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 disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

facility currently operated by

Clean Harbors Clean Harbors, Inc. is an American provider of environmental and industrial services, including hazardous waste disposal for companies, including Fortune 500 companies, small waste generators and federal, state, provincial and local governments ...

. It is located in Aragonite,

Tooele County Tooele County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 58,218. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele. The county was created in 1850 and organized the following year. Tooele County ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, 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 superson ...

lies to the west and the

Dugway Proving Grounds Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a U.S. Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway Pr ...

lie to the southwest.

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

, exit 56 provides access to Aragonite. The site lies northwest of the Cedar Mountains. The low

Grassy Mountains Grassy (meaning 'covered with grass' or 'resembling grass') may refer to: Populated places *Grassy, Lauderdale County, Alabama, an unincorporated community *Grassy, Marshall County, Alabama, an unincorporated community *Grassy, Missouri, unincor ...

lie to the north. Aragonite lies along the

Hastings Cutoff The Hastings Cutoff was an alternative route for westward emigrants to travel to California, as proposed by Lansford Hastings in ''The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California''. The ill-fated Donner Party infamously took the route in 1846. Des ...

, a historical transmontane route taken by nineteenth-century

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

s. Aragonite was established in the early twentieth century for the mining of

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

, 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 2009 N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...

the 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 has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Hazardous waste is a type of dangerous goods. They usually have one or more of the following hazardous traits: ignitability, reactivity, co ...

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 The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) is a non-profit research and education organization involved in exploring, examining, and understanding contemporary landscape issues in the United States. Founded in 1994, the CLUI organizes exhibi ...

. 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 Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc. is a company that provides services such as collecting and recycling oil, providing industrial cleaning, and handling industrial waste. In addition, their products include cleaning equipment, antifreeze and coolant, wi ...

, 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 and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

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

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

. A 2009

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

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 ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History A ...

'' 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 is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, February 27, 2017.

References

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