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Spanish Mine Spill Fine Contested STOCKHOLM, Sweden, August 8, 2002 (ENS) - The Spanish government's decision on Friday to impose sanctions of 45 million in fines and compensation on mining firm Boliden for the 1998 Aznalcollar dam burst disaster has been rejected by the Swedish-Canadian multinational company. In a statement issued from its Stockholm office, Boliden based its refusal to accept responsibility on the conclusions of an aborted criminal investigation.
Boliden president and CEO Jan Johansson (Photo courtesy Boliden)The investigation blamed failures in the design of the mine tailings pond for the disaster, in which five million tons of toxic mining waste spewed into the area in and around the Doņana Nature Reserve in the southern Spanish province of Andalusia.The company said, "Bolidenīs Spanish subsidiary Boliden Apirsa was acquitted of all responsibility in the comprehensive criminal investigation following a dam failure at the Los Frailes mine in Spain. The dam failure was caused by defects in the construction and mistakes made in the preliminary geological studies and not in the operations of Boliden Apirsa."
Cleanup of the spill took months and cost millions (Photo courtesy WWF)Boliden's Spanish legal representatives said they would appeal against the fine and attempt to "redirect responsibility to those in charge of constructing the dam" - the Spanish company Dragados.Boliden said that no formal claim has been raised against Boliden or any of its subsidiaries by the Spanish government over the dam failure. In any case, the Spanish authorities, which have spent an estimated 240 million on cleaning up the affected area, are unlikely to collect any money as Boliden's Spanish subsidiary, Boliden Apirsa, is in the process of being wound up and already faces claims of 100 million from creditors. Manuel Chaves, first minister of the Andalucian regional government which is also claiming 86 million from the company, recognized that compensation would probably "have to be pursued through the international courts." Boliden has assumed "a great responsibility in connection with the dam failure," the company said, "not least concerning the restoration of the site and compensating people affected."
Flamingos in Doņana National Park (Photo Đ WWF/Jorge Sierra)A UNESCO World Heritage site and a protected wetland under the Ramsar treaty, Doņana National Park occupies the right bank of the Guadalquivir River at its estuary on the Atlantic Ocean. It is notable for the great diversity of its ecology including lagoons, marshlands, fixed and mobile dunes, and scrub woodland. It is one of the biggest heronries in the Mediterranean region, home to five threatened species, and is the wintering site for more than 500,000 migrating water birds each year.The mine waste sludge spread 40 kilometres (25 miles) downstream from the broken dam, into the Guadalquivir River system, damaging the national park and the protected Doņana wetlands. Eleven months after the original spill, Spanish water authorities said the waste was still leaking at the rate of 84,000 litres (22,000 gallons) a day from Los Frailes mine into the River Guadiamar upstream from Doņana National Park. {ENDS Environment Daily contributed to this report. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London} |
