Save the Stacks of El Paso

History of ASARCO in El Paso

In 1899 KSARCO and several other corporations merged into the newly organized American Smelting and Refining Company, which became known as ASARCO. In 1901 a fire destroyed about $100,000 worth of the new company's property and equipment, but ASARCO rebuilt and reopened in 1902 with seven new lead furnaces and the first copper smelter in El Paso. The new facility doubled production and expanded the local payroll to nearly 900 workers. During the 1920s ASARCO was the largest mining operator in Mexico, with twenty-four different units. In 1948 slag fuming facilitators were built for the recovery of zinc from the slag produced by the lead furnaces, and in 1951 ASARCO built a 612-foot smokestack to reduce ground-level concentrations of sulfur dioxide. In 1967 the company built an 828-foot stack, designed to help alleviate local air pollution. In 1969, however, El Paso still had a higher concentration of lead in the air than any other city in Texas. Read more.

Tallest Chimneys in the World

Location	Height
Dublin, Ireland (1820)	30 m
Birmingham, England (1836)	97.5 m
Scotland, UK (1842)	132.7 m
Scotland, UK (1859)	138.4 m
Halscrucke, Germany (1889)	140 m
Great Falls, MT, USA (1908)	154.8 m
Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan (1914)	155.7 m
Saganoseki, Japan (1916)	167.6 m
Ruston, Washington, USA (1917)	174 m
Anaconda, MT, USA (1919)	178.3 m
Stade, Germany (1962)	220 m
El Paso, TX, USA (1967)	252 m
Neukieritzsch, Germany (1967)	300 m
Moundsville, WV, USA (1968)	380 m
Copper Cliff, Ontario, Canada (1971)	367.6 m
Ekibastusz, Kazakhstan (1987)	419.7 m