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A non-profit environmental organization
created for the protection, conservation,
and preservation of the human and
natural environment in and around Phoenix,
and the state of Arizona.
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cont - Monsoon
Winds Stir Up Arsenic-Laden Dust
from Tailings Pile Mountain
These pictures were taken by an amateur
photographer in August 2005, and presented
publicly at the August 17, 2005, EPA community
meeting about the EPA's Superfund
investigation into the contamination from ASARCO
smelter operations in Hayden and Winkelman,
where soils show high levels of arsenic and
other contamination.
Monsoon winds stir up dust from the unwanted
crushed rock parts and dust that was separated
out of the smelter feedstock and put into a pile
that has grown through the years to an enormous
size, like an artificial mesa in the river
flatlands next to Hayden and Winkelman. These
crushed copper-bearing ores also carry high
levels of lead, arsenic, zinc, and other heavy
metals, which are also in the dust. The levels
of arsenic in the pile of crushed rock and dust
range up to 35 parts per million, according to
EPA's initial sampling. No one has sampled the
dust, however.
The dust allowed to blow off and away from this
mountain of waste is not supposed to be this
thick as it restricts visibility, and is bad to
breathe.
Residents say this dust blows from the pile of
crushed rock and dust often like this, yet they
cannot get the Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality to enforce the laws that
prohibit this.
Appeal to EPA Headquarters Goes Unanswered
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