Texas smelter to reopen despite environmental concerns

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas regulators on Wednesday approved a controversial air permit to allow Asarco LLC to restart a dormant copper smelter in West Texas over objections of elected officials in El Paso, Texas, New Mexico and Juarez, Mexico.

The three-member Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) voted unanimously to approve Tucson, Arizona-based Asarco's request to reopen the smelter, which has a long history of complaints over its compliance with pollution regulations. The commission added a number of conditions to the draft permit and cut the permit length in half, to five years.

The smelter, located near downtown El Paso, was shut in 1999 after global prices for copper dropped. Asarco's six-year effort to renew the permit has bounced between the agency and the courthouse.

The permit application garnered widespread opposition from elected officials and community groups due to Asarco's previous operating history. Officials are worried that renewed operation of the plant will increase emissions of lead, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants in El Paso, nearby Dona Ana County, New Mexico, and the city of Juarez, Mexico.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, last October, said he opposed the permit renewal, citing "potential negative impacts to public health and the environment."

TCEQ Commissioner Larry Soward said, under Texas law, the agency must approve the permit if Asarco successfully addresses deficiencies raised in a 2007 report from the TCEQ executive director in the time allowed.

"We have to follow the statute. We really have no choice," Soward said.

However, the commission agreed it wants assurances that Asarco addresses all additional permit conditions, including additional air monitoring for lead emissions, before the plant is allowed to restart.

Wednesday's vote will not end the opposition to Asarco's plan, said State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso. "We will not quit," Shapleigh said after the meeting.