In re: ASARCO LLC, et al. Amended Settlement Agreement and Consent Decree

In re: ASARCO LLC, et al. Amended Settlement Agreement and Consent Decree

Bankruptcy Litigation for ASARCO

This artifact essentially gets to the heart of the question “did the Environmental Protection Agency accomplish their goal of holding responsible parties financially responsible for the pollution of the Omaha Lead Site?” In this document, the United States’ government estimates the liability of ASARCO in the remediation of the Omaha Lead Site at over $406 million owed to the United States Government and over $2.3 million to the State of Nebraska. As a settlement agreement, this document essentially outlines what the US government deemed to be a reasonable amount that ASARCO should pay in order to fulfill this liability. The document expresses that the settlement is to be comprehensive in covering all of the claims by the United States and the State of Nebraska against ASARCO in paying all past and future costs of the work performed at the Omaha Lead Site. The agreement states, “this Settlement Agreement is in the public interest, is fair and reasonable, and is an appropriate means of resolving this matter.” However, the agreement was also settled without any admission of liability for ASARCO, meaning that though ASARCO was made to pay some of the cost of their actions, they were never held legally responsible. But the question remains: was ASARCO held financially responsible for the pollution of the Omaha Lead Site? Paragraphs 7 & 8 of this document addresses these questions. In paragraph 7, the document states that in order to settle and fully satisfy all claims from the United States for costs in relation to the Omaha Lead Site, ASARCO was to pay $186.5 million. In order to satisfy the claims from the state of Nebraska, ASARCO was made to pay $1million. Between these two payments, ASARCO paid less than 50% of the damages they were estimated to owe to the United States Government and the Government of Nebraska. By paying less than half of the damages estimated, it is hard to say the government was truly able to hold ASARCO financially responsible for their actions. Though it is true that the settlement was part of a bankruptcy hearing for ASARCO, that does not necessarily mean that ASARCO could not have been held more responsible for the pollution of the Omaha Lead Site. ASARCO is still operational today and is a subsidiary of Grupo México, the largest mining corporation in Mexico. (Will add something from that other article here).

THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI DIVISION

epa.gov

Environmental Protection Agency

March 13, 2009

pdf

English

Legal Document

Case No. 05-21207, Chapter 11

Legal Document