Spanish authorities seek damages from a Swedish mining company over a major toxic spill 25 years ago

By CIARÁN GILES
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities are seeking 90 million euros ($98 million) in damages from a Swedish mining company for a major toxic spill near the famed Doñana National Park in 1998. The civil trial in the case opened on Tuesday. The Boliden company ran the Aznalcóllar mine, where the walls of a wastewater reservoir burst, pouring an estimated 1.3 billion gallons of acidic liquid into the Guadiamar River in southern Seville province in what was one of Spain’s worst environmental disasters. The trial will hear testimony from 12 witnesses and three experts. A criminal trial in the case was shelved in 2001 by a Seville court.