A mining company's $300 million attack on El Salvador's water

A now closed mine in the area, on the San Sebastian River, operated by the US company Commerce Group, left behind water too dangerous to touch, never mind drink.
The El Salvador Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources tested the river and found cyanide levels nine times above the maximum allowable limit and iron levels more than 1,000 times the maximum allowable limit. So polluted is the river that it runs yellow, orange or red at times.
Mining for gold is a process that uses large amounts of dangerous chemicals in the extraction. A National Geographic blogger, Vladimir Pacheco, writing about OceanaGold's proposed mine, reports:
"The cyanide-leach processes at the company's El Dorado mine will use approximately 900,000 liters of water a day. In comparison, it would take 30 years for an average Salvadoran family to use that amount of water ... 
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2562735/a_mining_companys_300_million_attack_on_el_salvadors_water.html