Asarco

BACKGROUND

Asarco and Union Pacific both participated in nearly a century of mining operations in the Coeur d’Alene River watershed, a 1,500-square-mile area located in Idaho’s northern panhandle. Asarco operated over 20 mines in the Coeur d’Alene site, and Union Pacific built rail lines and transported ore and other materials for the region’s mining and smelting facilities. In 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) listed the Coeur d’Alene site on the CERCLA National Priorities List. Since then the site has undergone over 30 years of cleanup efforts by the EPA, the State of Idaho, and potentially responsible parties, including Asarco and Union Pacific.

In the 1990s, the United States, the State of Idaho, and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe each filed various claims against Asarco and other mining companies for response costs and natural resource damages at the Coeur d’Alene site. These actions were consolidated in 2003 and, after a 78-day trial, Judge Lodge of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho issued an order apportioning liability based on the volume of mining waste released into the basin’s waterways. Asarco was found at least 22 percent…