It sounds like a story from the "Old West" in our country: miners promise jobs and prosperity, but take the wealth for themselves and wreck the environment.
The story is neither old nor local; the country is El Salvador, and the time is recent, in the book "The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed."
Co-authors and marriage partners Robin Broad and John Cavanagh tell the story of the people who noticed the despoiling of their environment, and put up a fight. It was not short and it was not easy.
The authors visit with an overview of the battle.