Oil and Gas Activity Returns to Santa Fe County - Rio Grande Chapter

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El Paso Group News Two Nations and Three Cities Take the Stand Against ASARCO The governing bodies of three sister cities in the Borderland – El Paso, Sunland Park, N.M., and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – came together May 1st, 2007 in a historic joint meeting to discuss several issues facing their communities, chief among them being the possible reopening of ASARCO. The mayors and their respective city councils held the meeting before several other elected officials, community leaders and members of the public and media at Monument 1, the area near the Rio Grande banks where the two countries’ and three cities’ borders converge. The unprecedented ceremony was presided over by Dr. Tony Payan, an assistant professor of international law and foreign policy in UTEP’s political science department. In convening the meeting, Payan told the councils and audience, both in English and Spanish, just how the gathering would proceed: each government was to commence its meeting according to its own protocols and traditions, Ciudad Juarez first, Sunland Park second, and El Paso third; then the joint meeting would be open to discussion and action regarding the various chosen topics. After each council formally convened, they began to debate the selected issues, the first being that of ASARCO. The Juarez council debated and quickly voted to join its sister cities in an official stance against ASARCO’s air permit renewal. The Sunland Park and El Paso councils followed suit, entering into an unprecedented binational agreement against what many claim is an outdated industry that will have a negative impact on the region. Sunland Park Mayor Ruben Segura stated that his city is a fast-growing municipality in one of the fastest-growing counties in New Mexico and that it has become a hotspot for tourism and entertainment in the area. “This is our lifeline in regards to our municipality,” he said. “I ask members of council and members of the public that we unite as a community” against ASARCO, Segura added. El Paso Mayor John Cook told the delegations that while ASARCO is located in the state of Texas and the city of El Paso, it has an impact on Sunland Park and Ciudad Juarez as well. The delegations heard from State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, who was in favor of the resolution, and they also heard from Dr. John Haines, a toxicology expert who spoke on the alleged health hazards he said would be posed by ASARCO emitting of several tons of pollutants into the air annually. Haynes, the son a mining engineer, also said that El Paso has the highest level of lead contamination ever encountered in a community in North America. He said the contamination was accidentally discovered by a pediatrician, and that the effects of elevated lead levels can be devastating to children, especially neurologically. Possible Economic Impact Just one day prior, ASARCO held a press conference on the grounds of the smelter to announce the findings of an economic impact study conducted through UTEP’s Institute for Policy and Economic Development (IPED). The study claims that the El Paso area will gain a total of 6.25 new jobs for every job created by the re-opening of ASARCO. With ASARCO planning to create over 300 new jobs at the smelter, the job creation spinoff would equal 1,819 new jobs throughout the region. Additionally, the study states that regional economic output would increase by $1.159 billion and generate $73 million in new labor income. The backdrop of the press conference, behind a vinyl banner saying “let’s get to work”, was a green area of land between the smelter entrance and I-10, not the actual operations facilities and towering smokestack. Tom Aldrich, Vice President of Environmental Affairs for ASARCO, said the copper smelter would be a valuable asset to the El Paso community and not cause any harm. “The community is not being asked to trade air quality for economic prosperity,” Aldrich stated. “There is nothing about this smelter that we would expect to be any different.” Responding to claims that the smelter would drive away newer jobs in other industries, such as the technology field, Aldrich said he believes that ASARCO can coexist with those other industries. “Part of our labor pool we’ll be looking at is the tech industry,” he added. But Mayor Cook disagrees that the economic impact of ASARCO reopening would be a positive one. “We could make a lot of money in El Paso by legalizing prostitution, but I don’t think we want to take that bold step,” Cook said during the special council meeting. Danny Arrellano, a former employee at ASARCO for 24 years, agrees with Cook. He said the wages paid to workers is not something that will benefit the community. “A lot of us came out sick,” he said. To pay for medical bills associated with a blood disorder he claims is a result of working at ASARCO, Arrellano said he and other employees have had to sell a lot of the properties they have accumulated through the years. “What did we gain,” he asked. Communities vs. Corporation ASARCO officials, in response to the special city council meeting and the resolutions adopted by the city governments, claimed that the resolutions contained misleading and false information about the community’s health. According to Lairy Johnson, the plant’s environmental manager, “air emissions from ASARCO have been scientifically proven to be safe and will not cause or contribute to air pollution in our community.” Johnson also stated that ASARCO is a “great place to work and all of the employees want clean air where they work, live and play.” He contends that the resolutions passed ignored the investigations conducted by local, state and environmental departments and other institutions. But a point was clearly made at the special council meeting: the communities and their leaders do not want this industry in the middle of their cities. Segura stated that the cities of El Paso, Sunland Park and Juarez must cooperate to resolve important issues because of their proximity. “We’re forced and encouraged to work together because of our mere geography,” he said. Cook agreed that bi-national cooperation should be the aim of the three governments. “That should be the goal,” he stated, “a day when we could truly live without borders.” Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on June 1st, 2007 at newspapertree.com, El Paso’s alternative media source. It is reprinted here with permission from the author. Rene Leon can be contacted at rene@newspapertree.com El Paso Group Directory http://texas.sierraclub.org/elpaso by Rene Leon Executive Committee Chair: Laurence Gibson lgibson@utep.edu 915/309-5419 Vice-Chair: Gil Pinon bifflehead@yahoo.com 915/307-3398 Secretary: Ann Falknor afalknor@sbcglobal.net 915/833-9162 Treasurer: Kathy Sunday sundayt@zianet.com 915/584-9301 Bill Addington aguavida@valornet.com 915/369-2541 Bob Geyer 915/834-8242 Juan Garza projectair@sbcglobal.net 915/565-2690 Liz Walsh ewalsh@utep.edu 915/584-1471 Committee Chairs Chapter Delegate Bill Addington aguavida@valornet.com 915/369-2541 Chapter Delegate (Alt.) Juan Garza projectair@sbcglobal.net 915/565-2690 Editor, Outings Laurence Gibson lgibson@utep.edu 915/594-7342 Inner City Outings, Membership Ted Mertig tmertig@earthlink.net 915/852-3011 Outings Rollin Wickenden rwickgila@aol.com 915/855-6697 Webmaster Terry Sunday sundayt@zianet.com 915/584-9301 14 Rio Grande Sierran July/August 2007
Preservation Live Earth Concerts to Reach Billions Al Gore is on the mission of a lifetime to educate the world about the climate crisis. First there was his slideshow, given one city at a time. Then the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, took the message from the slideshow far and wide. Now he has teamed up with producer Kevin Wall to put on another massive event, this time to inspire individuals, corporations, and governments all over the world to act now to solve the climate crisis. Live Earth is a 24-hour series of concerts, one on each of the world’s seven continents, all on July 7. The concerts will feature over 150 of the world’s top musicians, including The Police, Dave Matthews Band, Genesis, Kelly Clarkson, Jack Johnson, Madonna, Kanye West, Bon Jovi, and more. On the North American continent, the concert will take place in New York City. But even though we here in New Mexico don’t have a concert taking place close to us, we can still take part in Live Earth. The concerts will be streamed via satellite feed and shown on MSN’s website, and the NYC concert will be aired on NBC. Several events are taking place in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, and elsewhere. To find an event in your area, and to learn more about the concerts, visit www.liveearth.org. Or contact Lisa Hummon (248-0118 ext. 5, lhummon@defenders.org). —Lisa Hummon Sign up online www.sierraclub.org/membership or return this form: My Name _____________________________ Address _______________________________ City _________________________________ State ____________ Zip _________________ Email ________________________________ q Check enclosed, made payable to: Sierra Club P.O. Box 52968 Boulder, CO 80322-2968 Please charge my q Mastercard q VISA Cardholder’s Name ______________________ Card Number __________________________ Exp. Date ____ / ____ 1700 Join us! Parties Agree to Dismissal of Petroglyph National Monument Lawsuit The Sierra Club has agreed to the dismissal of the lawsuit over the extension of Paseo del Norte through Petroglyph National Monument. The lawsuit was currently pending in the New Mexico Court of Appeals. All other plaintiffs remaining in the suit, which include the National Trust for Historic Preservation and three individuals, as well as the City of Albuquerque, agreed to the dismissal. After an adverse decision in the district court, the plaintiffs attempted to have construction stayed while their appeal was decided. Motions for a stay were denied by both the district court and the Court of Appeals. As a result, construction proceeded during the appeal. Since construction of the road has now largely been completed, the Club determined that there was no longer anything to be gained by pursuing the lawsuit and that any further legal action was moot. As of the date this article was written, the lawsuit remains pending until the Court of Appeals enters an Order of Dismissal. Appellants had argued that the City failed to undertake “all possible planning to preserve and protect and to minimize harm to the significant prehistoric or historic site” in locating the four-lane (and potentially eight-lane) highway through the monument, as required by the New Mexico Prehistoric and Historic Sites Preservation Act. “It was a tough decision to give up on this case, Membership Categories Individual Joint Introductory q $25 Regular q $39 q $49 Supporting q $75 q $100 Contributing q $150 q $175 Life q $1,000 q $1,250 Senior q $25 q $35 Student q $25 q $35 Limited Income $25 $35 q q Contributions, gifts, and dues to the Sierra Club are not tax-deductible; they support our effective, citizen-based advocacy and lobbying efforts. Your dues include $7.50 for a subscription to Sierra magazine and $1 for your Chapter newsletter. because we’ve devoted so much time and energy into protecting very significant cultural resources for more than a decade,” said Betsy Merritt, Deputy General Counsel for the National Trust. The City maintains that cutting a 165-foot swath through the Petroglyph National Monument was necessary to relieve the traffic woes on the Westside. However, Lora Lucero, one of the appellants and a land use planner, stated: “The extension of Paseo will not relieve traffic problems on the west side. The road will be congested the minute it opens because it was always meant to serve more development on the far west side – and it will eventually lead to even bigger traffic jams. The only people who will benefit from this road are developers, not the folks who live on the west side. “In the future, the City needs to make sure that new development is tied to responsible transportation planning,” Lucero added. “For all the talk about cutting CO 2 emissions and green development, City officials certainly didn’t walk the talk in this case.” —Richard Barish To Contribute to the Rio Grande Sierran The Rio Grande Sierran is published six times a year – early January, March, May, July, September, and November – by the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club as a benefit for members living in New Mexico and West Texas. The opinions expressed in signed articles in the Rio Grande Sierran are the opinions of the writers and not necessarily those of the Sierra Club. Articles may be freely reprinted for nonprofit purposes, provided that credit is given to the author and the Rio Grande Sierran. (Please let us know if you reprint.) Products and services advertised in the Rio Grande Sierran are not necessarily endorsed by the Sierra Club. Contributions – articles, photos, artwork, poems, letters to the editor, paid advertisements – are welcome. Send to the editor (see masthead page 2). Submissions by Rio Grande Chapter members will take precedence over others. Articles are subject to abridgement. Letters to the editor may be up to 500 words. The contributor’s name and email address will be printed as a source of more information, unless the contributor specifies otherwise. Submissions must be received by the 10th of the month prior to publication. Editorial practices as developed and adopted by the Rio Grande Chapter will be used in production of the Rio Grande Sierran. Contents of the Group pages are the responsibility of the editor for that Group and any policies that are in place from that Group. Nonmember subscriptions are $10 per year. Send checks to Thomas Robey, 145 W. Zia Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505. Please allow eight weeks for processing. Extra copies are often available. Please contact the editor (see masthead page 2) or the Group Chair in your area (see Group pages). July/August 2007 rio Grande Sierran 15
Page 1 and 2: Rio Grande Sierran News of the Rio
Page 3 and 4: Info for Activists & a Word from Yo
Page 5 and 6: Public Lands More Support Needed to
Page 7 and 8: Political U.S. Attorney Firing Scan
Page 9 and 10: Taos Branch News Sentinels Celebrat
Page 11 and 12: Northern Group News Sat Sun July NO
Page 13: Southern Group News Outings Please

Oil and Gas Activity Returns to Santa Fe County - Rio Grande Chapter

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