A chemical spill in northern Mexico has contaminated the drinking water for numerous towns, forcing 88 schools to close and leaving thousands of residents in the Sonora area fearing for their health and safety.
On August 7, 2014, a leak erupted in the Buenavista copper mine, causing 10 million gallons of acid and other toxic chemicals to spill out into the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers. These rivers are a major source of water for residents in the state of Sonora. Not only do the rivers provide drinking water for many communities, but a majority of the towns’ economies are agriculturally dependent, so the water from the rivers is a key source in maintaining a thriving economy. Moreover, adding to the food crisis is the lack of clean water for livestock; it’s possible that many of the them have already been contaminated from drinking the polluted water.
Grupo Mexico, the company that owns the mine, initially let the spill go unreported. This decision, coupled with the company’s lack of dams to contain the spill, allowed the chemicals to travel downstream and pollute the rivers for nearly a full day. It wasn’t until the next day, August 8, that the leak was reported; after residents noticed that the rivers were turning bright orange, investigations were conducted, and the leak was traced back to a faulty pipe in the mine. Grupo Mexico, on the other hand, cited heavy rains as the culprit. But, upon closer examination, officials discovered that there were no heavy rains on August 7. As Mexican Environment Minister Juan Jose Guerra Abud said, “It’s absolutely false that it was because of heavy rains. There were no heavy rains those days.” Grupo Mexico also promised that they would provide aid to the affected communities in a timely manner, but Guerra Abud says otherwise: “They said there would be a series of aid programs for the populations, which also did not happen when they said they would.”
Guerra Abud is calling the Buenavista mining spill “the worst natural disaster provoked by the mining industry in the modern history of Mexico,” and the Mexican Government is making sure that Grupo Mexico is held accountable. In addition to being fined over 3 million dollars, the company is also facing a lawsuit from Profepa — Mexico’s federal environmental protection agency — and the Mexican government plans to bring criminal charges “against top officials at the Buenavista mine.” The government is also attempting to bring sanctions against the mine, which include “suspend[ing] operations at the Buenavista mine until all damages have been assessed and . . . cancel[ing] the mine’s concession.”
Yet, Grupo Mexico, one of the largest producers of copper in the world, is confident that business will remain steady and that their mine will not be shut down. Juan Pablo Becerra, head of Grupo Mexico’s investor relations, says that even though news of the chemical spill has caused the company’s shares to drop, the mine’s “operations continue as normal and we expect to achieve our production guidance.” Regarding the impact of the spill, Grupo Mexico’s vice president for international relations, Juan Rebolledo, states that “the content of these acids is not toxic in itself,” and “there’s no problem, nor any serious consequence for the population, as long as we take adequate precautions and the company pours lime into the river, as it is currently doing.” The company also took other measures to clean up the spill, including the building of a retaining wall “to reinforce a reservoir . . . [that] had overflowed.” The total cost of cleanup is still unknown, yet Profepa is estimating it to be “hundreds of millions or billions of Mexican pesos” (a hundred million pesos is about 7.7 million dollars). But for the thousands of residents who are struggling to maintain their health and livelihood after the spill’s impact, the personal costs are much, much higher.