CONAGUA Wants Mining Industry to be Allowed to Dump Toxic Waste into Rivers

ByNancy Flores

This article by Nancy Flores originally appeared in the October 20, 2025 edition of Revista Contralínea.

The National Water Commission (CONAGUA) is pushing for the mining industry – considered one of the most polluting in the world – to be allowed to dump its highly toxic waste into Mexico’s rivers and streams, something currently prohibited by law. This is despite the fact that one of President Claudia Sheinbaum ’s environmental and public health objectives is exactly the opposite: to clean up contaminated tributaries, such as the Sonora River, where one of Grupo México’s subsidiaries spilled 40,000 cubic meters of acidulated copper sulfate into the Tinajas 1 dam on August 6, 2014, allegedly due to negligence. This is why it currently continues to have high concentrations of five heavy metals that cause cancer and terminal illnesses in the surrounding populations.

Grupo México dumped 40,000 cubic meters of acidulated copper sulfate into the Tinajas 1 dam.

In stark contradiction, in the proposed reform of the National Water Law —which will barely be discussed in Congress—CONAGUA proposes having the power to grant concessions to this extractive industry to dispose of its waste in tributaries and water bodies, despite these being priority reservoirs for human and animal life.

Specifically, the Commission headed by Efraín Morales proposes amending Article 118 of the law to establish that the water authority will have the authority to grant concessions to the mining industry. The initiative states: “For the granting of concessions over riverbeds or reservoirs and their federal zones, for the final disposal of mining waste and wastewater deposits for mining use, the necessary protection measures for population centers, productive areas, bodies of water, or ecosystems must be certified.”

According to the Parliamentary Gazette —published by the Chamber of Deputies on October 9, which announced the presidential initiative issuing the General Water Law—the current text, in its Article 118, prohibits such permits: “The water authority is prohibited from granting concessions over waterways or reservoirs and their federal zones for the final disposal of mining waste or wastewater deposits for mining use.”

Now it will be up to legislators to discuss the issue, and if necessary, correct it, for the good of the nation.