Monday, September 18, 2006

ASARCO Really Might Re-Open

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In 1999 after many years of contaminating the El Paso-Juarez community with toxic heavy metals this smelter was finally closed.
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Kids were poisoned with lead for many years just to make this massive corporation more profits. Check out the Sierra Club study on lead in the soil: http://tinyurl.com/lclzv
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It was closed not because environmentalists got their acts together, or the democratic process worked, but in reality it was closed due to market forces, economics and the price of copper.
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Now it might re-open. Honest. It is a very real possibility.

This would be a real disaster for the people of El Paso and Juarez. Lets hope that enough people who have some stroke do what is necessary to stop this.
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In 1970 I did a paper on ASARCO for an engineering class I was taking at UTEP. Back then it was clear what the lead put out by them was doing. That was 35 years ago. There is no question that getting it shut back down if it does re-open will be almost impossible. The only hope is to keep it from re-opening now.
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Local issues are the ones that us normal people can actually have some impact on. I hope that the students at UTEP briefly put aside their hate for President W and the war in Iraq, and focus their attention on something genuienly worthwhile that they can do for humanity. They could have a true impact.


LINK: http://newspapertree.com/view_article.sstg?c=e21a462467284e3b
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