Removable and Place-Based Economies: Alternative Futures for America’s Deserts - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 298

“concentrating photovoltaic” power plant has been proposed for a mine-tailings site near
Questa, New Mexico—an admirable reuse, at first glance. 15 The fact that it is planned by
the mining company that ruined the land (a subsidiary of Chevron Oil) raises knotty
questions: conflict of interest, why fossil-fuel corporations control alternative energy
futures, and what impact a toxic site will have on green-energy workers.
A final irony here is that abandoned mines can become tourist attractions. Ajo's museum
at the pit edge is a step in that direction; Bisbee, Arizona, has a profitable mine-tour
industry; there are oil-drilling museums in several states.
16.8.2 Yuma, Arizona
Yuma, Arizona, about 150 miles from Ajo, shows that there are also differences among
extractive economies.* Yuma was founded as a steamboat landing at a river crossing.
Its early livelihood was supplying the mining towns that housed most of the county's
population. In the 1860s, Yuma became the county's center when those exportive cities
went bust. As local markets shrank in importance, however, Yuma's agriculture became
exportive. Today Yuma produces about 90% of U.S. lettuce, for example; clearance, drainage,
and irrigation to support agriculture have depleted the Colorado River and killed fields
with salinity. Agribusiness is often said to “mine the soil.” Its boom and bust cycles may be
longer than those of mineral extraction, but are still of real concern (Figure 16.7).
FIGURE 16.7
Yuma's farm economy outlasted the nearby mines it once served, but “mined the soil,” destroying wetlands
which have recently been restored.
* Unless otherwise noted, information about Yuma comes from Crowe and Brinckerhoff. 16