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Gogebic Taconite President In Spain Groundwater Case

en.wikipedia.org

The president of the company that's pursuing a new iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin may be tied to alleged environmental violations at a mine in Spain. Bill Williams of Gogebic Taconite was previously a manager of Cobre Las Cruces, an open pit mine in Spain that's accused of breaking laws in the handling of the mine's groundwater.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the Seville Justice Ministry in Spain rejected an appeal this month from the mine's owners -- and its managers now face criminal charges for allegedly exposing local groundwater to high levels of arsenic.

Williams told the Journal Sentinel he has not been contacted by authorities in Spain, or by the company that employed him -- which has since been taken over by a Canadian firm. He said the mine built a treatment system to clean the groundwater before pumping it out, and returning it to an aquifer. He said he was aware of the legal issue while he worked in Spain, but he had not been keeping up with the matter since then.

(Wheeler News-Learfield Data)

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