The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is questioning the air discharge permit that the Texas Commission for environmental Quality approved for Asarco in February.
The questions came in an April 9 letter from EPA’s associate director for air, Thomas Diggs, to the director of TCEQ’s Air Permit Division, Richard A. Hyde. [View letter via link below]
Newspaper Tree could not reach Asarco officials, but Teresa Montoya, whose public relations firm often serves as a liaison between the company and the media, said the letter is routine.
“It’s just part of the normal process,” she said. “The permit’s been granted, and now the EPA is reviewing it. That’s normal.”
But El Paso Mayor John Cook said he thinks the letter is significant because it raises the same issues the city brought up in challenging the renewal of Asarco’s discharge permit.
Specifically, EPA is questioning whether the decade-long shutdown of the Asarco copper smelter in El Paso should trigger “Prevention of Significant Deterioration” requirements that could mean Asarco should have to upgrade to the newest available technologies and apply for a brand new discharge permit versus a renewal.
“These are the same arguments we made in Austin to the TCEQ, and they basically dismissed them,” Cook said.
The city, he said, contended that Asarco should have to file a new permit to discharge compounds into El Paso’s air “because of the amount of time the plant has been dormant and the deterioration and cannibalization of their equipment.”
In the cover letter that accompanied a list of six detailed questions, Diggs wrote, “In general, the information available to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency appears to point to Asarco being potentially subject to the Prevention of Significant Deterioration requirements, which include provisions such as requiring compliance with best available control technologies.”
Cook said the letter was more than welcome
“I thought I got that for my 38th wedding anniversary, which is today,” Cook said Friday.
David Crowder can be reached at dcrowder@epmediagroup.com
Related Documents:
Fred
April 11, 2008
Thanks, David Crowder, for this very significant and insightful article. Finally, the EPA may start enforcing the law and deny Asarco's permit. The EPA letter brought up some important points, but could have also mentioned that El Paso is in noncompliance with PM10 particulate emissions, and that the many tons of particulates Asarco plans to spew into our air each year will push El Paso and the surrounding area even further into noncompliance.
Thank you El Paso Mayor Cook and those members of City Council who have stood firmly against Asarco. Thanks also to the elected officials and public servants in El Paso, Juarez, Sunland Park and the State of New Mexico for their steadfast holding forth for clean air, without Asarco.
Our property taxes will go up if Asarco reopens, as people move away to avoid Asarco, with resultant loss in assessed valuations. Other property owners will have to take up the slack and pay more taxes.
We need clean employers in the area, and to not scare them away if Asarco reopens and degrades the air and threatens the health of the three million people in the El Paso - Juarez - Sunland Park area.
Betty
April 12, 2008
This sounds like wonderful news for El Paso. Fred is correct is stating that if Asarco reopens our taxes will go up and jobs will fade away-not to mention that our air quailty will be compromised as well. It will be a great day in El Paso if the EPA takes the appropriate steps to close down Asarco which is something that the TCEQ failed to do!
Mervin Moore
April 15, 2008
If it is routine that EPA reviews permits after they are granted, I hope that the routine continues that they enforce the regulations to protect the public. It is hard to believe that ASARCO could have gotten this far against the wishes of the leadership of the region.
QuePuesCaraDeNuez?
April 15, 2008
They don't call them "permits" for nuthin'. All Asarco needs to do is spend a few million $$$ to comply with best available control technologies and they'll be blowin smoke out that stack & polluting our aire, hack hack. If Asarco, LLC is still bankrupt its hard to imagine they'll pull enough credit together to spend that kind of money just to comply with requests from a bunch of bureaucratic nimrods. They'll just get some heavy weight US Senators from Texas to pressure EPA, like they did before about 20 years ago, and EPA will issue that permit mas pronto que quick. Then all the GTLO ants will be tossed into the slagheap of history.