DIRECT EXAMINATION

5 BY MR. MOORE:
6 Q. Would you state your name, please?
7 A. Olga Arguelles.
8 Q. How old are you, Olga?
9 A. 37.
10 Q. How where do you live, Olga?
11 A. I live in Anapra, a subdivision of Sunland
12 Park.
13 Q. Does your mother and father live there?
14 A. Yes, they do.
15 Q. Do you have other family who lives there?

16 A. In Anapra, just my mother and my father.

17 Q. Well, how about your immediate family? Do you
18 have children?
19 A. Oh, my children, yes. I have four kids.
20 Q. How many children do you have?
21 A. Four.
22 Q. And --
23 A. Actually, I have two 20-year-olds, a
24 19-year-old and a 15-year-old. So they are teenagers --
25 Q. Okay.

5691
1 A. -- teenagers and adults.
2 Q. And have they lived their lives --
3 A. How long have they -- how have they lived
4 their lives?
5 Q. Yes.
6 Have they lived their life in Anapra?
7 A. They've lived their lives in Anapra, yes.
8 Q. Would you describe the community of Anapra --
9 A. Okay.
10 Q. -- where it is, where is it located?
11 A. Okay. Anapra is located exactly three miles
12 from ASARCO and three miles from the dump. It's a
13 subdivision of Sunland Park, New Mexico, and we're right
14 next to the border of Texas.
15 Q. And distinguish that from Anapra, Mexico. How
16 far away is Anapra, Mexico?
17 A. I would think maybe -- I remember I used to
18 walk to Anapra, Mexico. So it's walking distance.
19 Q. Between your house and Anapra, Mexico, what do
20 you find? Do you find Ardovino's restaurant?
21 A. Ardovino's restaurant, uh-huh.
22 Q. Is Ardovino's restaurant about halfway over
23 there?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. How many people live in Anapra?

5692
1 A. I would have to estimate maybe -- maybe a
2 hundred. I'm not really sure.
3 Q. Could it be 1,200? Are you thinking families
4 or people?
 5 A. I know it's about a hundred houses, so I'm not
6 really --
7 Q. Okay. Does 1,200 people sound --
8 A. It would make sense.
9 Q. -- reasonable?
10 A. Uh-huh.
11 Q. When you look out in the middle of that
12 community, there is a small house that they use as a
13 community center, is there not?
14 A. La Casita, yes.
15 Q. Tell us about that house. How did you wind up
16 using it as a community center?
17 A. Well, I think there was -- actually, the
18 police department went in with the SWAT team, and they

19 arrested the people that were renting the house, and

20 then it was rented -- prior to -- after that, it was
21 rented to -- I think it was Project Veda, to use as a
22 community center for Anapra.
23 Q. Did the DEA seize the house?
24 A. Seize the house? What do you mean?
25 Q. Yes.

5693
1 Did they take the house, the DEA come and --

2 A. Well, they took the people renting the house

3 at that time.
4 Q. Okay.
5 A. Uh-huh.
6 Q. But how big a house is it? How many bedrooms
7 did it have?
8 A. I wouldn't call them bedrooms, Mr. Moore.
9 It's three rooms and a restroom.
10 Q. Okay. Prior to -- roughly, when did you begin
11 to use that house as your community center?
12 A. I think it was sometime in maybe '98, '99.
13 I'm not sure.
14 Q. And how did you begin to use the house?
15 A. Well, actually, it started out as sort of like
16 a meeting place for Girl Scouts, and then it evolved

17 into GED classes, food bank, after-school tutoring, a

18 youth club. It evolved into several things, according
19 to what the community needed.
20 Q. Did you ever work there?
21 A. Yes. I was a volunteer for La Casita under
22 the auspices of AmeriCorps.
23 Q. For how long?
24 A. I think it was a little bit over two years.
25 Q. And what kind of stuff did you do?

5694
1 A. I organized the youth group. I was a -- I was
2 a tutor. I did mostly the donation letters, just
3 recruiting volunteers from Santa Teresa High School for
 4 the afternoon tutoring. I made donation letters for the
5 Christmas give-away. I made donation letters for food

6 baskets, for jackets, for shoes, for anything I could

7 do, I did.
8 Q. Okay. If you walk outside the door of La
9 Casita, what do you see? Can you see ASARCO?
10 A. Not directly outside the door.
11 Q. Well, inside the yard?
12 A. Well, towards the back, yes. If you look
13 towards the back, yes.
14 Q. And what else do you see?
15 A. I'm not sure.
16 What do you mean?
17 Q. Well, can you see the electric company?
18 A. Oh, the power plant right across the river,
19 yes.
20 Q. Okay.
21 A. We can also -- in the summer, I haven't seen
22 it lately, but we can see -- and actually a lot of

23 people complained about Jobe dynamiting the property

24 right off Cristo Rey. We see the trucks from the
25 landfill drive up McNutt or down McNutt.

5695
1 Q. You said you had four children?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Can you just talk about a day of the life of a
4 kid living in Anapra? What do you --
5 A. Okay.
6 Q. Just tell me what it's like.
7 A. I can't attest to -- my children's lives is a
8 little bit different from most of the children in
9 Anapra.
10 I can't really explain why, but the majority

11 of the kids in Anapra -- I don't want to say that they

12 don't have any hope, but I can't perceive that they have
13 hope or that they have faith.
14 They -- you know, they have -- I've worked
15 with them, and they are very, very intelligent kids, but
16 they have to sort of deal with a lot of -- I'm not sure
17 if it's disabilities, I'm not sure -- you know, a lot of
18 health problems, you know. Just when I was working with
19 the youth group, most of my kids were learning disabled.
20 Q. Let's go about it this way.
21 They get up in the morning and they catch a
22 bus to school, right?
23 A. Okay. Some of them catch a bus, Mr. Moore.

24 The younger kids catch the bus, the kids that go to

25 elementary school.

5696
 1 By the time the majority of the kids in Anapra
2 reach middle school, it only takes one bus to drive them
3 to school.
4 Q. That's what I wanted to get into.
5 How many buses come to take the kids to
6 elementary school?
7 A. The elementary, I think it's four buses.
8 Q. And by the time they get to middle school, how
9 many buses?
10 A. Well, you can say it's one bus, but that same
11 bus stops and picks up kids at Gibson and Anapra Road.

12 We don't fill up the bus, not one bus.

13 Q. And high school?
14 A. The same thing with high school. High school
15 may be worse, because they have truancy laws that sort
16 of mandate that the kids from middle school go to

17 school, but once they get older, you know, that law
18 doesn't apply and they don't go to school.
19 Q. Okay. They get on a bus and they go to
20 school.
21 Would you say, Olga, that the Anapra community
22 is stigmatized? Do you know that word?
23 A. Yes, I know that word. I would say that, yes,
24 we are.
25 Q. At school, do you feel like they get a fair

5697
1 shake?
2 A. No, Mr. Moore.
3 Q. What?
4 A. No. No. By no means, no.
5 Q. What kind of problems do they face at school?
6 A. Well, it's been my experience that the kids

7 growing up in Anapra tend to be aggressive, you know,

8 and sometimes they -- I'm not going to say that they are
9 never justified. You know, just going to school, they
10 have been profiled as delinquent, and they have -- they
11 are treated as delinquents, and whenever they run into
12 problems, they are expelled. The system has no patience
13 with them. If ever there is a fight, you can be sure

14 that the kid from Anapra is going to be suspended or

15 expelled.
16 Q. And do they have special education?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Tell me what special education means to you.
19 What kind --
20 A. What it means as the system is now?
21 Q. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
22 A. What special education means to me?
23 Q. Yes.
24 A. Well, that's a hard question, Mr. Moore.

25 It's been my experience, working in the

 5698
1 special ed class, that the kids are separated and put
2 into a classroom, and, supposedly, they are supposed to
3 be given more one-on-one attention, which doesn't
4 necessarily happen.
5 A lot of those kids are there, and they are --
6 they are promoted, in my opinion, just because of their

7 age, not because they have the ability, not because

8 they've learned a skill, because a lot of them are
9 unable to retain what they are supposed to learn.

10 Q. When they go to school, are there programs,

11 federal programs, to feed kids?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. What percentage of kids from Anapra
14 participate in those programs?
15 A. I would say that all the kids that go to
16 school participate in that program.
17 Q. So from elementary school, what time do the
18 elementary school kids come home from school?
19 A. I think that they get off the bus at 3:00.
20 Q. And then what do they do?
21 A. There is not a lot to do, Mr. Moore. A lot of
22 them head to La Casita, and they are there until they
23 are thrown out, or they play at the park.
24 Q. Okay. Inside La Casita, what do you have? Do
25 you have --

5699
1 A. Computers.

2 Q. How many?
3 A. I don't really remember, because I know they
4 purchased some since I left, but when I was there, we
5 had eight computers.
6 Q. Eight computers?
7 A. Uh-huh.
8 Q. Okay. Now -- well, that's not important.

9 And the little kids that come to La Casita, do

10 they get help with their homework?
11 A. They get help with their homework and they get
12 a snack.
13 Q. Have you helped kids with their homework?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Do you feel like they are getting it? Do

16 you feel like they are getting an education, based on

17 your experience in trying to help them with their
18 homework?
19 A. Are they getting an education?
20 I believe they are getting what the system
21 perceives to be an education.
22 Does that qualify them to get a job in the
23 workplace? I would have to argue with you that it

24 doesn't.
25 Q. Well, are there many kids that have graduated

5700
1 -- that have gone to high school?
2 A. Mr. Moore, Anapra has gone by ten years
3 without having one person graduate from high school.
4 Q. Okay. Are there many kids that finish
5 whatever school they finish in that community that still
6 cannot read or write?
7 A. Oh, definitely. I know of at least personally
8 five people that cannot write a sentence, and they have

9 a high school diploma.

10 Q. What's the dominant language in the community?
11 A. Spanish.
12 Q. You talked about -- let's talk about girls and
13 boys for a moment.
14 How many boys -- well, are there -- do boys
15 start having trouble in grade school --
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. -- elementary school?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And when they get to middle school, do some
20 fall out?
21 A. I would say the majority of the kids from
22 Anapra used to fall out, yes.
23 Q. The boys?

24 A. The boys.
25 Q. And do they get in trouble with the law?

5701
1 A. Yes, they do.
2 Q. Do the people in Anapra feel like they get a

3 square shake from the Sunland Park Police Department?

4 A. No, they don't.
5 Q. Or the Sheriff's Department?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Or the Immigration Service?
8 A. No.
9 Q. When the boys get in trouble -- well, do many
10 of them go to prison?
11 A. I would say that most of the boys or men in
12 Anapra are in the system, either on probation or in

13 prison. I know one of my neighbors has -- four of her

14 boys are in a prison, and she has six kids. One of them
15 is dead and one of them is a girl.
16 Q. The girls, do they finish high school?
17 A. No. No, they don't.
18 Q. When do they fall out of school?
19 A. I would have to say around the same time,
20 right after middle school and before high school.
21 Q. Do you have many very young girls that get
22 pregnant?
23 A. We have one case where a 14-year-old has two
24 kids. That's not really new to Anapra. That's more or
25 less the case.

5702
1 Q. Do you have problems with despair in Sunland
2 Park and depression?

3 A. In Anapra?
4 Q. In Anapra, yes.
5 A. I think you would find one person at least --
6 MR. APODACA: Just a minute.
7 Mr. Burkhalter.
8 MR. BURKHALTER: I'm going to object on the

9 grounds that it's technical testimony, and she has no

10 expertise in evaluating the levels of despair in her --
11 in the community.
12 MR. MOORE: I'm not asking her to evaluate it.
13 MR. APODACA: No, I'll allow the question.
14 She's testified she's observed the way people
15 live in Anapra, and I think she's -- as a layperson, as
16 long as it doesn't get into any questions concerning --
17 MR. MOORE: I'm just going to try to scoot
18 along the topic.
19 MR. APODACA: That's fine. She's describing
20 life conditions in Anapra, and right now for children,
21 so that's fine.
22 MR. MOORE: Okay.
23 MR. APODACA: You may answer.
24 Sorry, but there is an objection, and I have
25 to interrupt, so you may answer.

5703
1 MS. ARGUELLES: Okay. I think there is at
2 least one person that has -- that suffers from
3 depression in each household.
4 In my particular house, all of us have been at
5 one time or other diagnosed with depression.
6 Q. (BY MR. MOORE) And within the community, is
7 there a lot of self-medication?
8 A. Yes, I would say there is.
9 Q. Describe that for me.
10 A. Well, in my opinion, self-medication would be
11 when you don't have access to a prescribed medication,

12 so you buy over-the-counter, and you -- or you share

13 with others that have been prescribed. Unfortunately, I
14 would also describe self-medication as maybe drinking or
15 taking drugs.
16 Q. Drinking and drugging?
17 A. (Witness nods head.)
18 Q. Tell me the extent of that in the community.
19 A. Once again, I don't know of a household that
20 does not live or does not have somebody that's an
21 alcoholic and somebody who uses drugs.
22 Q. When you go out in that yard in Anapra and
23 look up at Mt. Cristo Rey, do you see arroyos that drain
24 into the community?
25 A. Yes.

5704
1 Q. Can you recall how many there are?
2 A. Not right off my head, no.
3 Q. Is there a levee around the community?
4 A. Anapra is completely surrounded by a levee,
5 and McNutt Road is higher than Anapra is.
6 Q. In order to turn into the community from
7 McNutt Road, you have to almost dive into the community;
8 is that right?

9 A. Yes.
10 Q. So when something blows -- contamination
11 blows from, say, Mt. Cristo Rey or drains from the water
12 from -- flowing down Mt. Cristo Rey, does it wind up in
13 Anapra?
14 A. I think that because we are -- we are so low
15 and because we're in the middle of a -- you know, we're
16 right behind the CEMEX property, we're right next to
17 Cristo Rey, everything sort of ends up in our backyard.
18 Q. And once it gets there, is there any way for
19 it to get out?
20 MR. BURKHALTER: Your Honor --
21 MS. ARGUELLES: I don't think there is.
22 MR. APODACA: Yes, Mr. Burkhalter.
23 MR. BURKHALTER: Objection, that it's getting
24 into technical testimony about contamination and where
25 it travels and how it travels and --

5705
1 MR. APODACA: Well, I -- my ears perked up
2 when you said contamination blowing into Anapra. That
3 -- then you said wind or dust.
4 That's fine, but here again, let's not get
5 into areas that she wouldn't have the knowledge or
6 special skill to know.
7 MR. MOORE: I just want to show it's a low
8 area and whatever drains in there can't get out, and as
9 a layman, she can --
10 MR. APODACA: Well, yes. Yeah, that's talking
11 about the wind or the dust blowing, but when you start

12 mentioning contamination --
13 MR. MOORE: Okay. I'll abandon it, Judge.
14 MR. APODACA: All right.
15 Q. (BY MR. MOORE) Recently, the EPA came into
16 Anapra and removed soil from, I believe, 24 houses.
17 Are you familiar with that?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Did they remove soil from your house?
20 A. No, they didn't.

21 Q. Did you give them permission to test at your

22 house?
23 A. Yes, I did.
24 Q. Did they remove soil from across the street
25 from your house?

5706
1 A. Okay. Not right across the street, but right
2 -- right in front of my mother's house, they removed
3 soil.
4 Q. And your mother lives next door to you?
5 A. She lives next door to me.
6 Q. Did you talk to the owner about what the EPA
7 told him the levels of contamination were?
8 A. I talked to him, and he's very confused as to
9 what they told him.
10 Q. What did he tell you?
11 A. Well, they told him that the results were very
12 high and that they took the soil away, but that's all he
13 knows.
14 Q. Are you familiar with the 1982 Washington Post
15 newspaper article --
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. -- that talks about lead contamination in
18 Anapra?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And for the record, just for the following

21 questions, I'll -- the article said that the children

22 had dangerously -- some of the children had dangerously
23 high levels of lead in their blood and that Anapra had
24 the highest lead levels in the State of New Mexico, and
25 the New Mexico Environmental Department thought it was

5707
1 ASARCO -- had proof that it was ASARCO's product.
2 A. Yes, I remember that.
3 Q. Growing up as a girl, did they test your
4 blood?
5 A. Excuse me?
6 Q. Did they test your blood for lead, do you
7 recall?
8 A. I don't remember in New Mexico testing my
9 blood, no.
10 Q. How old were you in 1982?
11 A. Twelve years old.

12 Q. Twelve years old?

13 A. (Witness nods head.)
14 Q. Do you recall whether or not they tested the
15 level of lead in any of your children's blood?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Do you recall trying to get blood testing done
18 in Anapra?
19 A. What testing?
20 Q. Blood.
21 A. Blood testing?
22 Q. Yes.
23 A. Okay. I remember we spoke -- I'm not -- I

24 don't remember the name, but I think it was Dan Reyna

25 that we spoke to about getting -- because before --

5708
1 before you spoke with -- I think his name is Tom Ruiz,

2 one of the services we had at La Casita was that they

3 sent a mobile clinic to provide, I think it was, birth
4 control, and other sort of tests for the community, and
5 I remember specifically telling them, you know, that we
6 did want blood tests, but we don't have transportation,
7 and the response to that was to test in the Clinica
8 Familia, and I don't understand why they wouldn't send
9 the -- I remember that they said they could -- during
10 that meeting where Dan Reyna showed up, they said that

11 they could, but I don't remember what they chose not to.
12 Q. Okay. I'll pursue that with you right now.
13 New Mexico Border Health has a mobile
14 laboratory, do they not?
15 A. I don't know if it's a lab, but I know they
16 made some tests.
17 Q. They would come to La Casita and make tests?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. All right. And did there come a time when
20 they stopped coming to La Casita?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And what is your understanding of the reason
23 why they stopped coming to La Casita?
24 A. I don't really understand why. They stopped
25 right after that meeting where Tom -- where Tom Ruiz was

5709
1 present where the promotoras said -- well, it was my
2 understanding that they said that the people in Anapra

3 could have blood -- lead levels in their bloods because

4 of lack of hygiene, and because we ate -- we bought and
5 ate candies in Mexico.
6 Q. Okay. I'm going to try to put that in
7 chronological sequence.
8 A. Okay.
9 Q. Do you remember Election Day 2004, a cold day?
10 A. 2004?
11 Q. Yes. In Anapra.
12 Let me ask you a different way.
13 Do you remember me coming down to the
14 community one day and there was a whole lot of dust
15 coming from the Cristo Rey quarry?
16 A. Okay. That, I remember, yes.
17 Q. Okay. Can you remember the next day, when I
18 came back to the community and brought Mr. Ruiz and two
19 other people?
20 A. Mr. Moore, I didn't remember it, because I --
21 I really, really didn't remember it, until Tom started
22 testifying and I made the connection that him and two

23 other people had gone to my house and that I had met

24 them there.
25 Q. And they talked to you about your health,

5710
1 didn't they?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And the community's health?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. What did you tell them?
6 A. Well, basically, what I've been saying here,
7 that it was my belief that the people in Anapra were
8 sick.
9 Q. Well, it went a lot further than that, did it
10 not?
11 A. (Witness nods head.)
12 Q. Just go ahead and try and run through it fast,
13 Olga, the kind of problems that the people had in Anapra
14 that you told them about that day.
15 A. Okay. Well, basically, I spoke, in
16 particular, about my health. I had been tested, and I

17 had been told I had high levels of metals in my blood,

18 but that was normal for people in Anapra, and I told
19 him, also, about a young man, that his blood was -- he

20 actually had some transfusions because of the metals in

21 his blood, and I talked to him about the young ladies
22 that have the developmentally delayed problems, where
23 they go to school, and by the next day, they have no

24 idea what it is they were learning.

25 Q. And how about other houses in Anapra, the

5711
1 health of the community? Did you --
2 A. Okay.
3 Q. -- respiratory disease and that kind of stuff,
4 did you talk about that?
5 A. Mr. Moore, I haven't used an inhaler since --
6 I think it was 2002, 2003, and -- but a lot of the
7 people -- something that's very common among us
8 residents is what I guess doctors call chronic fatigue.

9 I know that, you know, when we go to the park

10 and when I talk to my neighbors, you know, they complain
11 about the same problems that I have, you know, where
12 your body hurts so much that you feel like you're going
13 cold turkey from some sort of drug, where a lot of kids
14 -- I know of four kids in Anapra that have oxygen masks.
15 I know of two people that use inhalers. I know of -- I
16 know a lot of kids that have asthma.
17 Q. Okay. Learning disabilities. Did you talk to
18 them about learning disabilities?
19 A. Well, yes, yes. We've talked about it.
20 Q. Well, tell us what you told him.
21 A. Well, I told him that there is at least one
22 person in every household that has a learning disorder.
23 In my house, in my particular case, it's two of my
24 children that have a learning disorder. For example,
25 there is a family, I don't want to say her name, but her

5712
1 -- I know of two of her daughters that have learning
2 disorders.
3 Q. Okay.
4 A. So it's -- I would say it's more than one
5 person in a household.
6 Q. And in working with the kids, helping them

7 with their homework and working with them in the La

8 Casita, did you encounter learning disabilities?
9 A. I think -- well, I'm not an expert, but I know
10 it's very, very hard for the kids to get the -- you
11 know, their work done. It's very hard for them to stay
12 on task. It's very hard for them to remember, you know,
13 things that a lot of people might take for granted.
14 Q. Are there sometimes -- are there some families
15 in Anapra where you have more than one generation?
16 A. Yes.

17 Q. Okay.
18 A. Yes.

19 Q. Do you have as many as three or

20 four generations?
21 A. I would have to say that I know of some cases
22 where they are the fifth generation.
23 Q. Okay. Do you notice a difference between
24 generations and learning disabilities?
25 A. Mr. Moore, I think that's the reason I love

5713
1 La Casita, is that because as the people live in Anapra

2 longer -- I'm a first-generation resident of Anapra, but

3 I -- but I'm very close to families that have lived
4 there for five years, and they either -- their quality
5 of life is nonexistent.
6 I'm not an expert, but in my opinion, their

7 problems go beyond what a school system can do, what a

8 city can do.
 9 I see young -- young ladies having kids, you
10 know, who have no retention whatsoever, who are -- who
11 are hyperactive, who are aggressive, who will hit you
12 out of the blue without being provoked, and just -- you
13 know, it was more than what I could bear to work with.
14 Q. Is there -- does it get worse? Do these
15 problems get worse?
16 A. I don't think it could get any worse,
17 Mr. Moore.
18 Q. Well --
19 A. Because, I mean, you know, there is this one
20 young lady in particular that she's pregnant, she's
21 going to have a kid and she's -- she's developmentally
22 delayed and she's having children, Mr. Moore.
23 How can that get any worse?
24 Q. Well, my question -- what my question is

25 driving at is where you have, say, a grandmother who

5714
1 lived her life in Anapra and had kids who have lived
2 their life in Anapra, and those kids now have the third
3 generation of kids.
4 Are the problems with learning disabilities

5 and anxiety disorders worse with the newest generation

6 of kids than they were with the grandma?
7 A. Yes, I would say they are worse.
8 Q. Is it very noticeable?
9 A. I'm not an expert, and I can notice. I can
10 see.
11 Q. You talked about the house where the lead was
12 removed from the soil, where the soil was removed from
13 Anapra recently.

14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Your children have lived in your house how
16 long?
17 A. Sixteen years.
18 Q. What kind of problems do your children have?
19 A. Okay. My youngest daughter, she's losing her
20 hair because she has some sort of allergy to something.
21 She has -- there is days when her entire face is covered
22 up with sort of just allergies.
23 All of my children wear glasses, and I wear

24 glasses, but their sight is very, very poor, and it's

25 very, very poor compared to my parents' eyesight. My

5715
1 sisters don't wear glasses.
2 All of my children have migraines. My son,
3 like I did growing up, he suffers from really, really --
4 just nose bleeds, and they all -- growing up, they all
5 had what other people would call growing pains, but they
6 were very, very intense, you know.
 7 Sinuses -- just migraines, you know, we all
8 have -- we all suffer from really, really hard
9 migraines, nose bleeds and body aches.
10 I remember in '96 -- particularly in '96 is --
11 I had a really bad year, because my children wouldn't

12 really know if I was -- if their mother was going to

13 wake up at home, because they would have to literally,
14 you know, run me to the hospital.
15 Q. Have you described all of the medical problems
16 of yourself and your family?
17 A. I was diagnosed with lupus when my daughter

18 was born. I was also diagnosed in Mexico with ovarian

19 cancer, but once -- you know, I don't have health
20 insurance, so it's very hard for me to follow up on any
21 treatment.
22 Q. Is there other families that have -- do you
23 know of other incidences of cancer in your community?

24 A. Well, I really didn't. Just recently, I found

25 out, you know, people in Anapra tend to move, you know,

5716
1 they -- we tend to try to move out, and I found out that
2 two people that lived on my street are -- are -- they
3 have terminal cancer. My godfather is dying of cancer.
4 He lives on my street.
5 Q. Okay. We've talked about Mr. Ruiz coming to
6 the community and you discussing the health problems
7 with him.
8 Do you recall that later -- well, first, when

9 Mr. Ruiz came to the community, do you recall -- may I

10 approach the witness, Your Honor?
11 MR. APODACA: Yes, you may.
12 Q. (BY MR. MOORE) If you will, if you'll take a
13 look at those documents.
14 Your Honor, for the record, this is
15 Administrative Record Number 35, the letter to Governor
16 Richardson, and I'm asking Olga to look through the
17 attachments to that letter.
18 Would you just page through them? The first
19 one is the 1982 Washington Post article.
20 A. Okay.
21 Q. And what is the next one? Just turn the page
22 and tell us what it is.
23 A. It says, "Results of the Sunland Park Health
24 Consultation," by ATSDR.
25 Q. And what is the next one?

5717
1 MS. HUGHES: Your Honor, I'm going to object,
2 at least to the extent unless Mr. Moore can tie this
3 specifically to this witness.
4 I don't believe her name is even on the
 5 petition, she hasn't signed any of the letters. If he
6 can just establish what her connection is to Exhibit 35.
7 MR. MOORE: Okay. That's what I'm fixing to
8 do. I'm going to ask her which ones we called to --
9 MR. APODACA: All right. As long as you
10 connect the witness.
11 MR. MOORE: Okay.
12 Q. (BY MR. MOORE) Well, you're familiar with
13 those documents, aren't you?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. You've been over them many times?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Keep going.
18 What's the next one that you see?
19 A. It's Final Sampling Locations. It's a table.
20 Q. Well, is the handwritten memo first? Did you
21 go by it?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And do you recall -- you're familiar with that
24 document?
25 A. Yes.

5718
1 Q. Keep going.
2 A. Do you want me to read off the titles or --

3 Q. Well, yeah, that's what I wanted you to do.

4 A. Okay. I -- this is the table with the
5 sampling locations, and then "Copper Plant Illegally
6 Burned Hazardous Waste."
7 Q. Now, that one -- we didn't have the time that
8 Mr. Ruiz came. That's in October of 2006, is it not?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Okay. So back -- and then the last one is a
11 wind rose, right?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Now, at the time that Mr. -- at the time that
14 Mr. Ruiz came into the community, do you recall, in

15 about that area, our calling those documents to the

16 attention of the New Mexico Environmental Department?
17 And he was with Border Health at the time.

18 A. Explain -- explain what you mean.

19 Q. Well, the message to Mr. Ruiz was, "The people
20 in the community are sick and here is this proof of
21 contamination."
22 Was that not the message that we were trying
23 to get to the New Mexico Environmental Department and

24 Border Health?
25 MS. HUGHES: Your Honor, I'm going to object

5719
1 again, and I just would ask that Mr. Moore connect this
2 witness to did she have a conversation with Mr. Ruiz,
 3 did she tell Mr. Ruiz that -- again, just connecting
4 these documents specifically to this witness.
5 MR. MOORE: All right.
6 Q. (BY MR. MOORE) Do you recall whether or not
7 you talked to Mr. Ruiz about the causes of these health
8 problems?
9 A. I remember several times, Mr. Moore, that I
10 actually had my hopes raised that something could or

11 would be done, and I remember, you know, just -- I think

12 most of us just walked around with these -- with these
13 papers, you know, just to show them to anybody who would
14 see them.
15 Q. Well, in any event, did there come a time when
16 Mr. Ruiz came back to Anapra and back to La Casita?
17 A. He was there for the meeting with the
18 promotoras. I don't remember him being there
19 afterwards.
20 Q. Okay. Describe that meeting.
21 A. Well, I didn't organize that meeting, but it
22 was -- it was -- I understood that we were going to talk
23 about the concerns that we had. I had spoken to several
24 residents, and we had sort of come to the conclusion

25 that we wanted to be heard, and, yes, a lot of us were

5720
1 quite upset, and then I guess that that rose into anger

2 when we were told that our problems were due to lack of

3 hygiene and because we bought our candies in Mexico,

4 because most of us don't have money for candies, you

5 know, and because we -- we -- I remember -- I think it
6 was Natalie that told him, "Can't you see the
7 smokestack?" and that was completely ignored.
8 Q. Natalie is a 14-year-old girl?
9 A. I think she's 14, yes.
10 Q. Pregnant?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. How many people -- do you recall that people
13 were -- La Casita was crammed full of people and there
14 were people that couldn't get into the doors at that
15 meeting?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. How did they react when they -- Mr. Ruiz and
18 -- well, when Mr. Ruiz talked to them about candy
19 wrappers?
20 A. The reaction didn't come right away, because
21 they were -- I think we were all confused. I think we

22 all felt that we were misled, and I think that we wanted

23 to think that we weren't hearing clearly. We wanted to
24 hear that that's not what they were saying, and I think
25 we were very patient and we waited for them to tell us,
 5721
1 you know, something about ASARCO, and they never did.
2 MR. MOORE: How much time do I have, Your
3 Honor?
4 MR. APODACA: 32 minutes.
5 Q. (BY MR. MOORE) Are you still waiting, Olga,
6 for New Mexico Border Health and the New Mexico
7 Environmental Department to address the evidence that
8 you were walking around with and trying to get an
9 explanation to?
10 A. No, Mr. Moore.
11 Q. I said are you waiting for -- I don't think
12 we're communicating.
13 A. No, Mr. Moore, I've lost all hope that they
14 will ever address it.
15 I've seen them come back, I've seen them --

16 I'm just -- just at this hearing, I've seen them make a

17 case for the landfill. I don't think they are going to
18 come back with answers, much less solutions, aside from
19 taking maybe some dirt away and bringing some back.
20 I specifically asked somebody -- I told them,
21 "Most of us, our soil comes from somewhere else, you

22 need to dig deeper," and they said they don't have any
23 money.
24 Who has to come up with the money? Does
25 Anapra have to come up with the money?

5722
1 I have no hope for them to give us any
2 answers, not from Richardson, not from NMED, not from
3 Border Health.
4 Q. Olga, is there anything you want to add, and
5 then I'm going to pass you, unless you want to add
6 something to your testimony?
7 A. Well, just Cindy Padilla said that she had --

8 she had answered our request, and I remember being there

9 at Ardovino's, and I -- the only meeting that I've
10 missed, Mr. Moore, is the one that I had organized, the
11 basketball tournament, that's the only time I missed a
12 meeting, and I don't feel that they answered our
13 questions.
14 As a matter of fact, Ron Curry was very, very
15 rude to us, in particular, during that meeting, but I

16 don't think they can answer them.

17 MR. MOORE: I pass the witness.
18 MR. APODACA: All right.
19 Thank you, Mr. Moore.

20 Just a minute, please.

21 All right. Let's go ahead and take a real
22 seven-minute break. So we're in recess.
23 (Recess held.)
24 MR. APODACA: Let's get seated, please.

25 All right. Let's proceed with the cross.

5723
1 Mr. Palomares.
2 MR. PALOMARES: Your Honor, no questions.
3 MR. APODACA: No questions.
4 MS. HUGHES: No questions, Your Honor.
5 MR. BURKHALTER: No questions, Your Honor.
6 MR. APODACA: No questions, okay.
7 There will be no redirect, Mr. Moore.
8 Are you going to argue that you have the right
9 to redirect?
10 MR. MOORE: I want to fight with you about
11 that, Your Honor.
12 MR. APODACA: All right.
13 Ms. Arguelles, you can step down.
14 Thank you so much for your testimony.
15 MR. MOORE: Your Honor, I think that with
16 Ms. McMurray, most of her testimony would be subject to
17 an objection of repetitious, and so I'm not going to
18 offer Ms. McMurray as a witness.
19 She's here, if somebody wants to talk to her

20 about this case, but we've gotten everything I wanted

21 to.
22 MR. APODACA: All right.
23 So, in other words, you're withdrawing
24 Ms. McMurray?
25 MR. MOORE: Yes, sir.

5724
1 MR. APODACA: All right.