A judge has ordered the owner of a north-central Arizona mine to pay nearly $2.4 million restitution for an ongoing arsenic leak.
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality officials say Hillside Mine was the source of the illegal discharge of arsenic-contaminated water into Yavapai County’s Boulder Creek that was first investigated in 2013. They say the leak was at a rate of 5 gallons per minute or about 2.6 million gallons yearly. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office says the mine’s owner agreed to come up with a plan to stop the discharge and apply for permits. But authorities say no plan was ever submitted and the company was indicted in August 2017.
