Southern Arizona is one of the top 10 metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of military and defense presence in the United States (Powell, 2023). In Sierra Vista (about 45minutes south of Tucson) there is Fort Huachuca Army Base, and in Tucson we have Davis Monthan Air Force Base, and Morris Air National Guard Base. Also in southern Arizona, we have lots of government-contracted defense companies: Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Bombardier, and Honeywell Aerospace to name a few. While these military posts and defense companies have provided a strong foundation for their communities, they have unfortunately brought some issues as well.
In the mid 1950’s Hughes Aircraft (now known as Raytheon) was the main aeronautical companies in the area, working through most of the southwest’s planes doing maintenance, repairs, and manufacturing. During their work, they commonly used an industrial solvent called Trichlorethylene (TCE) to clean oil and grease off airplane parts (Davis, 2022). It took nearly 30 years before any of the contamination was noticed, and by that point the damage had been done. The runoff of water contaminated the local water
table with TCE and caused cancer and other severe health issues to residents in the South Tucson area (Roseane, 2021).
The Air Force and Raytheon have settled in lawsuits that were brought against them for this contamination, and there is no remnants of TCE in the waters today. Other contaminates have been found, but nothing with as many strong associations to health issues (Roseane, 2021).
Resources:
Davis, T. (2022). Pollution in Tucson Water. Pima County Public Library. https://www.library.pima.gov/content/pollution-in-tucson-water/
Powell, J. (2023, December 5). Aerospace & Defense - Tucson & Southern Arizona. Sun Corridor Inc. https://suncorridorinc.com/industry-strengths/aerospace-and-defense/
Rosane, O. (2021, October 6). Pollution from Air Force keeps causing cancer in Tucson, residents say. EcoWatch. https://www.ecowatch.com/tucson-pollution-air-force-cancer-2553583119.html
