Arizona is now taking notice of the air pollution that is happening in their state. But, it’s not politicians or citizens that are stepping up to the plate to change the issue. It’s the smelter industry.

In 1912, a smelting business was started by the Ray Mine to dig deep into the desert mountains, ultimately making red metal which was sold around the globe for all its metal needs. Over the years, Arizona has created a lot of smelters, in areas like Dewey-Humboldt and Superior. But, over the last century, environment concerns have stymied the smelting business.

Currently, there are only 3 smelting business in the United States of America. One business is in Utah. The other two are in Arizona. The Hayden facility, in Arizona, cares deeply about its work funneling copper into the economy. The Former United States Representative, Ann Kirkpatrick, recently said this about the copper industry: “We really rely on copper in this day and age of electronics. Every piece of technology uses copper. It’s important that we do that here in the U.S.”

Even with its importance, smelting created major health concerns for its workers and people living nearby. When metal is roasted, pollutants are released into the air, and this has led to cancer and lung issues.

To counteract this issue in Arizona, Asarco, a counterpart of Grupo Mexico, will use over $175 million to gather pollutants in the air and exceed the standards that have been placed in Hayden. As recently as 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency agreed with Asarco to install equipment at smelter facilities that would protect the environment and its workers.

This might not be a perfect solution to an imperfect problem, but Arizona may be ahead of the curve when it comes to maintaining and counteracting air pollution from the smelting industry.