Cottonwood, a town of 12,000 residents a half hour drive from Sedona in northern Arizona, has been the scene of a devastating crime against people, animals and the environment. We need your help to end it!  In order to continue fighting for justice and our lives, we need your financial assistance for the expenses of contaminant testing, legal fees, documenting and preserving evidence, the costs associated with technical support and to support victims in desperate financial shape due to the losses they sustained from the contamination and medical expenses.  We also need qualified professionals and the media to assist in this investigation and the seemingly impossible clean-up of affected residents' property. Thank you SO MUCH for your generosity!  Elevate to thrive is a 501c3 non-profit so your gift will be tax-deductible.

My name is Rachael Collins and I am the whistleblower who would not accept the lies I was told when the office and 2 storage units I leased quickly filled up with black powder in May of 2022. When I pursued an explanation, I was lied to by my landlords, City officials, ADEQ and Minerals Research, Inc. who all said that 'nothing' was happening. I did NOT accept what my eyes showed proof of, so I began investigating. This quickly evolved into a full time, 10 hour a day, SEVEN DAYS a week investigation that has continued for TWO FULL YEARS - 4,000 hours so far!  WHY HAS THIS MUCH DEDICATION AND PERSEVERANCE BEEN REQUIRED?  The answer is because every single entity, agency and person contacted in the entire state of Arizona has refused to address or assist with this illegal environmental and human contamination injustice!  Obviously, the more I learned, the more irrefutable evidence I acquired and the more rejection, stonewalling and sabotage I experienced, the more concerned and outraged I got.  The contamination of my office and storage units by slag dust destroyed my ability to operate my business and make income. My hundreds of valuable possessions were contaminated. I became very ill and the daily stress became unrelenting as everyone I approached who had the power to end the contamination DENIED THAT ANYTHING WAS HAPPENING despite how obviously visible it was.  Supported only by my social security income, I pursued every lead to learn what was in the hazardous material that affected me including massive research, interviewing over 80 people about historical mining in Arizona, having professional environmental testing done and collecting EVIDENCE.  As a result, this TOXIC environmental contamination TRAVESTY can now be pursued as a criminal investigation and for civil litigation by the experts in this field.  See the story and irrefutable evidence at www.cottonwoodcontamination.com. 

If you'd like to learn more, read on.  For 7 years, a company called Minerals Research, Inc. has been blasting and refining to a powder, hardened previously liquified rock (ore) from historical mining days. The 12+ acre site of volcanic looking black material is called "slag", previously mined ore from many mines including Jerome, AZ.  that was liquefied in the local furnace called a smelter at thousands of degrees.  After the copper, silver & gold were melted out of it and removed by the wealthy operation owners, the remaining mass was liquified ore full of the toxic chemicals used in smelting and concentrated mineral and metallic elements. It was poured on the closest nearby land into a huge hole.  As 40 years of smeltering went by, the hole was filled and the liquid waste continued to be poured on top of that until it created a tall mass of hardened black slag towering in the air on the 12 acre area. When Cottonwood was incorporated in 1960, the city grew around the “slag pile” and most children remember playing on it and cutting themselves if they slid down the pile of sharp iron silicate particles.

In 2008, City of Cottonwood officials wanted to get rid of the slag pile so the eyesore property could be used for more valuable revenue-generating purposes. They invited a mining company called Minerals Research, Inc. (MRI) to propose how they could remove the slag.  The City agreed to MRI's proposed method of BLASTING the slag pile (with explosives) surrounded by housing in the middle of the city and building a refinery on the property to pulverize the slag into super fine powder to be sold as sandblasting material and trucked off the site.  The unsafe track record of Minerals Research was ignored.  It had already been identified as a high risk violator of environmental regulations and caused contamination in another Arizona city where they used the same process.  But MRI said they had a safe operation and the process was not hazardous to the community or their employees so the city moved ahead with a multi-decade contract.  It took years for MRI to build a refinery on the site.  In 2015, the first batches of slag were refined into a fine RESPIRABLE powder exceeding EPA particulate size regulations. MRI poured it into very tall stock piles UNCOVERED WITH NO PROTECTION FROM THE COMMUNITY where strong winds blew over it.  Nearby residents and business owners began noticing black "dust" intruding on and in their property and that they had new concerning health symptoms. By 2018, multiple  complaints by these citizens of illness and ruined property were completely ignored by the City of Cottonwood officials, AZ Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the polluting perpetrator MRI. Desperate complaints were ignored by the City, ADEQ and MRI FOR YEARS.  By the time it happened to me and I began investigating, I ensured that I documented every interaction I had with the entities who had a duty to protect us - and weren't!.  After many interactions with ADEQ since November 2022, in May 2023,  I provided ADEQ with proof of inaccuracies in their permits and that MRI did NOT have the legally required permits to even be operating - and NEVER HAD since it opened!  ADEQ promised me they were closing MRI down. Months later they did - for a few weeks.  MRI IS STILL OPERATING AND CONTAMINATING US WITHOUT the permits required by Federal EPA and state regulations!  As I said in a November 2023 meeting in Phoenix attended by Arizona legislators and ADEQ about proposed changing EPA regulations for fine particulate matter, WHAT DOES IT MATTER WHAT THE REGULATIONS ARE IF THEY ARE NOT BEING ENFORCED?  In February 2023, I notified a criminal investigator for the AZ Attorney General's office about the sickening contamination. They have DONE NOTHING! These public servants and complicit polluters have seen copious amounts of undeniable evidence of the devastating consequences and DON'T CARE.  On December 13, 2023, in the first public community meeting the City of Cottonwood has ever allowed residents since they began complaining, something almost miraculous happened.  

In the 2 hour meeting, ADEQ ADMITTED that 1) MRI has NEVER HAD ADEQUATE FUGITIVE DUST CONTROLS while operating, 2) the dust we have been affected by CONTAINS AT LEAST TEN HAZARDOUS METALLIC MINERAL ELEMENTS (that cause pulmonary fibrosis, cancer and other serious health issues) and 3) ADEQ was never monitoring our exposure to that dust and the contamination of our property, people and pets.  ADEQ had been lying to us for 7 YEARS claiming it was a safe operation they were continually inspecting.  They were NOT protecting us - and even with all of these admissions - THEY STILL AREN"T and MRI is OPERATING AND CONTAMINATING EVERY DAY!

But I was bothered by why Cottonwood city officials continued to refuse to admit to me there was anything detrimental happening?  They refused to do simple environmental testing of the slag dust.  The reason became clear when it was revealed through public records search in August 2023 that City of Cottonwood officials had secretly been paid quarterly by Minerals Research ever since the refinery started operating and can't account for the money because it goes into the general fund!  Although MRI offers that money to the City for 'unintended consequences' of the operation, compensation and assistance has NEVER been offered to me and other victims of damage from the fugitive dust. City officials told me repeatedly they could do nothing because they had "no jurisdiction". In truth they could pull MRI's use permit!  Regarding public officials' accountability,  this is called 'dereliction of duty', 'malfeasance', 'criminal negligence' and more.  They are still actively receiving quarterly payments and successive City Managers REFUSED in meetings with me and other victims to offer ANY assistance with our serious financial and health damage. They claim they see NO EVIDENCE of the (clearly visible) contaminating dust. The money involved in the Minerals Research refining operation is enormous and unethically enriches many people. The slag pile still contains very significant quantities of gold and rare earth minerals valuable for modern technology. This diabolical GAME is CRIMINAL, involves collusion at the highest levels and I believe rises to the level of a CONSPIRACY for the sake of Greed over Human Life!    I have experienced continual betrayal and sabotage by many people involved in covering up or enriching themselves from my investigation while the victims are still living torturous lives, suffering without any visibility or assistance.  This is NOT JUSTICE in America and a violation of our civil and constitutional rights!

HELP US END IT!  Please forward this website (cottonwoodcontamination.com) to everyone you can - and especially those with the knowledge, contacts and expertise to get MEDIA EXPOSURE.  The EPA is aware of ignoring this.  We need criminal investigation, indictments and civil consequences.  

Let this be an example to all environmental polluters that the PEOPLE of America can stand up and FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES if we all band together against those making money at the expense of our lives who think they are above the law.