www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/11toxic.html

October 11, 2006
Copper Plant Illegally Burned Hazardous Waste, E.P.A. Says
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

HOUSTON, Oct. 10 — A bankrupt copper giant facing billions of dollars in pollution claims across the nation pretended for years to recycle metals while illegally burning hazardous waste in a notorious El Paso smelter, according to a newly released Environmental Protection Agency document.

The agency, in a 1998 internal memorandum, said the company, Asarco, and its Corpus Christi subsidiary, Encycle, had a permit to extract metals from hazardous waste products but used that as a cover to burn the waste until the late 1990’s, saving the high costs of proper disposal.

Among the more than 5,000 tons the company was accused of misrepresenting as containing metals for reclamation were more than 300 tons of nonmetallic residues from the former Army chemical warfare depot at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal outside Denver. (It is not clear what the arsenal’s material contained.)

“This activity, plain and simple, was illegal treatment and disposal of hazardous waste,” the environmental agency said in the memorandum, long held confidential but recently obtained by two El Paso environmental groups opposed to the smelter. “Encycle’s own business records provide compelling evidence of sham recycling.”

There was no response to messages left for an Asarco spokeswoman at corporate offices in Tucson and for the El Paso plant manager. But a company history states, “Asarco is committed to responsible management of our natural resources.”