{"id":1130,"date":"2015-07-09T14:19:04","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T14:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apps.tlt.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/disasters\/?page_id=1130"},"modified":"2025-10-30T21:13:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:13:02","slug":"el-paso-and-its-smelter-overview-and-chronology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/front-page\/el-paso-and-its-smelter-overview-and-chronology\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso and Its Smelter (Overview)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n    <div id=\"timeline-embed\"><\/div>\n    <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n        var timeline_config = {\n            width: \"100%\",\n            height: \"650\",\n            source: \"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1rCv-dlhn1PSA4-nd-aOJXlzQQqIT6pfk7g0Tkddvo68\/edit?gid=0#gid=0\",\n            embed_id: \"timeline-embed\",\n            start_at_end: false,\n            start_at_slide: \"0\",\n            start_zoom_adjust: \"\",\n            initial_zoom:\"2\",\n            hash_bookmark: false,\n            font: \"\",\n            debug: false,\n            lang: \"en\",\n\t\t\tmaptype: \"\",\n\t\t\tscript_path: \"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-content\/plugins\/TimelineJS-Wordpress-Plugin\/v3\/js\/\"\n        }\n\/\/ ]]><\/script>\n        \n\n\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/files\/2015\/07\/IMG_0078-copy-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-1177 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/files\/2015\/07\/IMG_0078-copy-5.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0078 copy\" width=\"4752\" height=\"3168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/files\/2015\/07\/IMG_0078-copy-5.jpg 4752w, https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/files\/2015\/07\/IMG_0078-copy-5-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/files\/2015\/07\/IMG_0078-copy-5-644x429.jpg 644w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 4752px) 100vw, 4752px\" \/><\/a><strong>Historical Overview<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h6>ASARCO operated a lead and copper smelter on the western outskirts of El Paso for nearly the entire twentieth century. This town\u2019s emergence as a city over this same while owed much to the jobs and wealth this smelter generated. Yet the long shadow of toxicity it cast over its own workforce as well as neighboring environments has also left deep imprints on this city\u2019s history. Nationally, the lead coughed out by the El Paso smelter has contributed to, among other things, a heightened appreciation among scientists and regulators of how damaging this toxic metal can be to children. But locally, controversies have ebbed and flowed over the resultant danger and damage, from the events leading to the closure of Smeltertown in the early 1970\u2019s, to ASARCO\u2019s renovation of its plant with CONTOP technology in the early 1990\u2019s, to the \u201cGet the Lead Out\u201d campaign of the early 2000\u2019s, which helped keep the smelter from reopening. Even though the smelter is now being demolished, its many historical impacts continue to linger in El Pasoans\u2019 memories and bodies, in questions they still have about local contamination, and in quandaries about what to do with the site.<\/h6>\n<h3><strong>Chronology of Smelter&#8211;Community Relations in El Paso<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1880\u2019s-1920\u2019s<\/strong><\/span> (El Paso population 1880: 736; 1920: 77,560; Juarez population 1920: 19,457)<\/h6>\n<h6>1887\u2014El Paso lead smelter founded by Robert Towne; acquired in 1901 by American Smelting and Refining<\/h6>\n<h6>1911\u2014lead smelter augmented with opening of a copper plant; by 1928, 700 total employees<\/h6>\n<h6>Late 1920\u2019s\u2014Installation planned of a Cotrell precipitator to \u201cabolish the smoke nuisance\u201d which should then \u201ccease to bother El Pasoans\u201d especially \u201cKern Place and Sunset Heights\u201d<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1930\u2019s and 40&#8217;s<\/strong><\/span> (1940 El Paso population: 96,810; Juarez population: 48,881)<\/h6>\n<h6>1936\u2014Smelter has $1 millon payroll; 800 employees; by 1949, 850 employees<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1950\u2019s and 60\u2019s<\/strong> <\/span>(1960 El Paso population: 276,687; Juarez population: 262,119)<\/h6>\n<h6>1950s\u2014$300,000 Cotrell Precipitation plant added; ASARCO smelter recognized nationally for safety and industrial hygiene programs<\/h6>\n<h6>1950, 1956, 1957, 1967, 1968\u2014Strikes by smelter workers<\/h6>\n<h6>1966\u2014610-foot \u201csmokeless\u201d stack opened<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1970\u2019s<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 (1970 El Paso population 339,615; Juarez population 407,370)<\/h6>\n<h6>1970&#8211;US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) founded and federal Clean Air Act strengthened<\/h6>\n<h6>Early 1970\u2019s&#8211; City of El Paso lawsuit against ASARCO for violating Clean Air Act (settled 1972); ASARCO plans new technologies for pollution control including electrostatic precipitators and a sulphur extraction plant<\/h6>\n<h6>1972\u2014Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration (OSHA) created by new federal law<\/h6>\n<h6>1972&#8211;Children in Smeltertown found to have elevated lead levels or poisoning; residents relocated by City of El Paso to public housing and Smeltertown torn down<\/h6>\n<h6>Mid-70s\u2014Scientific team from Centers for Disease Control demonstrates elevated lead in blood of children beyond Smeltertown; results contested by study by local pediatricians funded by the trade association of the lead industry; Mexican government scientists also demonstrate elevated lead levels in children in Juarez, south of the smelter.<\/h6>\n<h6>1976-1977\u2014828-foot smokestack opened; ASARCO smelter employs 1000<\/h6>\n<h6>Late 1970\u2019s\u2014OSHA pressures ASARCO on high levels of lead and other toxins within the smelter workplace<\/h6>\n<h6>1979\u2014first lawsuit against ASARCO for lead poisoning of children in Juarez<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1980\u2019s<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 (1980 El Paso population: 425,289; Juarez population: 649,275)<\/h6>\n<h6>1980\u2014\u201cSuperfund\u201d created by federal government to clean up hazardous industrial waste sites<\/h6>\n<h6>Early 1980\u2019s&#8211;petitions to stop ASARCO pollution on the west side of El Paso gain as many as 10,000 signatures<\/h6>\n<h6>1985\u2014ASARCO shuts down its lead smelter but continues to smelt copper<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>1990\u2019s<\/strong><\/span> (1990 El Paso population: 515,342 Juarez population: 789,522)<\/h6>\n<h6>1991-92\u2014ASARCO plans to modernize its copper smelter; given permit by Texas Air Control Board (TACB) to build CONTOP, which will supposedly reduce pollution and costs; small opposition at the public hearing on the permit decision<\/h6>\n<h6>1998\u2014Smelter only employs 350 workers; in 1999, ASARCO sells its copper production facilities to Grupo Mexico, which shuts down production in El Paso<\/h6>\n<h6>1999&#8211;first lawsuit filed accusing ASARCO of burning hazardous waste at El Paso smelter<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>2000\u2019s and 2010\u2019s<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 (2000 El Paso population: 563,662; Juarez population: 1,187, 275)<br \/>(2010 El Paso population: 649,121; Juarez population: 1,321,004)<\/h6>\n<h6>2001\u2014University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) scientists Amaya, Pingitore begin study of lead exposure in and around El Paso; EPA begins assessing environmental risks in local soil<\/h6>\n<h6>2002 onward\u2014ASARCO hatches plan to reopen the El Paso copper smelter and requests a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)<\/h6>\n<h6>2005-08\u2014EPA-ordered clean-up of over 1000 homes with lead contaminated soil in West and South El Paso<\/h6>\n<h6>Mid-2000\u2019s&#8211;community opposition arises; groups involved against the permit include (not in any particular order) Sierra Club, Association Of Community Organizations For Reform Now (ACORN), Ex-ASARCO Workers, neighborhood organizers, UTEP students, Mayor John Cook and the City Council, Senator Shapleigh and his office.<\/h6>\n<h6>2007-2009 TCEQ approves permit but ASARCO decides not to reopen the smelter; Project Navigator (a private company employed by the government) takes over management of cleanup<\/h6>\n<h6>2013\u2014El Paso smokestack brought down<\/h6>\n\n<style>\n\t\tbody {\n\t\t\tbackground-image: url('https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0078-scaled.jpg');\n\t\t\tbackground-size: cover;\n\t\t\tbackground-position: center center;\n\t\t\tbackground-repeat: no-repeat;\n\t\t\tbackground-attachment: fixed;\n\t\t}\n\t<\/style>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Historical Overview ASARCO operated a lead and copper smelter on the western outskirts of El Paso for nearly the entire twentieth century. This town\u2019s emergence as a city over this same while owed much to the jobs and wealth this smelter generated. Yet the long shadow of toxicity it cast over its own workforce as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":0,"parent":1056,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[105,106,70,103,99,73,109,102,104,107],"class_list":["post-1130","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-chronology","tag-cronologia","tag-el-paso","tag-fundicion","tag-historical-overview","tag-lead","tag-panorama-historico","tag-plomo","tag-smelting","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1130"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6998,"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1130\/revisions\/6998"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envirodangers.studies.stonybrook.edu\/wordpress\/envirodangers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}