AUSTIN, December 6 - Community groups in El Paso are watching the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's newly appointed commissioner.

Wednesday was Commissioner Bryan W. Shaw's first agenda meeting at the agency.

The Association of Communities Organized for Reform Now, or ACORN, is waiting to see if the new commissioner will favor tighter lead restrictions.

The organization said Shaw’s appointment by Gov. Rick Perry puts the agency one step closer to making a decision on whether to renew Asarco's air emissions permit, which would allow the company to reopen its El Paso copper smelter.

Perry appointed Shaw, of Bryan, Texas, to the Commission on Nov. 1. He will serve for a six-year term, filling the vacancy left on the commission by Kathleen Hartnett White.

Asarco has been held responsible for lead and arsenic contamination in communities surrounding the century-old smelter.

Shaw is a former acting lead scientist for air quality and special assistant to the chief in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service.

As an associate professor in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department of Texas A&M University, much of Shaw's research concentrated on air pollution abatement, dispersion model development and emission factor development.

ACORN reports that Shaw has written several articles challenging the National Ambient Air Quality Standards on particulate matter and has shown support for loosening emissions restrictions in favor of protecting business and industry from "unfair and unwarranted regulatory burdens."

Particulate matter is found in diesel exhaust and is linked with human health problems. This is of growing concern for communities with border land ports where many diesel trucks pass through or sit and idle.

ACORN notes that Perry's appointment of Shaw comes at a time when renowned lead expert Dr. Philip Landrigan and researchers at the Center for Disease Control have announced the need to raise the NAAQ standards for lead by lowering the allowable levels in the human blood system by a substantial margin.

The organization reports that the U.S. Protection Agency Lead Expert Panel has agreed on similar measures. The panel recommends that the EPA lower the lead standards from the current level of 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter, to .2 micrograms or less.

According to ACORN, the Asarco smelter in El Paso will emit 0.25 micrograms per cubic meter of lead. It bases this on Asarco's latest Air Modeling Samples.

"The cold, hard science shows that there is absolutely no safe level of lead in the human system," said Dave Cortez, ACORN's environmental justice organizer.

"It is our hope that the newly-appointed commissioner will respect the public's will and protect public health and not polluting industry like Asarco," added Cortez.

The company is currently in bankruptcy court in Corpus Christi, awaiting decisions on millions of dollars in claims for the cleanup of past pollution.

TCEQ's next agenda meeting is scheduled for Dec.19. The meeting is open to the public and agenda items from all commission meetings and work sessions can be viewed. The agenda meeting is also webcast live for free and archived meetings are available at www.texasadmin.com/egi-bin/tnrcc.cgi.