Aerial view of aluminum plant site
Note the proximity to residential and the San Pedro River (to right). Located on Highway 80 at the gateway to Benson.
Rendering of proposed plant (not all buildings are shown)
Concerns and Risks to Public Heath
Air Pollution
This aluminum recycling plant requires a Title V (class one) permit from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) due to potential hazardous emissions including hydrogen chloride, "According to the developers Air Dispersion Modeling report, (December 2024) and Potential to Emit calculations, the facility would emit more than 52 tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) annually much of it containing aluminum compounds , along with significant quantities of nitrogen oxides (NOx) , carbon monoxide (CO) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) including hydrogen chloride . Many of these emissions are fine enough to penetrate deep into lungs and bloodstream, contributing to serious respiratory and neurological harm. " Center for Biological Diversity
Water Usage
The plant will use Benson water, which comes from the aquifer. According to their permit application, the plant will use 5,000 gallons of recycled water PER MINUTE in their two cooling towers alone. Although much of the water is recycled, there is still high-water usage in the plant. Our County is in a severe drought. Our water supply is precious and limited.
Traffic Congestion/ Noise
74 long haul trucks daily will enter / exit the plant site through the Highway 80. Each weighing a maximum of 30 tons. Keep in mind the plant will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week adding to noise and congestion in the area. How will this affect our roads in Benson?
The site is surrounded by residential including the La Habra apartments. Residents in the area don't deserve this disruption to the Benson lifestyle we know and love.
We have a responsibility to take care of our community / environment for future generations to come....
Will you speak up and help?
If so, go HERE to get involved.
Think about it......
The Developer is Aluminum Dynamics LLC
Aluminum Dynamics LLC, is a subsidiary of Steel Dynamics Inc based in Mississippi.
The plant will recycle used beverage containers, automobiles, building and construction materials, and alloy industrial products.
The casting facility is a "secondary smelting and refining of nonferrous materials" plant according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code 3341.
From their permit application: Steel Dynamics, Inc. (SDI), doing business as Aluminum Dynamics, Inc. (Aluminum Dynamics) will construct and operate a new recycled aluminum ingot casting center as a satellite ingot supply facility for its low-carbon, recycled aluminum flat rolled mill currently being constructed in Columbus, MS. The proposed satellite casting center will be located on a currently undeveloped property near the city of Benson, AZ .
The Benson plant will be located in an area of Cochise County that is in attainment or unclassifiable for all criteria air pollutants.
The Benson plant will receive aluminum scrap from the post consumer and post-industrial supplier network and will support the manufacturing of aluminum ingots targeted downstream processing at rolling mill facilities serving the sustainable beverage packaging, automotive, and common alloy (e.g., building and construction materials) industrial sectors.
The Benson plant would use state-of-the-art technology for aluminum ingot casting and have a maximum production capacity of approximately 300,000 US tons per year, assuming continuous operation. With usage of the newest secondary aluminum processing equipment, Aluminum Dynamics will produce a low carbon aluminum from recycled material. ADI is seeking to construct and install the following primary process equipment :
► One (1) scrap processing system consisting of various shredding, separation, and storage operations for processing the incoming scrap streams;
► One (1) rotary kiln-type decoater for drying and delacquering/decoating the shredded scrap supplied from the shred lines;
► Two (2) conventional sidewell-type aluminum melt furnaces capable of receiving both hot shreds from the decoater and loose scrap and hard charge from other sources;
► One (1) tilting-type aluminum holding furnaces operating via a batch operating cycle to feed a single casting pit; and
► One (1) in-line fluxer/degassing unit capable of using only non-reactive gaseous flux (argon gas) for final refining of the molten aluminum before feeding the metal to the casting pit.
Aluminum Dynamics also plans to install various ancillary equipment such as scrap storage and handling areas, a dross press, a dross house, a sow dryer, a lime silo for lime-injected baghouses, cooling tower, diesel and gasoline storage and mobile equipment refueling station, paved and unpaved plant roads, and paved and unpaved storage yards.
Based on an analysis of the potential emissions from the proposed project’s emission sources, the Benson plant would be classified as a major source under the Title V (i.e., Class I) operating permit program and synthetic minor source under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) pre-construction permitting program for regulated new source review (NSR) pollutants.
Check this LINK for company violations.
Keep Benson pristine - Sign the Petition
What We Do Today ...
...will impact our community for generations to come. Speak up! Encourage others to do the same! Get involved HERE
Our Impact
Clean air. Clean water. Less noise. Less truck traffic congestion. Our community deserves better! Our children and grandchildren deserve better!
Speak Up - Get Involved.
Letter from Steve Brittle, President of Don't Waste Az INC
Dear Benson Mayor and City Council:
Don’t Waste Arizona, Inc. (DWAZ) is a non-profit environmental organization headquartered at 7555 East Navigator Lane, Tucson, AZ 85756. The telephone number to reach DWAZ is 602-881-3305. DWAZ is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the environment in Arizona. DWAZ is especially concerned about environmental justice and air pollution issues. DWAZ has members in the affected area, and submits these comments on behalf of itself and its affected members.
This is a pivotal moment for you and your Benson community, and your decision here will determine if there will be the Benson that exists now or if it becomes a toxic wasteland.
The most serious problem with this proposed facility is the nearly 10 tons of aluminum dust 2.5 microns or less that would be emitted into the local airshed annually. There are no dispersal models for these emissions provided in the air permit, but it can be assumed that much of the aluminum dust would be deposited in the local Benson area. This toxic dust would blow around the local Benson area and accumulate, also dusting down onto adjacent agriculture, livestock and animals, people, home gardens, homes and buildings, etc. After just ten years, that would be about 100 tons of this toxic dust. Aluminum is an element, and will not degrade.
A facility like this, in SIC Code 3411, is required by federal and state law to report its releases of aluminum fume or dust annually to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. For a perspective, the ASARCO-Hayden copper smelter also reports under the same statutes, and its annual emissions of copper into the air are less than 10 tons per year. So, what is proposed in Benson is an enormous toxics-spewing outfit. After DWAZ’s referral, Hayden is now in the EPA’s Superfund program, with one clean-up of 180 homes and the school of the arsenic and lead dust that landed there from smelter emissions already accomplished. The federal agency that investigates Superfund sites found that the children in Hayden have the highest levels of lead in their blood of all the children in America.
The emissions of ten tons annually of aluminum dust 2.5 microns or less constitute an extreme and substantial endangerment to public health and safety, and overall environmental health. The miniscule size of these aluminum dust particles that will be emitted mean that upon inhalation, the aluminum will be immediately transported to the deepest recesses of the lungs and absorbed into the bloodstream, then distributed throughout the body. A review of aluminum dust hazards from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (https://www.nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/0054.pdf) notes:
Aluminum can affect you when breathed in.
* Contact can irritate the skin and eyes.
* Exposure to Aluminum can cause “metal fume fever.”
This is a flu-like illness with symptoms of metallic taste in the mouth, headache, fever and chills, aches, chest tightness and cough. The symptoms may be delayed for several hours after exposure and usually last for a day or two.
* Exposure to fine dust can cause scarring of the lungs (pulmonary fibrosis) with symptoms of cough and shortness of breath.
* Aluminum powder is a FLAMMABLE SOLID and a DANGEROUS FIRE HAZARD
Please also review the National Institutes of Health study, Chronic exposure to aluminum and risk of Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26592479/).Results showed that individuals chronically exposed to Al were 71% more likely to develop AD (OR: 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.35-2.18). The finding suggests that chronic Al exposure is associated with increased risk of AD.
Workers in the aluminum industry also suffer from respiratory system damage due to their chronic exposure to this toxic chemical. (See Respiratory Disorders in Aluminum Smelter Workers https://journals.lww.com/.../Respiratory_Disorders_in...
Although the prospect and promise of jobs caused by local manufacturing that pay well are always enticing to smaller towns in Arizona, companies that make these offers are counting on a lack of understanding about the real impacts and hazards to get approval. The air permitting process starts with the potential to emit certain amounts of pollutants, and the facility is required to “control” or reduce these as much is economically viable for the company, but it does not ever mean that the allowed emissions are safe and not harmful. Once these impacts are realized, it is usually too late to reverse the damage or even mitigate the damage. How exactly would one pick up and remove ten tons of aluminum dust from the Benson area? Or 100 tons?
DWAZ urges that you turn down this proposed smelter and save your town.
Sincerely,
Stephen Brittle
President
Benson - our home
