The following post is a response from the Site Custodial Trustee, Roberto Puga, P.G., to an email regarding the Smeltertown Cemetery from Diana Washington Valdez of the El Paso Times.
Hello Diana,
The Trust (whose formal name is the Texas Custodial Trust) does not own the cemetery. The cemetery is owned by the Catholic Diocese of El Paso. We have confirmed this via our just completed survey of the Trust’s properties.
The demolition, remediation and redevelopment of the former smelter should not affect the cemetery. There are no plans to do any remediation at the cemetery.
As far as we know, the public does have access to the cemetery, but we do not speak for the diocese.
Thanks for your interest, and don’t hesitate to e-mail me with any other question or comment.
Regards,
Roberto
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Below is Diana Valdez’s original email.
Hi Mr. Puga:
We’re doing an update on the old Smeltertown Cemetery.
Will the plans for the cleanup and reuse of the Asarco smelter site affect the Smeltertown Cemetery in any way?
Have you established that the cemetery property is not on Asarco property?
Does the Asarco Trust plan to do any more cleanup at the cemetery?
Will the public still have access to the cemetery?
Thanks very much.
Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times