▲ Human rights organizations announced that despite having caused the greatest environmental damage in the Sonora and Bacamuchi rivers due to the spill of 40 billion liters of waste, Grupo México does not comply with the minimum measures to avoid risks in Buenavista del Copper.Photo Cristina Gomez
jared laurels
Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday March 19, 2022, p. eleven
Buenavista del Cobre of Grupo México, responsible for the worst mining environmental disaster in the country, maintains operations high-risk
without a mining and metallurgical waste management plan for 11 years, denounced the Sonora River Basin Committees and the human rights organization Poder.
They pointed out that in a meeting held on March 3, the General Directorate of Comprehensive Management of Materials and Risky Activities, of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, confirmed that the consortium owned by Germán Larrea lacks said instrument and accused the authorities to be ignored.
The committees, which bring together inhabitants of the localities Aconchi, Arizpe, Ures, Bacanuchi, among others, emphasized that It is unacceptable that the mining company operates without complying with the basic safety requirements and that the Federal Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) fails to comply with its specific duty, which is to care for the environment.
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The organizations detailed that the meeting was the result of years of litigation and favorable sentences for those affected by the spill of 40 billion liters of hazardous waste in the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers by the Grupo México mine, which affected 22 thousand people from seven municipalities.
In a joint statement, they demanded that the federal authorities explain as soon as possible how is it that a mine that has caused so many problems and has provoked violations of our human rights
is 11 years old without said instrument and fails to comply with NOM 157 Semarnat-2009, which establishes the elements and procedures to implement mining waste management plans.
The organization Poder indicated that the first time that Grupo México requested the registration of the waste management plan was in November 2011, and since then Semarnat has rejected it for non-compliance with various provisions
for which he questioned how many more mines in the country operate in the same situation.
As part of the Justice Plan for Cananea, the committees decided to postpone the meetings this month, because the federal authorities have not presented the results of the contamination and health studies carried out at the end of 2021, and warned that they will only participate in round tables. substantive work where a structured work plan is presented.
