Arizona Attorney General holds town hall on halted aluminum recycling plant

For residents of Tucson and nearby communities, the halted aluminum recycling plant in Benson is a reminder that major industrial projects can shape life well beyond the city where they are proposed. Benson is about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, and the debate over the facility involved concerns about public health, environmental effects, local government transparency and the amount of influence residents have over development decisions. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes returned to Benson for a town hall, asking residents what state and local policies should change after their campaign helped stop the project.

The meeting took place in the Benson Unified School District multipurpose room, where a large crowd gathered for what Mayes described as a final conversation about the proposed facility. Residents offered suggestions about changes to government procedures and policies. Their feedback came after the company behind the project, Aluminum Dynamics Inc., stopped pursuing the plant and said it would search for another location. Residents had also successfully recalled half of the Benson City Council, a move driven by anger over how the project was approved and what opponents described as a lack of transparency.

The proposed facility would have represented a $190 million investment on 200 acres near the southeast corner of Arizona 80 and the Interstate 10 Business Loop. Aluminum Dynamics, which is owned by Indiana based Steel Dynamics Inc., planned to build a secondary aluminum smelter and produce aluminum slabs, large blocks made from recycled scrap. The slabs would have been shipped to the company’s mill under construction in Mississippi. The planned building would have stood 88 feet high, according to information about the project, and the company had sought a conditional use permit for the development.

The company said it abandoned the Benson project because of differences with some Arizona state officials that it believed created risks for construction and future operations. Aluminum Dynamics also said it faced an anticipated need for recycled aluminum slabs beginning in 2027, making it necessary to select another location. The company thanked Benson officials, Mayor Joe A. Konrad, community members and people who had applied for jobs at the proposed plant. The decision ended the immediate fight in Benson, but it did not resolve the broader questions residents raised about how the project moved through the city’s approval process.

Many residents said they learned about the plant only after the land had been leased and an application for a conditional use permit had already been filed. They worried about living close to a large industrial operation and questioned whether the public had received enough information early enough to respond. Those concerns brought Mayes to Benson for an earlier town hall in October 2025, while the project was still moving through the permitting process. At the most recent gathering, residents connected their organizing efforts to the company’s decision to leave.

Misty Bloom, a Benson resident and co founder of the grassroots group Health Over Wealth Benson, was among those who opposed the plant at the earlier meeting. She thanked Mayes for listening to residents and taking action after hearing how the proposal could affect people individually. Mayes said she spoke directly with the company’s chief executive and questioned why Aluminum Dynamics had chosen a site within Benson’s city limits. She said she told him the state was conducting a nuisance investigation and would pursue a nuisance lawsuit if necessary. Her office ended the investigation after the company announced it would stop developing the project.

The opposition also played out in court. Residents and Health Over Wealth Benson sued the city in August 2025, alleging that the Benson Planning and Zoning Commission had improperly issued the conditional use permit to Steel Dynamics Inc. A Cochise County Superior Court judge dismissed the case in April 2026, finding that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to bring it. The residents appealed in May. The legal challenge was still part of the project’s history when the company announced it would look elsewhere.

Benson’s experience is not the first time Aluminum Dynamics has faced resistance in Arizona. The company previously sought to build a similar operation in Gila Bend, where the town council rejected the proposal after imposing 33 safety conditions. In Benson, the fight energized residents and produced a broader discussion about local accountability. After the project was halted, members of the Facebook group No Benson Aluminum Plant celebrated the decision. Bloom also credited the residents who wrote letters, made calls and attended meetings, urging them to remain involved even when civic participation is difficult.

Mayes used the Benson campaign as an example of what can happen when residents organize around a local issue. She told the audience that they are the heroes of their own story. For Tucson area residents, the episode offers a nearby case study in how industrial development, local permitting and state oversight can intersect. The plant will not be built in Benson, and Aluminum Dynamics has not publicly identified its alternative location. The company’s search, the residents’ appeal and the policy feedback requested at the town hall will determine what questions remain for Arizona communities considering similar projects.