A victory for the environment

he mining company based in Tucson, Ariz., emerged Wednesday from four years of bankruptcy reorganization after being purchased by Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico SAB, and will pay for cleanup at 80 polluted sites in 19 states, mostly in the West.

The Coeur d’Alene Work Trust will receive $436 million to perform work selected by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Coeur d’Alene Basin from the Silver Valley to Upriver Dam in Spokane.

“We’ve received the largest recovery of money for environmental cleanup in U.S. history,” said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli. “This was certainly a result that no one expected when Asarco went into bankruptcy.”