The Aragonite Hazardous Waste Incinerator is a

waste disposal Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final Waste disposal, disposal. This includes the Waste collection, collection, transport, Sewage treatment, treatm ...

facility currently operated by

Clean Harbors Clean Harbors, Inc. is an American provider of environmental and industrial services, including hazardous waste disposal for companies, small waste generators and federal, state, provincial and local governments. The company has expanded throug ...

. It is located in Aragonite, Tooele County,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States, located in the western portion of the state.

Site geography and early history

The

Utah Test and Training Range The Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) is a Department of Defense military testing and training area located in Utah's West Desert, approximately west of Salt Lake City, Utah. UTTR is currently the largest contiguous block of over-land superso ...

lies to the west and the Dugway Proving Grounds lie to the southwest.

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

, exit 56 provides access to Aragonite. The site lies northwest of the Cedar Mountains. The low Grassy Mountains lie to the north. Aragonite lies along the Hastings Cutoff, a historical transmontane route taken by nineteenth-century pioneers. Aragonite was established in the early twentieth century for the mining of

aragonite Aragonite is a carbonate mineral and one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate (), the others being calcite and vaterite. It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation fr ...

, though all mining operations in the area have ceased. A 1950s-era mining guide described a small townsite, but the area is now uninhabited and almost totally demolished. The historical Aragonite site has been described as "an old mining town from the early 20th century that mined aragonite. This mine was only in operation for a few years but today n 2009the mineshafts are still open and a few bunkhouses remain, as well as an old truck."

Waste disposal

Just east of the historical townsite is a large

hazardous waste Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is Toxicity, toxic, Chemical reaction, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is Corrosion, corrosive, ...

incineration facility. This facility was known as the Aptus Incinerator, and was built there in 1991 after Tooele County established the surrounding lands as the West Desert Hazardous Industries District.Aragonite Hazardous Waste Incinerator
Center for Land Use Interpretation. According to the Provo Daily Herald, the Aptus incinerator at Aragonite was the first hazardous waste incinerator in Utah. In 1992, it had the capacity to burn 70,000 tons of waste per year, most of which came from out-of-state sources. The incinerator was, at times, operated by Westinghouse, Rollins,

Laidlaw Laidlaw (), organized as Laidlaw International, Inc. (with corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois) was the largest provider of intercity bus services, contract public transit and paratransit, and contract school bus service in both t ...

, and Safety-Kleen, and is now operated by

. In 2013, it was reported that Utah medical facilities were considering using the Aragonite disposal facility instead of the Stericycle facility, which is much closer to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. The facility has been the subject of several penalties administered by the EPA. A 2009

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

story reported on a settlement reached after 48 regulatory violations were uncovered, including some relating to fires at the facility. The '' Salt Lake City Tribune'' described the facility as an "alleged serial violator" in 2014, noting yearly fines for reporting errors, inventory discrepancies, improper storage, and inadvertent air pollutant releases. In 2017, an armed man threatened to explode a bomb at the facility, and was shot dead by state highway patrol officers.Officers Kill Salt Lake County Man Who Allegedly Threatened To Blow Up Waste Incinerator

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, February 27, 2017.

References

{{Tooele County, Utah Ghost towns in Tooele County, Utah Ghost towns in Utah Incinerators Hazardous waste