Semarnat is working on a comprehensive remediation plan to address the impacts on the Sonora River

Press Release No. 71/24

Mexico City, August 9, 2024

This is an automated translation of the press release issued in Spanish

• Diagnosis prepared by the environmental sector provides evidence of the damage caused to water, soil and biota by the spill that occurred in 2014.
• Six permanent water treatment plants have been rehabilitated and four new ones are being built with the support of the State Water Commission in Sonora.
• The agency reiterates: it was an act of negligence on the part of Grupo México, which has not fulfilled its environmental responsibility to date.

The Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, María Luisa Albores González, reported on the attention that the Government of Mexico has given to residents of eight municipalities affected by the spill of 40 thousand ^m3 of acidulated copper sulphate into the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers in 2014, whose remediation actions were not resolved by the Buenavista del Cobre SA de CV mining complex of the Grupo México company.

During the morning press conference led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the head of Semarnat explained that without having addressed the impacts caused to the environment and health, in 2017 the authorities at that time and the mining company decided to extinguish the trust for the care of those affected, which had an initial fund of 2 billion pesos, of which only a little more than half was used.

However, in 2020, a ruling by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled that the environmental reparation and compensation violated the right to information and consultation of the affected communities, so Semarnat issued a new document concluding that the remediation levels were not reached and requested that Grupo México modify its corrective measures.

He recalled that, within the framework of the Comprehensive Plan for Attention to Cananea and Programs for Well-Being, announced by the president, the environmental sector held meetings with the communities and decided to prepare a diagnostic report that shows the contamination that persists in soil, water, sediments, flora, fauna and air, which demonstrated that the disaster was not an accident, but rather negligence in the hydrological design of the Tinajas 1 dam system.

Based on the above, a comprehensive remediation plan was developed in agreement with the communities, which includes attention to the issue of water with the measurement of the aquifer and extractions, leachate treatment, drainage and sanitation, and safe water for the population. In the case of air and soil, it includes medium- and long-term phytoremediation, comprehensive management of plant residues, and monitoring of atmospheric pollution.

Secretary María Luisa Albores explained that, in collaboration with the Sonora State Water Commission, six fixed water treatment plants have been rehabilitated and are now in operation. The first, run by the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA), is operated by the community previously trained by the institute. Likewise, project specifications were drawn up for the construction by the state of Sonora of four new plants in Huepac, Aconchi, Baviácora and Arizpe.

The head of Semarnat reported that actions continue in close proximity to the affected communities to return them a healthy living space.

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