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Reopening of El Paso copper smelter worries some

By: Gary Scharrer, San Antonio Express-News

October 07, 2007 -- AUSTIN — Supporters argue that good-paying jobs justify reopening an old copper smelter on the fringes of downtown El Paso.
Opponents counter that such a move would foul the air with some 15 million pounds of pollutants per year, risking health and putting a big smudge on the city's reputation.

City councils in three states and two countries oppose reopening the ASARCO smelter, whose towering 828-foot stack competes with the neighboring Franklin Mountains for El Paso's skyline.

Both sides have commissioned studies to reinforce their positions and are buying television spots to wedge the community between pro- and anti- ASARCO stands. The real target, however, is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which could rule this year on whether to renew ASARCO's air permit.

Except for a skeleton maintenance crew, the smelter shut down in 1999 when copper prices plummeted to about 60 cents a pound.

With the price of copper now running at about $3.60 a pound, ASARCO is eager to reopen the plant, which would produce $20-an-hour jobs with benefits for about 300 people.

"ASARCO is the fault line of a clean air future," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, one of the company's fiercest critics. "In El Paso, a 100-year-old ... smelter that has polluted cities across the United States, that has left $24 billion of liabilities for the taxpayer, wants a license to do it again. Once that permit is in place, it is forever, and other cities ought to watch closely."

If state environmental regulators approve ASARCO's request, the smelter would be allowed to release 7,560 tons of pollutants each year in the form of particular matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead and volatile organic compounds. Most of the emissions — 6,673 tons — would come in the form of sulfur dioxide.

But keep that in perspective, argues Lairy Johnson, ASARCO's environmental manager. A normal household of four with two vehicles generates about 110 tons of emissions per year, he said.

Although administrative law judges have ruled that ASARCO has not proved its case, the executive director for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recently recommended that the smelter be allowed to reopen. The agency's toxicology section concluded: "We do not expect adverse health effects to occur among the general public, as a result of exposure to the proposed emissions from this facility."

Companies with air emission permits typically are spared contested case hearings when up for renewal so long as there have been no modifications in the permit specifications.

"The science is complete, and the science illustrates the fact that we're not going to be a health hazard and that we're not going to contribute to air pollution," Johnson said.

Consultant paid

Shapleigh and other ASARCO critics complain that air modeling that prompted TCEQ staff to endorse the smelter's air permit renewal should be discounted because ASARCO paid the consultant who did the work.

"The (TCEQ) executive director said we are not entitled to a hearing; it's grandfathered and you can't contest it. Now he says that health doesn't play an issue in it, and then he has ASARCO's employee doing the air modeling report," Shapleigh said. "Does that give you a pretty good idea of how the agency views these permits?"

Agency officials said they could not discuss the pending case but referred to Executive Director Glenn Shankle's July report countering objections from various parties.

Shankle addressed the conflict of interest allegation by explaining that the company-paid consultant and ASARCO "agreed to only communicate in the presence of a TCEQ representative and to copy TCEQ on all written or electronic communication."

Shapleigh sees El Paso's fight for clean air similar to other efforts elsewhere in Texas.

The three TCEQ commissioners recently overturned administrative law judges' recommendations and approved a TXU Corp. plan to build two coal-fired power units southeast of Waco.

ASARCO's opponents vow legal action if a renewal permit is approved.

"Suburbs north of Dallas, San Antonio and Austin and west of Houston are now driving state politics, and those suburbs, especially the soccer moms, want clean air. Mayors from Dallas to Houston to El Paso are leading clean air movements because all recognize the implication for jobs and the reality that the TCEQ is run by polluters" Shapleigh said, noting that Texas leads the country in a number of air pollution categories.

El Paso's political leaders are taking the lead in opposing ASARCO, with the city councils of El Paso, Sunland Park, N.M., and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, meeting together this summer and passing a joint resolution against the permit renewal.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, also opposes the permit, as does the New Mexico Environment Department.

Silence

El Paso's business community has largely remained silent on the issue.

Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce President Richard Dayoub said his board is awaiting the results of a University of Texas at El Paso study on the potential harmful impact of ASARCO's reopening.

In a study for ASARCO, the University's Institute for Policy and Economic Development determined that ASARCO would infuse more than $1 billion annually into El Paso's economy if it were to reopen.

The smelter's supporters contend that 300 decent-paying jobs merit a permit for reopening.

"I want them to open because it's going to employ a lot of people. They have been cleared of any problems — the air pollution, none of that, is going to hurt anybody at all," El Pasoan Tina Gianes said.

Pollution from neighboring Mexico is far more serious, she said.

Another ASARCO supporter, David Romaka, said the smelter deserves to reopen because the company has met all the rules.

"This is a prime case of hysteria that politicians use to get votes, and hurt the working class that need good-paying jobs," Romaka said.

But good-paying jobs can't make up for bad health, said Danny Arrellano, 53, who worked at ASARCO for 24 years.

"What's that going to do you any good when you get older? You're going to be all sick even if you earn all that money. What good will it do you?" Arrellano asked.

He's been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disorder he blames on working conditions.

El Paso pharmacist Joe Pinon has been researching the impact of lead and other smelter pollution since the 1950s. He blames the smelter for causing developmental problems for children living in Mexican shacks across the Rio Grande from ASARCO.

Pinon is not optimistic that ASARCO will be stopped from reopening.

"The company's strategy is, deny, deny, deny. It's the same story forever and ever," he said. "They have half of the public bamboozled."

But he credits young people, particularly UTEP students, for waging a full-scale fight against ASARCO. The smelter is within a mile of the university.

Recent UTEP graduate Jacqueline Barragan, 25, is one of them.

"It's incredibly important. As a young person, it will affect whether or not I decide to stay in El Paso. It's my community," she said.

The environment: How Texas ranks nationally
• 1st — Air pollution emissions
• 1st — Pollution released by manufacturing plants

• 1st — Amount of greenhouse gases released

• 1st — Amount of toxic chemicals released into water

• 1st — Number of clean water permit violations

• 1st — Amount of cancer-causing carcinogens released into the air

• 1st — Amount of hazardous waste generated

• 4th — Amount of toxic chemicals released into air

Source: 'Texas on the Brink: How Texas Ranks Among the 50 States,' January 2007, from compilations of EPA reports and others, including Scorecard: The Pollution Information Site