Speak Out About Your Air and Environment

By Richard Fimbres Vice Mayor – City of Tucson (Ward 5)

The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) held an open house on the proposed Materion Ceramics, Inc. revised air quality operating permit on Thursday, Jan. 22, at Sunnyside High School. PDEQ held this meeting to get public comment on this proposal.

The Materion plant, the nation’s largest manufacturer of beryllium oxide products, is at 6100 S. Tucson Blvd., north of Valencia Road, in a residential neighborhood with numerous nearby schools. Materion, formerly known as Brush Ceramics and Brush Wellman, opened its ceramics manufacturing plant in Tucson in 1980. Since then, at least 35 of their Tucson employees have developed Chronic Beryllium Disease, and at least 5 have died. People had fears and concerns that the ris