Mexico closes US gravel quarry that had been pressured

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government has closed a limestone gravel quarry owned by a U.S. company, a move likely to add fuel to an ongoing trade dispute with the firm. The Environment Department said Friday it closed the quarry owned by Vulcan Materials near Playa del Carmen, on the Caribbean coast. The quarry has been excavated below the water table and the department said the mining threatened water quality and subsoil conditions. But President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants the water-filled quarry to use as a theme park. He has pressured the Alabama-based aggregates company to sell the property to the government, or open one itself.