Mexico takes mining company to court seeking new remediation effort for Sonora river pollution
Mexico is pursuing a criminal complaint against the country’s largest copper producer seeking to force a new remediation program for river pollution in the northern state of Sonora
MEXICO CITY — Mexico is pursuing a criminal complaint against the country's biggest copper producer seeking to force a new remediation effort for a toxic mine spill in the northern state of Sonora nine years ago, an environmental official said Thursday.
The complaint, which was filed in August but announced only on Thursday, centers on remediation funding for eight polluted townships in Sonora.
Mining company Grupo Mexico closed its remediation fund in 2017, arguing that it had met legal requirements.
The government contends that was premature and is asking the courts to order a new fund be established.
“The people, the environment are still contaminated and there are sick people,” said María Luisa Albores González, who heads the government’s Environment Department.
Albores described the August 2014 mine spill as “the most serious environmental disaster in the history of metal mining in Mexico.” Ten million gallons (40 million liters) of acidified copper sulfate flooded from a waste reservoir at Grupo Mexico's Buenavista mine into the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers.
The accident, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the city of Nogales, has left “alarming” levels of air, water and soil pollution across 94 square miles (250 square kilometers) to this day, according to a government report last month.
Grupo Mexico promised to establish 36 water treatment stations, but only 10 were installed and only two of those were finished, Albores said. Of the latter two, the one in the town of Bacanuchi ran for two years and the other in San Rafael, ran for
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