EL PASO - ASARCO once again is attempting to prevent the citizens of El Paso from participating in a hearing to determine whether or not ASARCO should be allowed to emit over 7,300 tons of pollutants into the air that El Paso, Juarez and Southern New Mexico residents breathe.

In an effort to let El Pasoans and citizens of the region know what ASARCO is doing to try to stop the public hearing process Senator Shapleigh will have a press conference on Friday, February 18, 2005, at 3:00 p.m. at his Senate office, 800 Wyoming, Suite A.

“It is important that the residents of this region be given the opportunity to participate in a matter that is critical to the public health and economic future of this region,” Shapleigh said. “Once again, 580 miles away, ASARCO is trying to stop the public hearing. This is consistent with their history of denying corporate responsibility for decades of contamination.”

Below is a brief sequence of events:

❏ April 28, 2004 - the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) ordered that ASARCO’s Air Permit application be referred to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for a hearing in the public interest.

❏ May 28, 2004 - ASARCO files a petition to stop the hearing. The Petition requests that the Court enter a judgment reversing the TCEQ’s decision to refer ASARCO’s application to renew Air Permit No. 20345 to the SOAH for a contested case hearing, and that the Court issue an injunction requiring the Commission to rescind its Interim Order, issue the permit renewal and declare that the Commission’s referral was invalid.

❏ December, 2004 - ASARCO filed a temporary injunction to stop the contested case hearing by SOAH until the Judge rules whether it was proper to move forward.

❏ December, 2004 - Judge Jeanne Meurer of the 261st Court denied the temporary injunction and rules the SOAH hearing can move forward as scheduled.

❏ January 27, 2005 - SOAH preliminary hearing takes place in El Paso.

❏ February 25, 2005 - ASARCO petition to stop the order by TCEQ is scheduled in the 261st Court in Austin with Judge Jeanne Meurer presiding.