A New York-based firm, Thermo-Tek Ltd., wants to rework the slag pile at the idle East Helena Asarco plant, a plan which could include building a new on-site production facility that could employ 40 to 50 people.

Spokesman Gene Myers said Friday Thermo-Tek likes to think of itself as an environmentally friendly company that will “recycle” the slag into a product. He’s close-mouthed on the exact type of product at this time, saying only that what comes out of the facility would be in a granular form — kind of like small BBs — with various uses for it.

“We’ve invented a use for a worldwide market, and nobody else has thought of this,” Myers said. “It wasn’t something we were after in the first place, but it was kind of a serendipitous discovery. It’s pretty cool.

“What we have proposed to them is we would like to get rid of that slag pile and create open space, to look at us as a recycler, not a manufacturer.”

Themo-Tek’s current product is a paint-like coating that can be used on both building exteriors and interiors. It forms a barrier that keeps heat out of a home in the summer and traps it inside in the winter.

“We manufacture ecologically friendly, coating-like paints,” Myers said. “We belong to Energy Star and RESNET, a group of green companies that seek solutions through green chemistry.”

He’s received a fairly positive reception from representatives of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Environmental Quality and the city of East Helena, as well as the Montana Business Assistance Connection, on the potential of setting up shop in East Helena.

“To have some economic development in that area would be fantastic,” said Jill Cohenour, a state representative from East Helena. “The tax base would increase, it would benefit the schools and we do need jobs in that area. I hope it comes to fruition.”

East Helena Mayor Terri Casey added she doesn’t know much about the company, but is quite interested in Thermo-Tek’s proposal.

“The city obviously would love to see any kind of development, especially commercial,” Casey said. “It seems like a win-win deal, to get rid of the slag as well as help the tax base.”

The biggest stumbling block at this point is taking the first step, which involves getting Asarco officials to agree to sell the slag to Thermo-Tek. The company currently is in the middle of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which includes the question of who is in charge — the Mexican mining giant Grupo Mexico, who bought Asarco in 1999, or Asarco LLC, a board of creditors who claim Grupo Mexico bought Asarco only to strip it of its assets.

In addition, there’s a question of liability if Thermo-Tek were to dig into the slag pile and disturb something no one knows about.

“We talked to them in Tucson today to try to get this thing moving, and we’ll talk later in June again,” Myers said. “We just want them to tell us if they’ll sell it to us or not. If not, then we’ll be disappointed but we’ll just go somewhere else.”

Asarco officials declined to comment on the proposal Friday. They have previously noted that they cannot talk publicly about the company due to the bankruptcy proceedings. If Asarco does approve the sale, Thermo-Tek would like to set up shop on the premises, either buying or leasing land from Asarco or adjacent property.

“We want to keep all that crap in one spot, if you will, and the processing would be basically to clean it up,” Myers said. “We would have EPA and our own labs on-site before anything ships. We would re-melt it, then turn it into a different product in a process that’s self-enclosed, with no waste because anything not used in the first process would get dumped back into the melter.”

The heaping mounds of glass-like slag are as much of a backdrop to East Helena as the smokestacks from Asarco’s former lead smelter. The slag is the remains of the ore that was trucked in, crushed, then heated until it became fluid. Lead and copper were skimmed from the molten ore, and the slag is the byproduct of a century of smelting

In later years, the slag was reworked, or “fumed” at an on-site zinc plant. Myers said there are about 10 million tons of fumed slag, and 2 million tons of unfumed slag. The fumed slag is more valuable to Thermo-Tek, he added.

For years, Asarco’s slag pile put East Helena at the top of the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory list due to its massive size. But Asarco officials always countered that the slag was inert, creating no hazard to the community.

In recent months, tests seem to show that a selenium plume in the aquifer below East Helena is originating from the slag pile, but that’s still under investigation.

Mark Hall and Denise Kirkpatrick with the DEQ hazardous waste section said from a regulatory standpoint, the slag isn’t considered hazardous waste due to exemptions. They don’t see any problems reprocessing it as long as Thermo-Tek gets the appropriate approvals and permits from the state, and the process doesn’t interfere with the ongoing cleanup at the Asarco site.

They are quick to add, though, that they haven’t seen any formal proposal from Thermo-Tek.

The entire Asarco plant site, as well as most of East Helena, is on the EPA’s National Priority List for removing soils and buildings contaminated with lead, arsenic and a wide slew of other remnants left over from the smelting process. EPA representatives said they also don’t have anything firm from Thermo-Tek, but they probably would look favorably on some process that removes the slag from the site.

Julie DalSoglio, the Montana EPA office’s deputy manager, said that in general at other sites, reworking slag piles doesn’t cause it to change its chemistry or toxicity. If it does, a federal permit might be needed; otherwise, the state is in charge of air or water quality issues.

“We were clear, though, that if they pursue this through the state permitting agencies, we need to see the data,” DalSoglio said. “That said, if there are materials on an industrial facility that can be used appropriately, EPA will not stand in the way at all. We like to see reuse and revitalization of contaminated land.”

Brian Obert with the Montana Business Assistance Connection, said if everything pans out according to Thermo-Tek’s plans, the slag pile could be gone in 20 years. Thermo-Tek also is considering trucking slag from elsewhere to reprocess.

“That slag pile has been a big, gray cloud hung over East Helena for years,” Obert said. “I know the mayor would like to see it removed, and DEQ wants to see it removed, but done in an environmentally friendly way. No one wants to add to the contamination.”

Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com