Asarco's analysis of mine-tailngs dust showed that the levels of heavy metals and other toxins in the tailings were far lower than those that would cause state and federal officials to order a cleanup.

Pima County and Environmental Protection Agency officials said they expect results of their analysis of Asarco tailings to be back in two weeks. But it's highly unlikely that the mine would be shut down because of this problem, although the company faces the maximum possible fines legally allowed.

Authorities generally agreed, however, that the kinds of health problems residents were complaining about could have been caused by mine tailings dust or dust in general, which in its smallest particles can easily enter the lungs.

Woman tells of suffering

One of the most vocal speakers at Friday's meeting was Rosemary Simo, who said she's been suffering from valley fever, other lung problems and sinus problems on and off for three years due to tailings dust. She lives 2 miles from the Mission Mine, while most residents complaining of health problems live in Rancho Resort, a 350-home subdivision adjoining the tailings' eastern edge.

Last November and December, she was coughing up mucous and blood and had headaches after the two incidents of wind-blown tailings, she said in an interview. She has written the national activist Erin Brockovich about her problems. A law firm connected with Brockovich has replied that it's interested in investigating the Asarco-Mission Mine situation.

"I don't expect any money," Simo said. "I want us to have as fresh air as we can get."

Rancho Resort's Bill Forstot told Friday's gathering of 80 to 90 people that he has been coughing "all the time" recently. He is a nervous wreck now, worrying about the possibility that he'll start coughing up blood, he said.

Dick Siebeck, also of Rancho Resort, displayed a picture of his wife that was covered by a fine layer of dust - a layer he said had landed on the picture just last Tuesday.

"I know Asarco is a huge business but there is a cost of doing business - not only from the cost standpoint but from a human standpoint," he said.

Aldrich, Asarco's vice president for environmental affairs, gave handouts to the residents showing what he called "very, very low levels" of heavy metals from the company's tailings dust samples. Overall, metals represented less than two percent of the tailings. The only metal found at levels near which the state would recommend removing them from soil was arsenic, at 6 parts per million compared to state-recommended limits of 10 parts per million.

County Department of Environmental Quality officials agreed with Aldrich that last week's 50 mph winds didn't blow tailings into neighbors' yards and homes. That's because Asarco has been wetting down many or most of the tailings to stabilize them, according to county officials.

"We had an inspector down there, and we did not see anything that would warrant a violation from the tailings piles that we regulate," said Ursula Kramer, the department's director, after the meeting. "Keeping tailngs wet is a very good control strategy."

Permits typically OK'd

During Friday's meeting, Kramer and EPA's Colleen Mc-Kaughan said that air-quality permits typically don't get denied, in response to audience questions about Asarco's effort to renew its permit. Usually, all you can do is make a permit more stringent, said McKaughan, associate director of the air division for the EPA's Pacific Southwest Region.

Afterward, however, Mc-Kaughan recalled that back in 1994, she issued a temporary shutdown under the federal Clean Air Act to a chemical company called Minerec Mining Chemicals that operated on the Tohono O'Odham Reservation. That was a different situation, however, because the plant was emitting a hazardous substance - hydrogen sulfide - and the EPA had evidence that the chemical had hospitalized 35 people, McKaughan said.

"The Clean Air Act is not designed to shut facilities down permanently, we're supposed to help them fix the problem," McKaughan said.

mine tailings

Mine tailings are large piles of crushed rock, left over after minerals such as copper, lead, zinc, silver and gold have been processed and extracted for future use and sale.

SOURCES: University of Arizona College of Pharmacy and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center.