A miner cost of doing business
The estimated cost of environmental damage from the copper sulfate spill at a mine operated by Grupo Mexico in Sonora State last August is over $133.7 million USD, according to Mexico’s Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa).
SEMANART (the Department of the Environment) came up with a damage estimate that’s a bit more than double what the State of Sonora claimed, but then the Federal agency was taking into account both immediate damage and long range effects, which may not be known for some time.
One troubling aspect of the clean-up is that Grupo Mexico (the people who brought you this disaster in the first place) will be the ones to “permanently monitor river pollution, damage to land, livestock conditions, and the atmosphere.”
Incidentaly, CONAGUA.. the woater commission (and water rights are a federal, not state, matter) reports that in addition to having illegally taken water for years, Grupo Mexico’s spill is could get into the Hermosillo water supply… the one that is already overtaxed and stealing water from the Yaquís.
mexfiles.net 
Trackbacks