What is prompting Denton citizens to challenge part of a multimillion dollar Mexican copper industry?  They claim it's because of the creation of lead-emitting smokestacks, the introduction of pollution that would potentially contaminate their city's water and soil and a regulatory commission that they say isn't doing its job.

It all started about a year and a half ago with a legal notice for United Copper Industries, a new business in town.  The notice said United Copper was going to emit lead.  Ed Soph of the music faculty and other concerned citizens were moved to investigate.  They found that the company would be located within a mile and a half of Hodge Elementary School at 2727 Geesling Road on U.S. Highway 380 in Denton.  That nucleus of concerned citizens formed a group known as Citizens for Healthy Growth, which now has more than 200 members.

Soph, president of the organization, said the formation of Citizens for Healthy Growth had to happen.

"Otherwise, there would have been nothing done to stop the environmental degradation that United Copper proposes to do to Denton."

United Copper Industries is a $37 million subsidiary of Industrias Unidas, S.A., which is based in Mexico.  It manufactures and distributes copper pipes and electrical building wire that is used for wiring everything from homes to industries.

The proposed amount of UCI's lead emissions, about 260 pounds per year, is legal according to the standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

THE BENEFITS OF INDUSTRY

United Copper chose to come to Denton because, among other things, the company felt that Denton and UCI could both profit from the industry.

Dean Brown, United Copper's general manager, said United Copper is doing what it thinks will benefit Denton's economy.

"As of [March 26], we had 201 full-time employees and five temporaries.  Sixty percent of these employees are from Denton," Brown said.

According to Brown, United Copper is the third largest taxpayer in Denton.

"We provide a very major tax base for the city and at the same time are requiring minimal expenditures on the city for us to come here," Brown said.

Denton awarded United Copper three tax abatements and also gave it a zoning classification of being a "light industrial" project.  Had United Copper been defined as a "heavy" industrial, it would have had to go through the process of having its land rezoned, which is time consuming and risky.

THE PROBLEM WITH LEAD

Dr. Neil Carman, Clean Air Director for the Sierra club in Austin, told Citizens for Healthy Growth on October 25, 1998, about air quality permits and the effects of lead.  "No amount of lead is safe," he said.

"Lead is like a tiny invisible bullet.  For UCI to say, 'First see if anyone is harmed by it, and then complain,' is like having a policeman say, 'First wait for someone to shoot you and then we will protect you.'"

Carman said it only takes as little as one microgram to damage a developing fetus or small child.  The most devastating effects are on the brain but lead may also affect the kidneys and cause hypertension and chronic anemia.  In about six months, UCI will start emitting almost 118 billion micrograms a lead every year.

Carman proposed that UCI should be located far away from humans.

THE FIGHT FOR CLEAN AIR

Soph said that Citizens for Healthy Growth has what it considers to be at least one success in their campaign to stop possible pollution from United Copper.  Travis County judge Margaret Cooper ruled that the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission had erred when it issued an air-quality permit to UCI without holding a public hearing.

The commission had denied four citizens' request to hold a public hearing about their concerns about the pollutants, irritants and poisons that United Copper would be emitting each year.

The organization found a lawyer and successfully sued for a public hearing, which will be held in six to 12 months.

It is expected that when the judge signs the order, United Copper will ask for a stay, pending appeal on her judgment.  What this means that if the judge gives them this, upon posting a $5,000 bond, United Copper will be allowed to fire up its furnaces while the judge's ruling is in appeal.

"The irony in this is that here is the judge has said that 'you guys need a public hearing because these health issues have to be addressed' yet the legal system, through loopholes, allows them to start polluting even before those health issues have been addressed," Soph said.

United Copper officially started production on January 4.  However, the furnaces that will emit pollutants have not been put to use.  David L. Keffer, United Copper's environmental compliance, safety/security manager, said the shaft furnace is still in a testing mode.  The reverberatory furnace has not yet been built, but the tentative date for its completion and fire-up is in about six months.

When the hearing takes place, Soph said, that it will be just like a civil trial.

"Our side has to present expert witnesses to show that what United Copper is doing is bad, that their modeling procedures were shoddy and that things like soil and water were not even taken into consideration."

THE DEFINITION OF POLLUTION

Brown said that the EPA, the state commission and local governments have set rules and regulations to ensure that the environment is safe-guarded.

"We believe that we have met all the tests, that we have exceeded all the requirements and that there is not a concern and should be no concern over this word of pollution."

Citizens for Healthy Growth board member Paul Reese said the tests to find out the effects of United Copper's proposed pollution emissions weren't thorough enough.

Zephyr Environmental Corp. conducted the modeling for United Copper's application to the state commission for a construction permit for the copper rod casting furnaces.

"The modeling was based on 365 days per year based on the worst-case scenario," Keffer said.

Keffer said there will be continuous particulate monitoring of the smokestacks' emissions.  Particulate Matter 10 is a pollutant that aggravates respiratory conditions, such as asthma.

The smokestacks' monitors will not, however, gauge how much lead is being emitted.

Keffer said United Copper may conduct baseline experiments before the lead-emitting reverberatory furnace is put into use.  The experiments would measure the levels of lead in the soil and water before the smokestacks start emitting pollutants.

Citizens for Healthy Growth is also offering an initial round of soil testing for citizens' homes.  This will allow private citizens to assess the impact of lead pollution in the future if United Copper or some other source emits lead into the environment.

THE ZONING DEBATE

Citizens for Healthy Growth argues that United Copper should be zoned as "heavy industrial" because it can be considered a smelting facility.  Smelting is the process of melting the impurities out of copper ore.  This process releases more pollution such as lead into the air.  Denton city council member Mike Cochran wrote in an editorial, ". . . this facility is not considered a smelter because only 36 percent of the raw material used in this facility have to undergo the smelting process.  The TNRCC, like many government agencies, have their own rules and jargon and they ar welcome to them, but that doesn't make the smelting nonexistent."

Keffer said UCI is not going to be doing any smelting.

Despite the struggle with Citizens for Healthy Growth, United Copper is already planning for the future.  Brown said there is space for United Copper to expand the existing 365,000-square-foot building by an additional 100,000 to 150,000-square-feet.

"We didn't come here just to build a manufacturing plant and a distribution center.  We came here to establish an home here in the U.S.  We certainly expect to grow and expand and become a bigger part of the economy and the community here."

Citizens for Healthy Growth plans to keep growing as well.  Ed Soph said the organization does not want to be perceived as a one-issue organization.

"It just so happens that United Copper got us started and is still keeping us going to a large degree right now; but we want to continue to be a watchdog for our community.  We want to continue to be an educational organization."

Story by Lara Wallentine
The North Texas Daily
printed in entirety by permission

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