Asarco Stacks 2013

Asarco Stacks 2013

The image shows the Asarco smokestacks in 2013 - leftovers from the Asarco smelting site. They were torn down later that year. This industrial area was called Smeltertown. It was situated west of downtown El Paso and it came into being with the construction of the Kansas City Consolidated Smelting and Refining Company (later the American Smelting and Refining Company, or ASARCO) copper and lead smelter, in 1887. In the 1880s the Mexican employees of the smelter began building houses west of the smelter, beside the Rio Grande. School, church and post office were added later. The facility was a custom smelter that processed several different metals from ore that came from diverse sites. Although lead and zinc were extracted at the site, copper was the main product in the later years of operation. In 1945 the El Paso Herald-Post called attention to the poverty in Smeltertown and in the early 1970s it became the center of an environmental controversy. ASARCO was charged with violations of the Texas Clean Air Act. It was also found out that 72 out of 500 residents suffered from lead poisoning due to a huge amount of lead emission between 1969 and 1971. Another study confirmed “undue lead absorption” of people living in a one-mile radius in 1975. In the same year an injunction ordered ASARCO to modernize and make environmental improvements, which were not done due to the high costs. Against their wishes the residents were forced to move; their former homes were razed, as well as the business buildings and stacks, leaving only the abandoned school and church buildings to mark the site of El Paso's first major industrial community.

Área: Central / Smeltertown

Fuente: C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections, University of Texas at El Paso Library. Collection Name: Asarco Stacks 2013. Photo ID: IMG_4488.

Cargado por: UTEP Library Special Collections

Comentarios

Hacer un comentario
Gracias por su comentario

Reportar esta entrada

Elige la razón más importante para este reporte

Tu nombre

Tu correo electrónico

Detalle opcional

Gracias por su reporte

Más sobre la misma comunidad-colección

Revolutionary Camp

Looking from Madero's Camp to the American side.

Madero's Headquarters near Asarco

Madero's headquarters near Asarco. Madero may be speaking to ...

Mexican Revolution Artillery

Practicing with a fieldpiece during the Mexican Revolution. ...

Mexican Revolution Artillery

This photograph may have been taken at the Rebel Camp near ...

Stacks on ASARCO Site

The photograph shows the stacks of the ASARCO smelting site from ...

San Jose del Rio Grande Church

This church was originally named San Rosalia, and was built in ...

Boundary Marker

This is probably the Boundary Marker near Smeltertown, with the ...

SmelterTown

The beginnings of ASARCO. Photograph taken from a souvenir ...

ASARCO

60-ton Converter Crane

ASARCO

60-ton hoist block

ASARCO

70-ton wooden bridge

ASARCO

300 ton press (shaft hub)

ASARCO

300 ton press, shaft hub 2

ASARCO

500 KW Crank

ASARCO

500 KW Generato

ASARCO

610' stack

ASARCO

828' stack

ASARCO - El Paso, Texas

Photograph taken of a stack - upper platform -828' stack, ...

ASARCO

4160 Volt Switch

ASARCO

Air steam 400 turbine

ASARCO

Air lines manifold

ASARCO

Bag house ventilation

ASARCO

Bag house

home.search_collection