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This photo shows the remaining pit at the Nacimiento Copper Mine near Cuba, N.M. The U.S. Forest Service has been working for years to clean up contaminated groundwater at the site, and now state Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn has hired a consultant to review the site and determine what options exist for cleaning up tons of tailings made up of ore waste from past mining operations. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

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For decades, yellow- and white-tinged piles of waste from a defunct copper mine have covered the mountainside at the edge of the quintessential New Mexico village of Cuba — out of sight, out of mind and not nasty enough to warrant the attention of the federal government's Superfund program.

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, AP December 27, 2017