PHOENIX - Environmental settlements with copper miner Asarco LLC will pay for cleanup at more than 80 polluted sites in 19 states, mostly in the West, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday.
Tucson-based Asarco paid $1.79 billion to settle environmental claims it faced during the company's bankruptcy proceedings. The mining company emerged Wednesday from four years of bankruptcy reorganization after being purchased by Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico SAB, and all the settlements were funded.
"We've received the largest recovery of money for environmental cleanup in U.S. history," said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli. "This was certainly a result that no one expected when Asarco went into bankruptcy."
The state of Washington has received roughly $188 million to help repair environmental damage caused by mining giant ASARCO.
It's the largest payout in the history of the state's Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), the state's "Superfund" law which Washington voters approved in 1988.
Last month, the U.S. District Court in Texas affirmed an earlier bankruptcy court approval of a reorganization plan filed by ASARCO's parent company, Grupo Mexico. The plan includes payments to creditors seeking funds for environmental damages, including Washington.
On Wednesday, funds from the case were transferred to the state treasury. Most of the money then was deposited in the state's Cleanup Settlement Account. About $16 million was deposited in the State Toxics Cleanup Account to reimburse the state's past costs related to ASARCO sites.
Heavy metal mines, smelters
Asarco operated copper, lead and other heavy metal mines and smelters across the West for the past century, but most have closed and require extensive remediation. The company sought bankruptcy protection in 2005 after being overwhelmed by the cleanup costs.
Asarco still operates three copper mines in Arizona and a refinery in Amarillo, Texas.
The states with sites that will be cleaned up are Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
The federal government will use $776 million it received to remediate more than 35 different sites, including an abandoned lead smelter in Omaha, Neb.
Of the remaining money, $436 million will go to the Coeur d'Alene Work Trust to clean up a mine on the Idaho-Washington border. Three trusts which will oversee remediation at 24 sites in 13 states received $261 million, and about $321 million went to 14 states to fund environmental settlement obligations at more than 36 sites.
All the settlements were negotiated between Asarco and state and federal governments during the bankruptcy process and had been previously announced.
The closing of the bankruptcy deal Wednesday ended a years-long battle waged by Grupo Mexico to reacquire the firm it first bought in 1999. Grupo Mexico lost control of Asarco in the bankruptcy proceedings but won a court auction for the company last month by offering $2.2 billion to creditors together with an estimated $1.4 billion in cash held by Asarco.
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