Mexico Suffers Giant Toxic Wastewater Spill At Copper Mine

Mexico is pursuing legal action against a copper mining company that was allegedly responsible for a massive toxic wastewater spill in August that left thousands of people without clean water. 

The acid spill at a Grupo Mexico unit contaminated two rivers. Water in the Sonora River "contains arsenic, cadmium, copper, chrome and mercury," Bloomberg reported. 

The cleanup could be costly and difficult. Recent estimates say it could reach billions of Mexican pesos, the Wall Street Journal reported, noting that "a hundred million pesos is roughly $7.7 million." In addition, the government wants to fine the mining company $3 million. 

Mexican officials emphasized the scale of the disaster. 

"This incident at the mine, based on what some specialists in the area have told us, could be considered the worst environmental disaster in the country's mining industry in modern times," Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Juan Jose Guerra Abud said, per Fox News Latino. 

The Mexican government is "seeking major cleanup fees from mining giant" Grupo Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reported.  

The spill "sent 10 million gallons of toxic wastewater down two rivers in the border state of Sonora," BuzzFeed reported. The mayors of seven municipalities "said they would file a civil lawsuit asking the company to compensate residents who were affected by the spill," Buzzfeed reported, citing El Universal. 

After the spill, 88 schools temporarily shut down as a result of water contamination, the Associated Press reported. Officials distributed water using tanker trucks, but had some difficulties reaching people in isolated areas. 

The company had plans to expand its operations at the mine, but those hopes are now in question. "The company is in the midst of a $3.4 billion expansion project at the mine, which was formerly known as Cananea and has the largest proven copper reserves in the world. The expansion aims to boost production capacity to 1.3 million tonnes by 2017," Reuters reported. 

Mexican lawmakers are pushing the government to cancel the company's concession to operate the mine, the report said. 

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