Myrna Villa

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American Smelting and Refining Company (Asarco) applied for a 10-year air permit to continue smelting operations at El Paso.

Smelting is a roasting and refining process produces copper-iron sulfur and releases pollution into the air.

According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Asarco would produce close to 7,000 tons of sulfide, 350 tons of particulate matter, 250 tons of nitrogen oxides and eight tons of lead, among other pollutants in a one-year period.

Asarco faces financial responsibility for residential yards clean-up.

“The U.S. Department of Justice notified Asarco in January that $2 million would be spent from Asarco’s Environmental Trust Fund,” Asarco’s Environmental Manager Lairy Johnson said.

According to State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, who opposes to the permit renewal, Asarco does not support spending the $2 million from its Environmental Trust Fund in El Paso.

"The reason Asarco does not want Superfund is because when the Federal government pays to clean it [soil] up, they [Asarco] are responsible to pay, and they don't want to pay,” Shapleigh said. “Asarco is well below the national ambient air quality standards. In the 2000 Air Quality Summit, industry in El Paso was less than 2% of the total contributors to air pollution,” Johnson said.

A report from the Texas Department of Health (TDH) stated there is a significant association between soil lead and blood lead test results.

"A 500-ppm (parts per million)-change in soil lead was associated with a 4.5-times-increase in the odds of a child having an elevated blood lead level,” disclosed the report.

The effects of these amounts of lead in children have demonstrated severe and permanent injury to brain and neurological functions including learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity, and impaired hearing, according to the report.

Based on data from the TCEQ, after Asarco stopped its lead smelting operations, El Paso came into compliance with the national standard of 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter.

“Asarco is one of the most modern major facilities in El Paso utilizing the best available control technology,” Johnson said.

Asarco attributes El Paso’s air pollution to other contaminants produced within the city.

“Major pollution sources were mobile sources, unpaved roads, and uncontrolled open burning,” Johnson said.

During the last hearing, Administrative Judge William Newchurch included El Paso, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez residents as part of the affected parties along with Asarco and TCEQ.

In a letter to TCEQ, the New Mexico Environment Department opposed the Asarco’s permit renewal if the company does not lower pollution.

The Get the Lead Out Coalition is a group of parents, UTEP students, community leaders, neighborhood groups, schools, school children and concerned citizens, whose purpose is to protect the health of border residents in El Paso, Ciudad Juárez and Southeastern New Mexico. They are trying to prevent Asarco to reopen.

The majority of residents at Kern Place, one of the most affected areas by the smelter, oppose to the company’s permit renewal.

“They [Asarco] should move out of town for the health reason of all children,” Kern Place resident Julian Quintana said. “It is a stupidity to have it [the company] that close to so much residence.”

“There is no way I would support Asarco to open up,” Kern Place resident Nathalie Caragher said. If the state grants Asarco the perrmit, “I would have to bug the city by going to all their court meetings and rally.”

Newchurch would give a final resolution by October after more hearings.