</ul>
<center>
<HR>
</center>
Thread gesperrtgesamter Thread:
