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Farm Dust Causes I-10 Closure Near San Simon

Deja vu for motorists traveling along Interstate 10’s final stretch near the Arizona-New Mexico state line. 

For the third day in a row, blowing dust from a San Simon farm temporarily shut down the interstate.

It’s also the second year in a row where the Department of Environmental Equality had to step in to help. 

Timothy Franquist with DEQ says the state spent nearly $300,000 last year helping the pistachio farmer stabilize his soil.

"The chemical stabilizer had to be plowed up in order to lay irrigation systems and plant the trees. In the process of doing that Thursday and Friday, we did have the storm system moved in with no moisture, which caused all of the wind blowing that we saw this week," Franquist said.

He says the storm was in the forecast, so the farmer should have known better to delay his work. 

DEQ inspected the site on Monday and will suggest steps to deal with the problem.  In the meantime, the property owner risks a $10,000 fine for every day the dust is traced back to him.

Holliday Moore was a reporter at KJZZ from 2017 to 2020.