For the past two years, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has been investigating ASARCO Inc. for violations
of federal environmental laws. Now the mining company is going to
pay. On Jan. 23, the EPA announced that the company will pay $62
million in fines and cleanup costs for its projects around the
nation, with the bulk of the money going to a copper mine in Ray,
Ariz., and a lead smelter in East Helena,
Mont.
In Arizona, ASARCO has agreed to spend $55
million on a tunnel to reroute Mineral Creek, a tributary of the
Gila River that now flows through the Ray mine site. In Montana,
where ASARCO’s smelter has been emitting heavy metals like mercury
and arsenic, the company will pay $300,000 for a system to monitor
raw materials as they enter the plant. Between the two sites,
ASARCO will pay an additional $8.4 million (part to the national
treasury and part to the state) in penalties for illegal water and
soil pollution. As part of the agreement, ASARCO will also develop
a nationwide employee training system to improve compliance with
environmental regulations.
Duane Yontorno of
ASARCO’s Tucson office says the company had a number of
“outstanding issues’ at projects across the country, so they wanted
to cover all the violations in one settlement. This was a departure
from the EPA’s usual case-by-case approach, agrees Susan Zazzali,
who is with the EPA’s office in Helena, Mont. But she believes the
settlement will deter ASARCO from future
violations.
“The penalty isn’t that big,” she
says, “but the work they’re required to do is very costly. I think
it’s a good step.” And, she adds, “We’ll be keeping a very close
eye on them.”
Aimee Boulanger of the Mineral
Policy Center doesn’t think the settlement will have any effect on
ASARCO’s practices. “We’ve got $60 million but a place that’s
utterly destroyed,” she says of the Ray, Ariz., mine site. “And
this will continue – as long as (ASARCO) sees that what they save
with these practices is greater than what they might pay in fines.”
*Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline EPA to ASARCO: Time to pay.
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