Concerns Over Lead Pollution Near Arizona Copper Smelters

Summary:
President Joe Biden’s initiative to increase electric vehicle (EV) adoption is potentially clashing with his environmental justice goals due to a revised EPA rule on copper smelting. Copper is crucial for EVs, and a major U.S. producer is a plant in southeastern Arizona near the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. This plant has emitted significant hazardous pollutants like lead and arsenic. While the EPA’s updated rule aims to halve these emissions, it stopped short of more stringent cuts due to high compliance costs.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe and environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Earthjustice argue the EPA could do more to reduce pollution, especially given the plant’s history of emissions violations. Despite upgrades, emissions remain a concern as copper production increases with rising EV demand. Legal and economic pushbacks from smelting companies Freeport-McMoRan and Asarco complicate the issue further. The EPA’s revised rule, stronger than the original but still deemed insufficient by some critics, underscores the complex trade-offs between industrial development and environmental health.