Snuffing Asarco: EPA may keep smelter closed

There appears to be new hope that Asarco will not reopen its copper smelter in El Paso, no thanks to our own state agency, but thanks to the federal government.

[George]

Bravo El Paso Times, Bravo Senator Shapleigh, Bravo Mayor Cook and City Council, Bravo other elected officials and groups fighting to keep our area free of Asarco pollution, and Bravo EPA! And no thanks to Asarco's highly paid to Teresa Montoya PR machine for hiding the truth and planting pro Asarco letters to the editor as part of her campaign.

[Greg]

Environmentalists continue to use bad science and outright lies to halt economic progress. The owners of Asarco should seek permission to sue the city and its fellow obstructionists who are denying the company its legal rights.

[Scott Comar]

Were TCEQ officials acting in an environmentally racist way when they were so easily swayed into following the status quo?

If ASARCO was going to begin smelting operations within the city limits of Austin or Dallas, would the TCEQ have been so ardent in their support for ASARCO?

Is this haste to overlook the truth significant of the type of Texas Republican leadership that has been leading the whole country for the last eight years?

Why has El Paso, Texas, been seemingly labeled as environmentally expendable?

[William Pena]

Scott Comar wrote:

Were TCEQ officials acting in an environmentally racist way when they were so easily swayed into following the status quo?
If ASARCO was going to begin smelting operations within the city limits of Austin or Dallas, would the TCEQ have been so ardent in their support for ASARCO?
Is this haste to overlook the truth significant of the type of Texas Republican leadership that has been leading the whole country for the last eight years?
Why has El Paso, Texas, been seemingly labeled as environmentally expendable?

Great observation. The TCEQ's decision is yet another action in the state's longstanding pattern of institutional racism, as reflected by decades of funding neglect of our public schools, roads, and healthcare. Democrats as well as Republicans have been guilty of ignoring El Paso's needs in favor of more affluent and politically connected urban areas.

[Scott Comar]

By stating that environmentalists used bad science, one is deceivingly attempting to inversly twist the truth into a lie, and a lie into the truth.

The whole ASARCO Air Modeling Report, which the TCEQ considered as a basis for ASARCO's permit, is full of incosistencies; furthermore, it was researched and written by an ASARCO company employee, not the objective third party that was required of the TCEQ criterion. Did the TCEQ look further into this occurance?

Americans, as a whole, are becoming increasingly sick and tired of the same old fallacious rhetoric, which is being spoon fed to them by polluters and their lobbyists.

ASARCO should be sued for the past crimes of denying the citizens of El Paso their legal right to clean air. Everything from the illegal burning of DOD chemical weapons waste, and other hazardous wates that were refused delivery to other destinations in America, to the health defects as found in places like smeltertown and Sunland Park, NM., all serve as evidence against ASARCO. However, these instances, which exemplify the obstruction of a healthy environmental atmosphere for the citizen, are not the only examples of evidence that can be used against ASARCO: considering that they are defendants, or debtors, in various other pending cases, nationally.

ASARCO and the TCEQ have either intentionally or inadvertantly been involved with what can be viewed as an environmental crime; and therefore, the current EPA investigation signifies that the protocol procedures within which ASARCO was granted its permit (TCEQ Air Permit 20345) were out of line and formed upon the basis of obsolete criterion and policy.

[elp guy]

THank God.

[Alyssa]

I hope to god they dont open that plant. I will move if they do. Its outdated 20th century factory and health standards are not up to par with what humans, El Pasoans, Americans deserve!! El Paso: You deserve better!! When we all finally realize that, we will no longer defend asarco's poisoning.

[elp guy]

Alyssa wrote:

I hope to god they dont open that plant. I will move if they do. Its outdated 20th century factory and health standards are not up to par with what humans, El Pasoans, Americans deserve!! El Paso: You deserve better!! When we all finally realize that, we will no longer defend asarco's poisoning.

Amen!

[Paul]

As soon as possible, they need to demolish the whole sticking place once and for all.