Contested Case Hearing
A contested case hearing was held on Asarco’s air permit renewal beginning July 11, 2005. The original permit was issued in 1992, and Asarco applied for the permit renewal in 2002. The public hearing was held in El Paso, Texas, at the Ceremonial Courtroom in the El Paso County Courthouse. The hearing lasted 2 weeks. What’s next?
All parties must file their closing briefs by August 19, 2005
All parties must file their replies to the closing briefs by August 28, 2005
The deadline for the administrative law judge to issue proposal for decision is October 28, 2005.
Interesting notes:
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The City of El Paso did not produce even one witness that worked or still works in the City/County air quality or environmental departments as environmental regulators to testify against Asarco.
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Asarco produced a memo written by the head of the El Paso City/County Health and Environmental Department that supports Asarco’s air permit renewal.
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The only local witness the City of El Paso produced is an administrator that testified that he did not know “anything” prior to his start date of 2003, well after the El Paso Plant applied for its renewal.
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The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) witness stood firm in their believe that Asarco’s air permit does not cause or contribute to air pollution and that Asarco’s compliance history warrants renewal of their permit.
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The Sierra Club’s own witness testified that Asarco’s compliance history was so good that if Asarco’s permit were denied on that basis, so too would most other permitted sources in the State of Texas.
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