Photo detail

This photo shows a work truck passing the Cuban Cafe along the main street in Cuba, N.M. Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn has hired a consultant to review a defunct copper mine just east of the village to determine what options exist for cleaning up tons of tailings left behind by past operations. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Donate Report a Typo Contact

Stories this photo appears in:

Tease photo

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