Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

County Attorney Jose Rodriguez

Border Buzz met up with El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez at last weekend's Mexican American Legislative Caucus conference and discussion soon got round to Asarco's permit application.

Rodriguez said he was staggered at the level of community interest. Around 300 people showed up at a hearing at UTEP's Tomas Rivera Conference Center last Thursday to voice opposition to Asarco's bid to re-open its smelting plant and retain a state permit that would allow the emission of 13.7 tons of lead and tons of other pollutants into the air.

Rodriguez said he was also struck by how many groups and individuals who, while asking to be recognized as affected parties, did not want to be associated with the City of El Paso's opposition to the permit application.

"I have not seen this level of community action since the opposition to the opening of the Sierra Blanca radioactive disposal site," Rodriguez said.

"It was marvelous to see a cross section of the bi-national community of the region coming together. It is very encouraging because it shows that when something affects a community's interests, which affects their children, their quality of life, people will come together."

Asarco's smelter was closed in February 1999. The Texas Environmental Quality Commission has set the hearing, with Administrative Judge William Newchurch presiding. It could last months.

Rodriguez said he was struck by how diverse the opposition was. He said it came from poor and middle class citizens, neighborhood groups, students, business people, and doctors. He said residents poured in from New Mexico and Juárez, as well as El Paso.

"They simply do not want the contamination or the pollution," Rodriguez said. "Dr. Elaine Barron, from the El Paso Medical Society, said doctors had seen too many cases of people with asthmatic and respiratory complaints."

Rodriguez said the fact that so many of the affected parties said they did not want their opposition consolidated with the City of El Paso's opposition was also surprising.

"The City of El Paso is supposed to be representing the community in opposing the renewal of the permit, yet it was very obvious that the citizenry was not comfortable. People do not feel that the City of El Paso will represent their best interests," Rodriguez said.

"City officials say they are fighting the permit but they have not given any level of comfort that they are being zealous and aggressive in representing their interests of the community."

Rodriguez said the fact that 300 people showed up for the hearing proves that El Paso residents will stand up for their rights. "I think that ever since we started the Court of Inquiry to investigate how the state has discriminated against El Paso in the equitable allocation of funds, people have become very much aware of their rights and responsibilities," he said. "This was the latest example of that."

Lairy Johnson, Asarco's environmental manager, told the El Paso Times that he wanted the public to "separate fact from propaganda." He said that when Newchurch hears the facts and the evidence he will agree that Asarco has a good compliance record.