Sonora Mine Spill Devastates Mexican Farmers Valeria Fernandez - Al Jazeera
go to original September 19, 2014

Grupo Mexico has agreed to a multi-million dollar compensation payout for causing one of Mexico's worst ever environmental disasters. At least 24,000 Mexicans were affected when acid spilled into two rivers. Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Mexico City. (Al Jazeera)

BANAMICHI, Mexico - Liseth Mendez and Judas Barrios milk two cows covered in a cloud of tiny persistent flies as the sun taints in red the surrounding mountains near a ranch less than a kilometre from the Sonora River.

It seems futile because the milk will go to waste, but it's necessary to keep the cows in good health and it provides the couple another day's pay.

"There are no buyers," said Adrian Villa Acuna, the ranch owner, hiding his frown underneath a white hat. "No one wants milk from the Sonora River."

Growers, cattle ranchers and dairy farmers such as Acuna are bearing the brunt of a man-made ecological disaster after 40,000 cubic metres of acid-laced copper sulfate and heavy metals spilled into the river from a mine on August 6.

Grupo Mexico, the massive mining conglomerate which owns the Buenavista del Cobre mine in northern Sonora, initially said it was due to heavy rains but later recognised it was due to a structural failure in a containment pond.

Mexican Environmental Minister Juan José Guerra Abud called it "the worst natural disaster provoked by the mining industry in the modern history of Mexico".

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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