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Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships
Regional Programs: U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Justice Program
The Rio Grande between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad
Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
When you drive into central El Paso, Texas, you can't miss the huge smokestack towering over the city, painted with the letters
A-S-A-R-C-O. The American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) lead and copper
smelter has held that place for more than a century.
Five minutes
from downtown El Paso and just across the Rio Grande from Ciudad
Juárez—which together form the largest border metropolitan
area in the world—ASARCO emitted hundreds of tons of lead,
arsenic, and cadmium
onto surrounding homes, schools, and businesses from 1887-1999.
The
ASARCO smelter is now poised to smelt again and release even more
toxins into the area. ASARCO has already made too many of
Juárez and El Paso's children sick with lead poisoning.
Area families need a safe environment that is free of lead.
That
is why the Sierra Club has been leading the charge to keep the
smelter closed and to hold ASARCO accountable for its environmental
and public health abuses.
More Information:
About the Organizer
Every day, Mariana Chew-Sanchez fights for social justice and environmental protection
in two countries. Mariana supports communities in the United States and Mexico
as they strive to make the border region cleaner and safer. She leads the charge
against the industrial, commercial and municipal pollution that contaminates
the area and threatens the health of the millions of people who live there.
When
Mariana is not taking on polluters, she is preparing her Environmental Science
and Engineering Ph.D. dissertation on bi-national
water policy for the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez region at the University
of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). She has a Master of Public Administration
from UTEP, and a Bachelor of Science Agricultural Engineering from
Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo, Mexico with a specialization
in soil conservation in arid zones. She has authored and co-authored
numerous published articles on the policy implications of groundwater
studies and presented at national and international events. Mariana's
professional experience includes working as an engineering consultant
for multi-national organizations, the El Paso Water Taskforce and
the Environmental Defense Fund.
Get Involved
Please
email us with your contact information if you want to get
involved in environmental justice issues along the border, or to
alert us to an environmental
injustice along the border.
Oliver Bernstein: oliver.bernstein@sierraclub.org
Mariana Chew: mariana.chew@sierraclub.org
Contact Us
U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Justice Program
444 Executive Center Blvd
Suite 138
El Paso, TX 79902
Phone: 915-351-0474
Organizer: Mariana Chew-Sanchez
mariana.chew@sierraclub.org