According to the US EPA, Arizona mines are once again Arizona’s biggest polluters.  Each year, the EPA releases it’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data for each state.  This inventory, required by law since 1987, tallies pollution released into our air, water, and ground.  These releases are not verified independently and come form the companies themselves, so the figures are probably conservative.

For 2008, 7 out of the top 10 polluters in Arizona are mines.  The report shows that toxic release in Arizona increased by 7% in 2008 while the national average dropped 6%.  The Arizona figures do not include billions of pounds of tailings that Congress exempted from the reporting requirements.

The top facilities in Arizona for total on-site and off-site releases of all chemicals (reported in pounds) are:

 

Facility Name

City

Total Releases

1

Asarco LLC Ray Complex/Hayden Smelter & Concentrator

Hayden

25,316,913

2

Freeport-McMoran Miami Inc.

Claypool

25,304,600

3

Cyprus Tohono Corp.

Casa Grande

13,394,257

4

Freeport-McMoran Morenci Inc.

Morenci

8,630,764

5

Springerville Generating Station

Springerville

3,194,773

6

Freeport-McMoran Sierrita Inc.

Green Valley

2,394,534

7

Cholla Power Plant

Joseph City

2,353,324

8

Coronado Generating Station

Saint Johns

2,214,812

9

Freeport-McMoran Bagdad Inc.

Bagdad

2,065,794

10

BHP Copper Inc. Pinto Valley Operation

Miami

2,019,233

The TRI results can be found online in the Epa’s Triexplorer searchable database at www.epa.gov/triexplorer.