More than 2.8 million Arizona residents — or 44 percent of the state’s population — live within areas that are most vulnerable to a catastrophic accidental release of gaseous, and sometimes explosive hazardous chemicals. The toxic agents, which the EPA deems extremely hazardous, are stored in more than 100 facilities and, when released, can cause temporary blindness, searing pain, suffocation, and even death. Read more»

One year after a fertilizer plant explosion devastated the town of West, Texas, questions remain about the safety and security of hazardous chemical storage facilities. This includes Arizona’s largest ammonium nitrate facility, Apache Nitrogen, southeast of Tucson in St. David. It houses more than 80 million pounds of the chemical but didn’t disclose, as is required, its list of hazardous materials to local firefighters. Read more»

Tens of thousands of ballots cast in Arizona’s 2012 election were rejected by elections officials, indicating continued communication and voter education problems in the state, according to an analysis of rejected ballots and interviews with elections experts and legislators. Read more»

Along the line between the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, the westward expansion of the Wallow Fire slowed and stopped. Experts credit management of tribal forest for keeping the fire off the reservation. Read more»

With barely a half-acre of waist-deep water near the U.S.–Mexico border as its only habitat remaining in the U.S., the Sonoyta mud turtle is struggling to survive in one of Arizona’s driest regions. Read more»

Citing wildfires and floods that have devastated portions of Apache County, leaders there say they plan to thin national forests themselves and bill the federal government. Read more»

A federal judge struck down claims by environmental groups Monday that questioned the federal government’s plan to protect plants and animals within two national monuments in the Arizona Strip. Read more»

The federal government’s plan to manage two national monuments in the Arizona Strip doesn’t sufficiently protect the environment or endangered species, a group of conservation organizations told a judge Wednesday. Read more»

Over the past 20 years the Phoenix Zoo has bred hundreds of black-footed ferrets, helping to revive an endangered species that was once thought to be extinct. Read more»

ASU is installing 2,100 solar panels on the roof of Wells Fargo Arena, boosting the university's solar energy capacity to 10 megawatt-hours. The Sun Devils have 40,000 solar panels that generate about 5 percent of ASU’s total annual energy consumption. Read more»

Less than three months after the Wallow Fire, a red-tailed hawk flew swiftly back into the wild at the Estrella Mountain Regional Park after recuperating at the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center. Read more»

Armed with shotguns and high hopes, thousands of hunters began heading to Arizona’s open spaces Thursday for early dove-hunting season. Read more»

The Tucson–based Center for Biological Diversity is using mobile technology, including geolocation, to help people learn which of the nation’s more than 1,300 threatened and endangered species are nearby. Read more»

Gov. Jan Brewer was on hand when Big Lake General Store and its surroundings reopened Wednesday, proclaiming that the area burned by the largest recorded wildfire in Arizona history is ready for visitors. Read more»