TONOPAH, AZ — A year after millions of chickens were buried in Tonopah following a devastating avian influenza outbreak, some residents say they are still looking for answers about what the burial could mean for the groundwater many in the community rely on.
The outbreak struck Hickman's Family Farms in May 2025, leading to the euthanization and burial of approximately 2.75 million chickens and related materials, according to records from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).
The burial site remains a source of concern for some community members, who say they worry about the long-term impacts on drinking water.
"The concern, the main concern is, is the drinking water from our wells going to be okay?" said Mike Worth, owner of Saddle Mountain RV Park.
Tonopah is a rural community west of Phoenix where many residents depend on private wells rather than a municipal water system.
"All the water is off of wells, so we all drill wells, and we're all pulling off of the underground water," Worth said. "There is no municipal water in the area."
Residents say part of their frustration stems from the belief that the birds should have been transported to a landfill instead of buried on-site.
“They said that if they ever had an event like this, it's called a mass mortality, that they would take them to a certified landfill," Worth said. "Never did we think that they were going to dig two trenches and bury over 2 million chickens."
Dan Blackson, who has lived in Tonopah for nearly five decades, echoed those concerns.
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"What happened was that at the Tonopah egg production plant owned by Hickman's, they started to have a die-off," Blackson said. "They started to depopulate the birds from the hen houses, and there were 2.2 million chickens according to the records that were killed off."
ADEQ records show the agency required nearby well sampling, groundwater monitoring and a hydrogeologic study following the burial.
According to a temporary emergency waiver issued by ADEQ in October 2025, a study submitted by Hickman's concluded there was "no reasonable probability of a discharge from the burial area."
However, ADEQ said its review found that additional site-specific information was needed before regulators could reach their own conclusion.
Later that summer, ADEQ said its own hydrologists also found the probability of contamination was low.
For residents like Worth, he says any probability is too high, and wants to see more robust testing.
"We all have wells, and we're all concerned about it," he said.
Blackson said he wants to see continued oversight and additional action.
"We think the resolution has to be to remove the chickens," Blackson said. "They need to go to a lined landfill where the pollution from their decaying is controlled and does no harm to people and does no harm to the environment."
ADEQ and the Arizona Department of Agriculture are holding a community meeting Thursday night in Tonopah to provide residents with an update on testing, environmental monitoring and ongoing response efforts related to the outbreak.
Residents say they hope the meeting provides additional clarity about the burial site and what comes next.
"We're asking for the Department of Agriculture, the Hickman Farms, to dig up the chickens, relocate them to a proper landfill, and not to do this anytime in the future," Worth said.
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