ASARCO, City Square Off; Past Permit & Emissions Discussed
EL PASO, TX. – Years of legal battlesand public debates culminate in a do-or-die hearingin the case of ASARCO future.
Monday, the City of El Paso squared off withASARCO over the smelter’s air permit renewal.The resultof thecase could play a major role in the city’s environmental future.
A two-judge panel is presiding over this Contested Case Hearing. The judges will decide if the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) was right in renewing ASARCO’s air permit in 2002.
There are two questions to answer in this case: would ASARCO’s reopening cause or contribute to a condition of air pollution and does the smelter’s compliance history the five years prior to being idle warrant a renewal?
Former ASARCO El Paso Plant Manager Larry Castor, was grilled about his nearly 30 years with the smelting company. Mr. Castor says after a contested case hearing in 1992, ASARCO got the permit to install a state-of-the-art “Contop” emissions system in El Paso that greatly reduced air pollution.
Under questioning by a lawyer for the City of El Paso, Mr. Castor acknowledged the release of some chemicals like sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, was greater that permitted levels. In some cases the amount released was5 or 10 times greater.
Mr. Castor says onceASARCO testing revealed the higher emissions, the smelter notified TCEQ, and requested the permit be amended to allow for higher emissions levels.TECQ complied.
A lawyer forASARCOtells ABC-7 thatout the original permit levels were estimates, and even after they were changed, chemicals released by ASARCO did not exceed state standards.
Mr. Castor also acknowledgedASARCO processed copper sulfide from a recycling plant in Corpus Christi that the EPA referred to as “hazardous material.” ASARCO says the materials were not reclassified as hazardous until much later.
