"One Year On, Toxic Sonora River Spill Prompts Lawsuits"

"In August 2014, chemicals from a Grupo México mine contaminated a main waterway. A Mexicoleaks Alliance investigation reveals that the spill control equipment at the Buenavista Copper Mine was not in compliance with regulations that federal authorities had failed to enforce since 2011. Now residents of seven Sonora municipalities are filing suit."

"The infrastructure that is supposed to capture chemical runoff from the Buenavista Copper mine in Sonora was only half-complete in August 2014. The spill detector and spill control mechanisms had not been installed, according to reports from inspections carried out by the consumer advocate agency (Profepa).

This information was uncovered as part of an investigative report produced jointly by the Sonora River Valley Committee and the non-governmental organization PODER which also revealed that the mine had been operating since 2011without an approved Waste Management Plan as required by law. The Environment Secretariat (Semarnat) is entrusted with enforcing compliance, but it failed to do so at the world’s fourth-largest copper mine located outside Cananea, Sonora, near the border with Arizona.

The Aug. 6, 2014, spill dumped 40 million liters of copper sulfate into the river and local residents have filed six suits against the federal government and the Grupo México holding company that owns the mine, alleging rights violations and criminal negligence."

El Daily Post had the story August 5, 2015, 2015.