A report out this week by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity highlights severe environmental violations by a copper smelting plant in Hayden Arizona. The smelter in question belongs to the American Smelting and Refining Company, or ASARCO, which operates four plants in the southwest. ASARCO once operated a similar smelter in El Paso, Texas. When the company was shut down, they left behind a legacy of pollution.
Still standing on site is ASARCO's iconic 800 foot smokestack that towers above Interstate 10. From the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Monica Ortiz Uribe reports locals must now decide the giant's future: to save or to destroy.