FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 15, 1999 ENR WWW.USDOJ.GOV

DOJ: (202) 514-2007 EPA: (202) 260-1387 TDD (202) 514-1888

ASARCO WILL ADDRESS ALLEGED HAZARDOUS WASTE, CLEAN WATER VIOLATIONS

Mining and Smelting Company To Spend $15M on Environmental Actions

ASARCO, Inc. will spend an estimated $15 million on several environmental actions under a landmark decree filed today, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) announced. The agreement also requires the mining and smelting company to pay a $5.5 million penalty to settle claims that it violated federal hazardous waste and clean water laws in Texas, Tennessee and Montana.

This nationwide, two-part settlement represents the first time that the federal government has entered into a consolidated agreement resolving violations of different environmental laws at more than one of a company's facilities. Last year, in Phase I of the settlement, ASARCO agreed to spend more than $50 million to clean up contamination and correct alleged violations at facilities in Montana and Arizona. Phase II of the settlement, filed today in the U.S. District Court in Houston, marks the final chapter of the settlement.

"This settlement and others like it mark a new generation of environmental enforcement," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "We are serious about addressing comprehensively those nationwide companies that violate our environmental laws." "This comprehensive approach to resolve a company's environmental liabilities is a fundamentally new way to protect public health and the environment," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Steven A. Herman. "It is unprecedented and should serve as a model for other companies in addressing their environmental problems."

Today's agreement obligates ASARCO to revamp a Corpus Christi, TX, recycling facility. The EPA and TNRCC alleged that Encycle/Texas, Inc., ASARCO's wholly-owned subsidiary in Corpus Christi, violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act at the facility by failing to properly manage hazardous waste and otherwise engaging in unlawful recycling practices. ASARCO's East Helena, MT, lead smelter and El Paso, TX, copper smelter allegedly accepted shipments of unmanifested hazardous waste from Encycle/Texas in violation of RCRA.

Under the agreement, ASARCO will implement site-wide corrective action at the Encycle/Texas plant and will undertake a project expected to prevent the burial of more than half a million pounds of potentially cancer-causing and toxic material each year in hazardous waste landfills. ASARCO also will implement an innovative new technology, electrowinning, to fully reclaim metals from waste brought to the facility. In addition, the company will clean up and dedicate to the public a 30-acre conservation area in Corpus Christi. This property will include trails, an environmental education area, and a permanent site for an air monitoring station.

"We believe this is an appropriate conclusion to this effort," said TNRCC Executive Director Jeff Saitas. "Contaminated areas will be cleaned up, unique and innovative technical requirements will keep Encycle in compliance, and we will keep open one of very few facilities that recycle metals from plating operations. This is a very good deal for Texas." In addition:

• ASARCO has agreed to spend $1.8 million to pave roads, alleys and parking lots in a dust-control project in El Paso, TX, where the company operates a smelter. Particulates such as dust are known to exacerbate respiratory problems like asthma and emphysema and are a significant problem in the El Paso air basin. In addition, ASARCO is obliged to recycle at least 1,200 tons of scrap tires a year when it operates its El Paso smelter, substituting shredded tires for coke to fuel the smelter's furnace and avoiding disposal of them in landfills.
• In Tennessee, ASARCO will restore diverse native riparian and wetland vegetation in a flood plain along Mossy Creek to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations at ASARCO's Coy Mines near Jefferson City, TN.

In Phase I of the settlement last year, ASARCO agreed to implement a court-enforced environmental management system to improve environmental compliance at all of its 33 facilities in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The states of Texas and Arizona participated as co-plaintiffs in the overall agreement. Another commitment of ASARCO is to enhance its environmental management and compliance auditing program involving all of its operating facilities nationwide. Including today's penalty, the company will pay a total of $11.8 million in civil penalties under the two-part settlement.

The proposed settlement will be published in the Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period and is subject to Court approval.

A fact sheet outlining the specifics of the two-part ASARCO Inc. settlement accompanies this release.

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