When El Paso Said Goodbye To The Asarco Towers

For decades, the view looking toward the border on the west side was dominated by the Asarco smelting plant and its two gigantic smokestacks. That changed in 2013.

Asarco operated a smelting plant in west El Paso for over 100 years, from 1887 - 1999. In 1917, a 300 foot tower was built for smoke from the smelting process to vent and in 1966, another smokestack was built. Standing over 800 feet tall, it was once the 3rd tallest smokestack in the USA.

Asarco built a small town nearby, a city within a city known as "Smeltertown", for its workers and was home to thousands. Today, there's nothing left there but its graveyard.

What Happened To Asarco's Towers

The plant was vital to the areas economy and provided lots of jobs. Unfortunately, it was also polluting the you know what out of the area while sickening or flat out killing its workers and nearby residents. The plant was closed for good in 1999.

The towers stood silent watch over the abandoned plant until 2013 when money allocated to clean up the area kicked in. Thousands turned out to watch the iconic towers come down.

That wasn't the end of the cleanup process though. The land around the smokestacks was cleaned and cleared and looks nice from a distance. That isn't really the case though.

READ MORE: Toxic Asarco Slag Heaps May Be Useful

Thanks to super high lead levels, among other toxic things, the land sits empty to this day.

Will The Land Ever Be Used?

Maybe. The lands trustees have been trying to sell it but it's been difficult. "Unload" is probably a better term - usage of the land, because of its still "toxic" nature, would be heavily limited. The main area, in fact, can never, EVER be used for homes, schools or medical facilities. 

UTEP has expressed an interest in some parts but the land ever being truly "clean" will probably take nothing short of a miracle.