In Everett, where state officials blame an Asarco smelter that shut down in 1912 for contaminating 600 homes with lead and arsenic, cleanup could take 50 years. If Asarco disappears, the fallout could stretch from Tacoma to Spokane and from Omaha, Neb., to El Paso, Texas. Today, Asarco is broke, deep in debt and trying to scrape together cash to pay creditors.įederal officials claim the company's corporate parent is stripping Asarco's assets in a move that could bankrupt Asarco, leaving taxpayers stuck with a cleanup tab approaching $1 billion. The trail of hazardous waste winds through thousands of Puget Sound yards polluted with heavy metals, stretches into Missouri farm country so contaminated that residents drank bottled water for a decade, and rolls through the New Mexico hills, where miniature horses keeled over in their stalls after eating lead-laced hay. During a century of extracting a fortune in lead, zinc and copper, mining giant Asarco left a toxic legacy that government regulators say stretches across at least 25 communities in a dozen states.
0 kommentar(er)
