Rowley is an industrial area in Tooele County,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States. Rowley sits on the western shore of the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

, approximately 15 miles (by road) north of

I-80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

, Exit 77, serving Timpie/ Rowley Junction. Rowley was created in 1970 as the site of a large

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

processing plant. The location was named after Jeff Rowley who was the CEO of National Lead Industries during the construction of the plant. In the mid-70s, National Lead Industries changed its name to NL Industries and in 1980 sold the plant to

AMAX Amax or AMAX may refer to: *AMAX, an American radio broadcasting certification program *Amax Engineering, a defunct Australian aircraft manufacturer based in Donvale, Victoria *American Metal Company, which became AMAX in 1957 *Photosynthetic capac ...

. In 1989, the facility was sold to the

Renco Group The Renco Group, Inc. is an American New York City-based holding company controlled by Ira Rennert that invests in other companies across a range of industries. History In August 2004, it was announced that Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forb ...

, and the facility renamed Magnesium Corporation of America aka Magcorp. This facility was identified by the EPA as a major air polluter in the 1990s and has been identified as a significant emitter of

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...

and

bromine Bromine is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a similarly coloured vapour. Its properties are intermediate between th ...

in the atmosphere. In 2001, Magcorp went bankrupt and the Renco group purchased the assets and formed

US Magnesium The Renco Group, Inc. is an American New York City-based holding company controlled by Ira Rennert that invests in other companies across a range of industries. History In August 2004, it was announced that Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes ...

. In 2005, the facility was investigated by the

CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

for worker health hazards. In 2006,

Allegheny Technologies ATI Inc. (previously Allegheny Technologies Incorporated) is an American producer of specialty materials headquartered in Dallas, Texas. ATI produces metals including titanium and titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys and superalloys, stainles ...

announced plans to build a

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

smelter at Rowley, budgeted at $325 million. The smelter was built adjacent to the US Magnesium plant. The plant came online in 2012 and cost $460 million. By September 2016, the smelter was idled because the metal could be procured on the market at a cost lower than the production cost at ATI.

References

{{authority control Tooele County, Utah