The Mexican government is launching a new phase of cleanup on the Rio Sonora, 12 years after a mining operation spilled more than 10 million gallons of copper sulfate into the watershed.
At an event on Wednesday in the Sonoran river town of Ures, representatives from Mexico’s federal government announced a nearly $40 million investment to clean up polluted soil and sediment in the Rio Sonora.
“Every serious remediation process begins with evidence,” said Mexico’s environment minister, Alicia Bárcena, at the event. “That’s why we’re conducting studies throughout the entire watershed. With these results, we’ll move from diagnosis to action.”
The 2014 copper sulfate spill at Grupo México’s Buenavista copper mine contaminated much of the critical waterway. Mexico now considers the spill the most serious environmental mining disaster in the country’s history.
Mexico says the next phase of cleanup will begin next month and wrap up by December.
Many communities along the Rio Sonora say the federal government and Grupo México’s response to the disaster have been lackluster. Sonora River Basin Committees, a citizen group for people affected by the spill, called the cleanup plan a “necessary step to respond to a historic demand for environmental justice in this long-neglected region.”
But the group also called for more transparency from the government, and for officials to more meaningfully consider public opinion.
“The Sonora River can become an example of how the Mexican state should respond to an environmental emergency of this magnitude,” the group said in a statement. “To get there, we need transparency, real coordination, and genuine community participation.”
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