Please oppose renewal of the state air pollution
permit to reopen the ASARCO metal smelter in
El Paso, and publicly urge your appointees to
the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
to deny the permit.
ASARCO has done enough damage to the health
and livelihood of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez
and does not deserve another chance to pollute.
For the 112 years that it operated the ASARCO
smelter emitted hundreds of tons of lead, arsenic,
and cadmium into the sky and onto the homes
of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez residents. Children
living in the area, ranging from 2-6 years of
age, showed blood lead levels high enough to
warrant immediate medical intervention.
If the permit renewal for ASARCO is approved,
it will result in 7,560 tons of pollutants emitted
into the air each year – including sulfur
dioxide, particulate matter (soot), lead, and
arsenic. One source estimates that if ASARCO
reopens, “El Paso would potentially have
the distinction of being home to the facility
with the highest level of lead emissions in
the United States…ASARCO would emit 12
times the sulfur dioxide and double the particulates
of the next highest El Paso emitter.”
The reopening of ASARCO is opposed by the City
of El Paso, the El Paso Independent School district,
Texas State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, U. S. Congressman
Silvestre Reyes, and officials in Mexico and
New Mexico. The Administrative Law Judges from
the State Office of Administrative Hearings
who presided over the contested case on the
permit application have recommended that TCEQ
deny the permit because of the potential pollution
from the smelter and the bad environmental compliance
record of the smelter.
Please lend your important voice to the opposition
to this permit. The public health, the quality
of the air in El Paso-Ciudad Juarez, the promotion
of environmental compliance, and Texas-Mexico
relationships all will be affected by the outcome
on this permit. Please use the power of your
office to stop the ASARCO smelter from reopening.
Please act quickly. The TCEQ is scheduled to
act on this permit on February 13.
