Great news for Globeville: ASARCO is paying nearly $2 billion for environmental cleanup and restoration at sites it contaminated in 19 states. One of the sites is the much-litigated ASARCO plant in Globeville.
The payment agreement was reached as part of ASARCO’s bankruptcy reorganization. Tom Strickland, a former U.S. Attorney in Denver and now an assistant Interior secretary under Ken Salazar, worked on the agreement. To be clear, that $2 billion is being spread around among 80 sites — it’s not going to Globeville. For that matter, this is separate from the class-action lawsuit of several years ago, in which ASARCO paid damages directly to residents of the neighborhood.
This payment is strictly being used to clean up sites that were damaged by ASARCO’s operations. But those cleanup operations have long been delayed by disputes about who ought to foot the bill. Now that this question has been settled, cleanup will go forward — in Globeville, and around the country.
Click here for more information on the ASARCO bankruptcy.
If I understand the bankruptcy web site correctly, the amount for Globeville is over 1.5 million dollars. It says, “Vasquez Boulevard/I-70 Denver, CO EPA $1,500,000 ($1,766,118 with interest).” I assume this means the Globeville site.