Asarco

In 1994,’ the United States and the State of Idaho (together, “Plaintiffs”) entered into a consent decree with various mining companies, including Hecla Mining Company and Asarco Inc. (together, “Defendants”), requiring the latter to perform certain cleanup actions in exchange for specific liability releases in the seriously contaminated Bunker Hill Superfund Site. The site, also known as “the Box,” is a twenty-one' square mile area surrounded by the Coeur d’Alene River Basin (“the Basin”) in northern Idaho. In 2001, the District Court modified the .consent decree for the Box (“the. Box Decree” or “the decree”) because it found that Defendants faced unanticipated liability outside the Box that made compliance with the decree substantially more onerous.

In 1996, the United States had filed an action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to recover from Defendants costs incurred in cleaning up environmental contamination in the heavily mined 1500 square mile Basin. In 2003, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had completed a remedial investigation and feasibility study of, as well as a record of decision (ROD) for, the…