U.S. environmental authorities say they have found copper miner Asarco Inc., which already is dealing with $100 million in clean-up fees, responsible for separate contamination near a west Texas smelting plant.
After a yearlong probe, the U.S. Environmental Protection agency found the plant, dormant since 1997, to be the source of arsenic and lead contamination on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, affecting residential areas in El Paso, Texas, and the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.
In another case Asarco, owned by No. 3 copper miner Grupo Mexico, agreed in January to establish a $100 million cleanup trust to pay for remediation work at several U.S. sites contaminated by the company over its 104-year history.
In El Paso the EPA has cleaned up 130 of the 800 homes identified as having significant levels of contamination.
The EPA set aside $7 million -- including $1 million provided by the company as part of a settlement in other environmental pollution cases -- for the cleanup, but officials said that amount will not cover the full cost. Reuters
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