EL PASO --Asarco's El Paso plant was closed for so long and its equipment was so out of date that the federal government would have asked Asarco to get a brand-new air-quality permit if it had not decided Tuesday to permanently shut down.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday told Asarco and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the renewed permit the state gave the smelter probably would not be valid under the Clean Air Act because of the length of time the plant has been closed and the lack of maintenance the plant has received.

"Had they not decided to shut down its facility in El Paso, we would have objected to the state permit that was issued last year," said Dave Bary, the spokesman for the EPA's regional office in Dallas. "It was our finding that the company would have had to start
    
The correspondence between the EPA and Asarco happened Tuesday, just hours before the smelter announced that because of the economic downturn, it will no longer seek to reopen its El Paso plant.

And although the EPA said the timing of its decisions and the Asarco announcement were "coincidental," officials in El Paso suggested it was the tougher environmental requirements that forced Asarco to leave the city for good.

"Asarco has a history and record of distorting the truth," Eastridge/Mid-Valley city Rep. Steve Ortega said. "It comes as no surprise to me that they failed to acknowledge the findings of the EPA in their decision to close down the plant in El Paso."

Officials of Asarco said the EPA's letter had nothing to do with their decision to permanently close the smelter.

Since October, the per-pound price of copper has dropped by about 50 percent, according to the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Asarco officials also said that the letter EPA sent Tuesday was the latest in a series of correspondence between Asarco and the EPA, and that the information released Tuesday had been shared with them before.

Still, state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said that Tuesday's EPA letter is the recognition from the federal government that old environmental standards should not apply to Asarco.

"What the real story is, here is a community that rose against years of contamination and abuse," he said. "With this new (presidential) administration, Asarco's permit had to have a new ... review, and that's what stopped the permit."

The EPA's Bary said that if Asarco had wanted to keep its El Paso smelter open, the federal government would have asked Asarco to create new models for air-quality standards that dealt with ozone, lead and fine particulates.

Asarco also would have had to upgrade most of its equipment and to have new public meetings.

"Had the Asarco facility pursued reopening, it would have been necessary for them to start the process anew," Bary said. "But with the company's intent to close the facility, it makes the issue of a permit irrelevant at this time."