Asarco Asks Court To Accept Settlement
EL PASO, Texas (AP) – Asarco LLC said it filed a motion today in a Corpus Christi bankruptcy court asking a judge to accept a settlement of about $13.7 million with governmental environmental agencies.
That’s for the cost of cleanups of lead and arsenic in the soil in some El Paso neighborhoods.
The motion asks the judge to accept a settlement of about $13.3 million with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and $419,200 with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The news release says that the EPA and TCEQ had asked for $19.7 million. The news release said that Asarco was — quote — “named as a potentially responsible party for the El Paso County Metals Site but has disputed that Asarco has joint and several liability for the claim.”
The company took over the cleanup using funds from it’s Environmental Trust Fund in 2005. Residential cleanup won’t be affected by a settlement because the fund is not affected by the company’s Chapter Eleven reorganization filing.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-09-28-07 2356EDT
