viernes, 21 de abril de 2017

Autorizan ingreso de las FF.AA. a Madre de Dios para luchar contra minería ilegal

Por la Resolución Suprema suscrita por los ministros del Interior, Carlos Basombrío y de Defensa, Jorge Nieto, el Gobierno Central autorizó el ingreso de las Fuerzas Armadas (FF.AA) a la región de Madre de Dios para apoyar a la Policía Nacional en su lucha contra la minería ilegal.

La autorización busca que las fuerzas militares brinden apoyo a los efectivos policiales frente a las movilizaciones que los mineros ilegales han anunciado para los próximos días. El permiso será por 30 días desde hoy viernes 21 de abril.

En la resolución se explica que en todo momento será la Policía Nacional la responsable de mantener el control del orden interno en Madre de Dios, agregando que la presencia de las FF.AA. será solo de apoyo.

“La actuación de las FF.AA. estará dirigida a contribuir y garantizar la plena vigencia del derecho a la libertad y seguridad personales, a la libertad de tránsito por las vías y carreteras (…), facilitando de este modo que los efectivos de la Policía Nacional concentren su accionar en el control del orden público”, señala la resolución publicada en El Peruano

domingo, 9 de abril de 2017

Peru wants to sell dirty smelter but has to lower air standards

La Oroya - Peru's La Oroya polymetallic smelting plant has been for sale since the company who owned it went bankrupt in 2009. So Peru is proposing to loosen air quality standards in some parts of the country to attract buyers, despite the plant's dirty past.

The decision by the Andean country's Environment Ministry late Saturday is actually nothing new. In January 2017, a proposed auction of the La Oroya smelter, supported by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, drew the interest of five companies.

But the interested parties were turned off by Peru's air quality standards. At the time, the prospective buyers were aware of the possibility of changes to the regulations and decided to hold off on bidding until they could see for themselves what would come of the new standards.

However, according to Reuters, the government's new proposal is serious and would include changing several parts of the country's environmental quality standards, including raising the sulfur dioxide emission limit to levels in line with other countries in the region including Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

The country is desperate to sell the plant, as well as a small copper mine. The government is planning a new series of auctions before an August deadline for selling the facility. The proposed standards have been pre-published and are now open for a 10-day public comment period.

Of course, the proposed standards change does not mention the need to sell the smelter, but to some environmentalists, it looks like Peru is putting the environment second over economic growth, something President Trump has done in the United States.

Pollution problems with the La Oroya smelter

La Oroya was bought by Doe Run, (whose parent company was The Renco Group, Inc.), in 1997 for US$247 million. The company also bought a small copper mine, the Cobriza copper mine, south of La Oroya, for US$7.5 million. Until Doe Run took bankruptcy in 2009, they owned 99.97 percent of La Oroya.

La Oroya was made up of a copper and lead smelter and zinc refinery. The plant also dealt with 'dirty concentrates' produced by a number of local mines They included gold and silver, antimony, arsenic trioxide, bismuth, cadmium, indium, selenium, tellurium, sulfuric acid, and oleum.

Under the leadership of its coordinator, Congressman Casio Huaire Chuquichaico, the Junin Parliamentary Group held a meeting in which legislators expressed concerns about the Doe Run case affecting the population of La Oroya and the modernization of the Jauja airport. (Translation by Google Translate). Congreso de la República del Perú

Problems started right away with Doe Run. Until their purchase of the company, La Oroya had been run without any concern for the environment, and consequently, the landscape around the plant looked like a moonscape because of the sulfur dioxide residues.

Doe Run signed an environmental contract with the government that gave them 10 years to install remediation measures to curb emissions from gasses, particulates, and polluted water and clean up around the smelter and its waste dumps. Well, it never happened.