Settlement would bring $37.5 million to county

Congresswoman suggests it is time to gain independence from oil

By RENEE JEAN
Daily Journal Assistant Managing Editor

Among the other subjects the Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson dealt with while she was in the area Tuesday were the high prices of fuel and a $37.5 million settlement that is nearing on the sale of Asarco, a lead smelting plant.

The plant filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. A sale process was initiated in 2005, proceeds to be used to pay off debts. Only current assets are involved in the sale. The Glover plant in Iron County is not part of current assets.

Initially, the largest offer was from Vedanta-Sterlite, a mining company in India. Since then, the parent company has made a bid that is larger, and the settlement is heading back to court for a judge to sort out.

If the settlement is approved, the St. Francois County area would get $37.5 million for cleanup actions. Big River areas which include not just the pile of that name, but also surrounding areas, would get $17.1 million and federal areas would be getting $7.7 million.

Madison County would receive $12.7 million.

The money could not be used for any other purpose but cleanup, EPA officials said, and will be kept in an interest-bearing account. The money is not to be used for administrative purposes, but for actual cleanup work.

It can be used only for any Superfund cleanup action. It cannot be used for such things as putting a park on top of a cleaned up area. That would be an additional expense that lies outside the responsibility of Superfund.

Keeping the money on hand for only cleanup activities will help speed the clean up action, explained Cecilia Tapia, with EPA.

In addition to the settlement details, the meeting covered the timeline for cleanup of all area piles. The last, Silver Mines in Madison County, would not be finished until the year 2020. In St. Francois County the last listed activity was remediation of Big River, with a completion date of 2015.

Big River pile stabilization was completed in 2000, but there are sediments in the river EPA officials say must be addressed.

Bonne Terre was completed in 2007, Elvins/Rivermines is to be finished September 2008, Leadwood in 2010, National in 2011 and Federal in 2011.

Emerson was concerned about the distant timeline for the work.

 “Why are some of those dates so far out there? I might be old by then,” she quipped.

It is the size of the areas in question, one official explained. “These are very large areas,” said John Askew, with EPA. “There’s a lot of work to do.”

Emerson was also assured the cleanup activity would not wait for the settlement itself to be completed. Work will proceed on a “very aggressive” schedule.

Included in the future cleanup plan is remediation of residential yards. About 2,000 have been sampled and of those, 1,775 were found with lead levels above 400 ppm, the EPA’s current action level for lead in residential soils.

Of those, 276 have already been restored. Remediation of the remaining yards is to begin by December 2009 under the current schedule, and be completed by March 2014.

There is no guarantee, however, that the action level will remain at 400 ppm. Lead action levels have historically been pushed further and further downward by studies, and Askew said there are studies suggesting today’s lead action level may be too high.

Lead that gets into the bloodstream causes a number of health problems, including neurological problems, behavior problems and even, in cases of very high exposure, death.

Askew said the health risks make cleanup at St. Joe State Park and other areas imperative, and not something that can wait upon convenience.

One member of the audience had asked if cleanup at the beaches would wait for a less busy time.

“A lot of this is time critical,” Askew said, pointing out that on any given weekend there are families with children in the park. “This is a cleanup, this is not a new sewer pipe or a new road. This is human health we’re dealing with.”

Emerson also added she believes speed is important. “For lots of reasons, I’m encouraging this to get done sooner, rather than later, and keep in mind too, this is the first of many discussions that will be ongoing about all these projects.”

At the MFA in Farmington, Emerson switched gears from an environmental cleanup to a new subject, the high cost of fuel.

With the celebration of Independence Day just around the corner, the Congresswoman suggested it is time for America to gain its independence from oil.

She had several charts to graphically depict what is happening to the fuel markets and talked about what she believes must be done to ease the pain at the collective pump.

“We are importing 60 percent of all the oil and natural gas we use on a daily basis in this country,” Emerson said.

She recalled the gas crisis of the 70s. “At the same time we were only importing only 30 percent of all the energy we utilized.”

While believing that alternative fuel sources must be developed, the Congresswoman said in the short term we also need to do better with domestic oil sources.

She said a 2005 study shows 800 billion barrels of shale oil is available in states such as Colorado, Montana, the Dakotas and a bit of Wyoming, yet Congress has passed legislation not just banning such oil domestically, but banning its import from Canada, which has another 150 billion gallons or so available.

Legislation has also been passed prohibiting the conversion of coal to liquid. Emerson said that could be used to sequester carbon emitted when coal is burned.

“That’s the kind of Congress I am dealing with,” she said. “It’s owned by the Sierra Club.”

Emerson has seen many examples from constituents of how hard the fuel prices are making it for people to get by. One woman in Ava sent in an electric bill that went from $100 and some change to $500 and some change.

The Congresswoman said they were able to get that price bump phased in over a 3-year period instead of all at once.

She said there are a variety of factors contributing to the price increase, not least of which is the burgeoning middle class in other countries who are now buying cars and want to drive them.

The dollar has been weak because the Federal Reserve is trying to keep inflation low and help ease the subprime mortgage crisis. Otherwise, it might be very difficult for those who lost homes to buy them again.

“In my opinion, we need to drill where we need to drill,” Emerson said. She suggested ANWAR and other wildlife areas could be left out of that drilling and America would still be able to ease the short-term crisis.

Cuba, she said has some oil in the “no zone” that other countries are lining up to drill ... but America’s legislation prevents it from doing so. “That’s right next door to us and we can’t drill there,” she said. “We need to be in there, and we need to be able to import from Canada.”

Speculation on the market has also been problematic. Futures speculation is driving up commodities like oil. Many retirement fund managers are not surprisingly taking advantage of that, Emerson pointed out.

Emerson said she is working with a lot of elitists in Washington who don’t understand the problems of regular Americans who may have to drive 30 minutes to work every day, but it was with this comment that one member of the audience took umbrage.

“I have to disagree with the fact that someone who feels that climate control is elitist. Because you care for the environment does not mean you are elitist. I read that there’s enough wind in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to power the entire country,” said Steven Brewen of Fredericktown. The college student is the son of a farmer. “We have enough coal for 225 years, but wind doesn’t run out. Instead of turning coal to liquid, drilling in our most pristine places ... Why don’t we invest in wind power? I watched a program in West Texas, they are building a lot of windmills and don’t have enough to work there. They are reassessing the tax base to get more people. The economy is booming because of wind. We could build an entire economic base of renewable energy.”

Emerson apologized for seeming to suggest the questioner might be elitist, and said she believes cutting greenhouse emissions and developing alternatives is important. Federal tax credits are continuing, she added, for this purpose.

“You can get great tax credits for building your house green,” she said. “I think that is great. People should build their houses green.”

Emerson said her generation bears responsibility for the current crisis. “It’s our fault,” she said, “that back when oil was cheap we still didn’t have a national plan and now it’s time to have a national plan and neither presidential candidate is talking about it. We have to learn to conserve. That does have to be part of the process.”

David Moore, a farmer spoke of the difficulties for agriculture that he feels have been exacerbated by the promotion of corn for ethanol. It’s driving up production and transportation prices for him, yet when he goes to market, he still gets a wholesale price.

“If you did nothing else but improve the value of the dollar, that would improve the standard of living for everyone,” he suggested.

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