On February 8, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued their ruling on ASARCO's air permit renewal for their El Paso copper smelter. We hoped for a clear decision. Although all three Commissioners made clear that ASARCO failed to meet the requirements for a permit renewal, Texas law prevents the Commissioners from automatically denying that renewal. Instead, there is a process through which the parties must proceed, forcing the Commissioners to ask for new air modeling and an onsite investigation of the ASARCO plant.

The entire Border Region, from El Paso to Sunland Park, New Mexico to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was well represented in Austin. During the TCEQ hearing, Senator Shapleigh requested for those in the hearing room who were opposed to the permit renewal to stand up as a group. What happened was an effective metaphor for the entire movement that has transformed and invigorated the Border Region: over 100 citizens who had all traveled more than 600 miles to attend the hearing stood up for clean air, for healthy children, and for a future free of pollution.

Citizens throughout the three-state and two-nation region have indeed stood up and made their voices heard, and I know they don't intend to stop now. Although the TCEQ ruling places another step in the process to the eventual denial of ASARCO's air permit, we all know that the end result is worth the fight.