Research Guides: ASARCO and Environmental Justice: Book Study: Copper Stain

Essential Question

Essential Question: How did ASARCO commit acts of environmental injustice by contaminating the soil, water, and air in El Paso and exposing workers to toxic, hazardous materials?

Over the next week, we will read Copper Stain and discuss the environmental toxic legacy of ASARCO, learn from ASARCO workers, and view the exhibit on Smeltertown.

Focused Notes for Copper Stain

Chapters 9, 10, 11
*files will be posted as we read the chapters

Vocabulary

pollution- material in the natural environment that does not belong there, and that damages the environment and living things, including people

inequality- unfairness; a situation in which some people gain privileges simply because they are members of a group defined by race, wealth, sexual orientation or other factors. Those who are not members of those groups are denied the same privileges.

environmental justice- The fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, incomes and educational levels with respect to the development and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies

environmental racism- the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color

Copper Stain by Elaine M. Hampton and Cynthia C. Ontiveros

Copper Stain by Elaine M. Hampton; Cynthia C. Ontiveros
Call Number: 363.73 HAM
ISBN: 9780806161778
Publication Date: 2019-01-10
Copper Stain is a history of environmental injustice, corporate malfeasance, political treachery, and a community fighting for its life. The book gives voice to nearly one hundred Mexican Americans directly affected by these events. Their frank and often heartrending stories, published here for the first time, evoke the grim reality of laboring under giant machines and lava-spewing furnaces while turning mountains of rock into copper ingots, all in service to an employer largely indifferent to workers’ welfare. With horror and humor, anger, courage, and sorrow, the authors and their interviewees reveal how ASARCO subjected its employees and an unsuspecting public to pollution, diseases, and early death—with little in the way of compensation.

Additional Readings

Smeltertown by Monica Perales
Call Number: 976.4 PER
ISBN: 080787146X
Publication Date: 2010-09-13
Traces the history of Smeltertown, Texas, a city located on the banks of the Rio Grande that was home to generations of ethnic Mexicans who worked at the American Smelting and Refining Company in El Paso, Texas, with information from newspapers, personal archives, photographs, employee records, parish newsletters, and interviews.
A People's History of Environmentalism in the United States by Chad Montrie
Call Number: 333.72 MON
ISBN: 9781441116727
Publication Date: 2011-12-08
An account of the history of environmentalism in the United States, challenging the dominant narrative in the field.

Copper Plant Illegally Burned Hazardous Waste, E.P.A. Says
from The New York Times
Investigation of a Cluster of Multiple Sclerosis in Two Elementary School Cohorts
from Journal of Environmental Health
Human Lead Absorption -- El Paso, Texas
from the CDC
"In December 1971, the City-County Health Department in El Paso, Texas, discovered that an ore smelter in El Paso was discharging large quantities of lead and other metallic wastes into the air. Between 1969 and 1971, this smelter had released 1,116 tons of lead, 560 tons of zinc, 12 tons of cadmium, and 1.2 tons of arsenic into the atmosphere through its stacks."