Asarco and federal officials have abandoned negotiations aimed at getting the smelter to pay for the cleanup of arsenic- and lead-contaminated properties in West and South El Paso, Environmental Protection Agency officials said Thursday.

How the end of negotiations -- which were aimed at getting Asarco to pay for all past and future costs of cleanup in El Paso -- will affect the 600 properties identified as still needing soil removal is unclear.

Separate negotiations are proceeding on continuing the cleanup later this year.

"We had been in negotiations with Asarco up until mid- December ... for Asarco to pay all past and future costs of remediation in El Paso. But we simply realized that Asarco was unwilling to do that, and the talks stopped," said Dave Bary, spokesman for the EPA Region 6 office in Dallas.

Asarco officials said the company has agreed to use $2 million of its trust fund toward remediation work this year in El Paso.

The Justice Department administers a $100 million trust fund established with Asarco money in 2002 to deal with Asarco-related environmental problems around the country. The department has authorized $2 million from the fund to be used in El Paso.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said in January: "Two million dollars is a drop in the bucket."

"Our best estimate is that the on-site and off-site cleanup will cost between $80 million and $250 million for the mess that Asarco has left," Shapleigh said.

Asarco officials also said that a separate negotiation for the cleanup to continue later this year is proceeding, and that all everyone is waiting for is approval of the plan for the cleanup.

"It is true that the EPA and Asarco remain far apart on who is responsible for elevated metals in some El Paso soils. Past costs will be discussed on a national level at a later date," said Thomas Aldrich, Asarco vice president for environmental affairs. "The current residential cleanup cost is a part of ongoing discussions with the EPA Region 6. Asarco wants to conduct the El Paso residential cleanup using money that is currently being disbursed from the Asarco/ DOJ/EPA Environmental Trust Fund because we believe we can be more cost effective with our money."

EPA spokeswoman Cindy Fanning said, "Asarco has submitted a draft work plan, but what we're waiting on is an agreement between EPA, the state and Asarco for the plan."

Risher Gilbert, chairwoman of a coalition of neighborhoods in West El Paso that includes properties the EPA said were contaminated, said she learned recently about the breakdown in negotiations from an EPA official.

"I was disappointed. I wish we had been at the table during the discussions, but we (neighborhoods) weren't included," Gilbert said.

Mayor Joe Wardy said he's asking U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, to help find out the exact status of the negotiations between the smelter and the EPA.

"It's a very complex exercise. I understand that part of the negotiation has been successful and part of it has not," Wardy said. "I'm asking the congressman's help in getting a detailed synopsis from the EPA."

Jon Rinehart, EPA site assessment manager, was in El Paso this week to assign priorities to additional contaminated properties in South and West El Paso according to guidelines that include properties where children are present, properties with bare yards, yards with arsenic contamination in excess of 46 parts per million, and yards with lead contamination in the range of 600 ppm to 700 ppm.

"We have about 600 properties that we have identified, and I am going through (the list) to prioritize them," Rinehart said. "There were 150 to 160 properties that we needed to check further to determine whether kids were there. Unless we are told otherwise, we will clean the lead-contaminated properties to 500 ppm. We're giving priority to the ones with the highest lead levels."

Rinehart said the next round of cleanup in El Paso, using money from the trust fund, could start in June.

Experts say that children who are exposed to unhealthful lead levels may have development problems, and that children absorb lead into their bodies more easily than adults.

Ingesting high levels of arsenic, which occurs naturally or as a result of industrial processes, can lead to cancer.

Between November 2002 and September 2004, the EPA cleaned 505 properties in El Paso, Rinehart said. The past cleanup cost $8 million, and Asarco paid $2 million of that, he added. The EPA paid the other $6 million.

Since the EPA said each property cost about $30,000 to clean up, Sen. Shapleigh has contended that the additional $2 million that Asarco has agreed to contribute will not be enough to take care of all the contaminated properties.

The EPA said the smelter is the likely source of the contamination, but Asarco contends that slag, lead paint particles and arsenical pesticides are the most likely sources.