(Photo courtesy of Arizona Department of Environmental Quality)

The state has spent close to $300,000 attempting to mitigate blowing dust from a farm in southeastern Arizona close to the New Mexico border.

The dust caused repeated closures and multiple collisions on a 60 mile stretch of interstate 10 over the past month.

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Caroline Oppleman says the culprit is a 1,200 acre parcel of land near San Simon that was tilled without proper soil treatment. “What happened was there just was not enough water applied to that very large area that had been disturbed,” she said.

After landowner David Turner failed to comply with a consent order to fix the problem, ADEQ treated the land with a mixture of water and a chemical stabilizer that creates a crust to hold the soil in place.

While the primary concern was visibility for motorists on the highway, Oppleman says the dust poses other threats as well. “Particulate matter in the air also can be a public health risk and it is definitely not recommended that you spend a lot of time outside breathing that in,” she said.

Turner is now cooperating and the state has overseen the treatment of half of his property. No fines have been assessed and ADEQ currently has no plan to recoup the money spent in the process.