As of August 16, 2006, $21,639,883,967 in claims have been filed against Asarco. Asarco, a subsidiary of the Mexican corporation Grupo Mexico S.A. de C.V, declared bankruptcy in August 2005, leaving taxpayers and western communities possibly footing the bill for decades of environmental damage. Asarco is on the hook for cleanup work or potentially liable at more than three-dozen sites in 16 states:

• California
• Washington
• Idaho
• Montana
• Utah
• Arizona
• Colorado
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Oklahoma
• Kansas
• Nebraska
• Missouri
• Illinois
• Ohio
• New Jersey

"Communities and the taxpayers are the ones that suffer when mining companies go belly up," said Roger Featherstone, Southwest Circuit Rider for Earthworks, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization. "In a time of record copper prices it is appalling that a mining company could leave such a devastating legacy for so many communities in the West. Asarco has chosen to cut and run instead of taking care of its responsibilities to workers and the environment."

In El Paso, 1,097 residential homes have been found with lead contamination exceeding 500 ppm and arsenic contamination exceeding 46 ppm. In 2002, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated Asarco as the "potential responsible party" for the contamination. As of January 11, 2006, the EPA has cleaned 705 of these properties, leaving 392 contaminated.

Despite the remaining threat to the health and welfare of our community, Asarco is working aggressively to re-open its over 100-year-old smelter. "The Chapter 11 reorganization should be beneficial to Asarco receiving its air permit renewal because the reorganization plan is structured to help make Asarco stronger and more viable in the future," Lairy Johnson, environmental manager at the El Paso smelter, told the El Paso Times in August 2005.

According to paperwork filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Asarco's re-opened smelter will emit annually into El Paso's skies 7.69 tons of lead, 230.04 tons of oxides of nitrogen, 287.68 tons of carbon monoxide, 7.66 tons of volatile organic compounds, 6,673.15 tons of sulfur dioxide and 16.21 tons of sulfuric acid.

Senator Shapleigh has worked for years to create a clean and healthy El Paso, spearheading initiatives from El Paso Pride to the Texas Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

"Quality of life is the way to jobs. Who will come when a smelter is a mile from a revitalized downtown?" said Senator Shapleigh. "When you have thousands of troops coming, hi-tech and clean trade clusters emerging, and when El Paso has finally attained high air quality standards, why would anyone want to put 7000 tons of sulfur dioxide and lead back into our air? When you put El Paso's interests first, the answer is clear."

For more information, go to www.asarcoreorg.com