Special thanks
to our supporters

  • Peter Shapley
  • Doug Hardy
  • Steve Elliott — Cronkite News Service/ASU
  • Laurie Jurs
  • Alan Fischer
  • Sharon Bronson
  • David & Joy Schaller
  • Lester Bangs
  • Ida B. Wells
  • John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
  • Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation
  • & many more!

We rely on readers like you. Join them & contribute to the Sentinel today!

Hosting provider

Proud member of

Local Independent Online News Publishers Authentically Local Local First Arizona Institute for Nonprofit News
Workers made their demands known at the start of their strike against Asarco by projecting them on to the side of company facility in Hayden. That was Oct. 13, and workers are still on strike three months later, with the two sides apparently not closer to a settlement.

Union leaders say the close to 1,800 striking Asarco workers in Arizona and Texas remain “strong” as the strike entered its fourth month Monday, with little hope of a settlement in sight. Read more»

Striking workers pose for a picture on a picket line outside an Asarco facility in Hayden. Workers have been out since Oct. 12.

Asarco workers' strike gets hard as walkout drags on and negotiations between company and union aren't set to restart for another two weeks. Read more»

Striking workers pose for a picture on a picket line outside an Asarco facility in Hayden. Workers have been out since Oct. 12, but union officials said contract negotiations are set to resume Nov. 14.

Striking Asarco workers say contract talks with management have been set for Nov. 14, a month after nearly 1,800 workers walked off job sites and onto picket lines at sites in Arizona and Texas. Read more»

Roughly 500 people from Asarco's Mission Mine are participating in a strike that began Oct. 13.

The Asarco mine strike is entering its second week today and with no end in sight, supporters are doing what they can to support the impacted families, including holding resource fairs. Read more»

Striking local members of the United Steelworkers make their demands known – by projecting them on to the side of an Asarco facility in Hayden after going on strke against the company’s facilities in Arizona and Texas.

Union officials said there were no talks Wednesday between them and Asarco, as a strike against the copper mining, smelting and refining company by about 1,775 workers in Arizona and Texas entered its third day. Read more»

A 41-year-old Asarco truck driver died at a Tucson-area mine in July because the company failed to make sure there was enough lighting at the Mission Mine’s dump sites, according to a report from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Read more»

A 41-year-old Asarco employee was killed Thursday night in a crash at the open pit mine west of Sahuarita. The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner identified the man as Gabriel Benitez of Tucson. Read more»

The Asarco smelter in Hayden was one of the facilities subject to the clean-air rules imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, an action that was upheld by the federal appeals court.

The Environmental Protection Agency was within its rights to impose certain standards on industrial sites in Arizona in place of state rules meant to ensure visibility in federal parks, a federal appeals court ruled. Read more»

Part of the Asarco mining and smelting complex near Hayden. The company will fund as much as $150 million in pollution-control upgrades as part of a settlement with the government.

ASARCO will fund up to $150 million in pollution improvements at its Hayden smelter and pay millions more toward local environmental projects to settle federal government charges that the plant violated Clean Air Act standards. Read more»

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said ASARCO’s actions in the case merited 'the imposition of a very large punitive award,' but that the award of $300,000 was too high. It lowered the award to $125,000.

A federal appeals court Thursday slashed the damages that mining company ASARCO had been ordered to pay a former employee who successfully sued the company for sexual harassment at an Arizona mine. Read more»

Mining accounted for less than half of all toxic releases by industries in 2011, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Arizona, by contrast, mines and metal processing made up almost twice as large a share, the agency said.

Arizona metal mining and manufacturing produced 84.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2011, a 34 million pound increase over two years. It reflects a spike in mining, but while environmentalists say it shows a need for regulation, miners call the numbers needlessly frightening. Read more»

Seen is the ASARCO Smelter site in 2010 in El Paso, Texas. The site began operations as a lead smelter in 1887 and started producing copper in 1910. Plagued by a series of environmental problems and a slump in the price of copper, Asarco declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005 and shut down.

Two smokestacks in El Paso — remnants of the smelting company ASARCO — remind many residents of a legacy of environmental damage. But to a local group, the stacks, now slated for demolition, are landmarks worth saving. Read more»

The Clean Air Act “watch list” is secret no more. Just days after iWatch News, NPR and TucsonSentinel.com reported that the EPA maintains an internal list that includes serious or chronic violators of air pollution laws that have not been subject to timely enforcement, the agency posted the list on its website. Read more»

The Asarco copper smelter looms over Hayden.

In some Hayden families, generations claim to have suffered ill effects from air pollution from the town's copper smelter. Deaths from cancer are common. Now the feds are moving against Asarco when the state wouldn't, which could mean millions in fines for the copper giant. (with video) Read more»