President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ruled out the possibility of folder closure of the case concerning the 2014 Sonora River contamination without a full resolution to the spill.
“We are constantly working on this, but we are going to make more progress in the days that we have left and it is very important that the file remains open,” the president stated during his press conference on Friday.
The contamination of the Sonora River, which occurred on August 6, 2014, is considered the worst environmental disaster in the history of metal mining in Mexico.
During the event, which was documented as an act of negligence by the company, approximately 40 billion pesos of acidulated copper sulphate were spilled.
Following the disaster, Grupo México signed an agreement with the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) to remedy, repair, and compensate for environmental damage, with the primary goal of lifting the closure and reopening.
However, only 1 billion pesos out of the originally agreed-upon 2 billion pesos was ultimately delivered.
The agency reported that 7.8 million pesos were distributed to those affected, while 71.1 million was allocated to Epidemiological and Environmental Surveillance Units, 32.4 million for communication strategy, 185 million pesos for water tanks, and 4.7 million for a water treatment plant.
In addition, dialogue tables were established with Grupo México to address the issues in the region affected by the spill.
Two lawsuits remain outstanding: a civil lawsuit concerning the trust and the resolution of damage caused by the spill, and a criminal complaint filed by Semarnat in 2023, stemming from the damage caused to the Sonora River in 2014.
The government is implementing a five-phase plan to address the situation, including water purification actions and infrastructure improvements to provide clean water to 24 communities with an investment of 295 million pesos.