Money, Economics, Politics,  Peru's Andes Mountains

What You Can Do to Help Save the People of La Oroya

Since I posted yesterday on my response to CNN’s segment on the toxic La Oroya smelting plant, several people who are very knowlegeable about the crisis have left some insightful and useful comments. (Visit my original response here.)

Sara Shipley Hines, who wrote the excellent Doe Run expose in Mother Jones in 2006, points out that CNN’s special incorrectly portrayed Doe Run’s Herculaneum smelting plant as model of environmental cleanliness. Unforunately, says Sara, it’s still hazardous. Sara’s written more on Doe Run since her award-winning MJ piece appeared, and you can visit her website for current articles, including a piece for the Nation on religious leaders challenging Ira Rennert.

Notes Sara:

Another new wrinkle is that the U.S. EPA recently slashed the lead air quality standard to one-tenth of what it has been since 1978. This means that Doe Run will have to reduce its emissions in Herculaneum even more. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27216428/ for more info.

 Jacob Goad of the ecumenical organization Manos Peru is disappointed that the CNN special placed little blame on Peruvian authorities for not enforcing environmental agreements that the state entered into with Doe Run.

Notes Jacob:

One of the things that has become increasingly clear as I have been living in Peru and following the case of La Oroya is to see that the government has written reports condemning contamination in La Oroya and then later not taking its own advise to enact precautionary measures. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Energy and Mines, OSINERGMIN, and the Ministry of the Environment are all now implicated in the public health crisis in La Oroya. Minister Brack of the Ministry of the Environment would do well to use the authority that has been given to him to begin to address the situation in La Oroya with all of the ministers.

On the other hand, the company must fulfill its environmental obligations by complying with the PAMA(Program de Adecuacion y Manejo Ambiental). It appears that it has not been complying with the PAMA, and so that is why the government (OSINERGMIN) must be pressured to apply the needed sanctions and to follow up on fines that have not been paid. I’d be glad to send you the format of a letter to write OSINERGMIN.

Perhaps the most important action that could be taken, which was explained well by CNN, is for the company and its owner, Ira Rennert, to apply all of the same technologies in La Oroya that are being used in Herculaneum, so as not “environmentally discriminate” against the children of Peru. That was the question that I raised with CNN when they were down here in Peru. It is clear that even if the company were to comply with its environmental responsibilities, then it still wouldn’t bring pollution levels down to Herculaneum’s levels, even from a couple of years ago. Please remember what Tom Kruzen said. Herculaneum is no paradise either.

Want to help make a difference at La Oroya? He recommends: 

http://www.manosperu.org
http://www.savelaoroya.org
http://www.amigosdelaoroya.org

You may also join the Facebook group “La Oroya que Soñamos”

Readers, please continue to add your comments and links to the discussion. I am here to faciliate the exchange of information and am learning much from your input.

I focus on water and climate-change issues in Peru when I write about the environment on this blog, but when another environmental crisis makes the English-language news, I feel bound to share what information I can.

Knowledge = power when it translates into action.

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

2 Comments

  • Miguel

    More Peruvians need to know about it. I remember there used to be a factory in Lima that was causing so much pollution, an people and organisations got it to close. I believe this happened because there was much more pressure from society in Lima, which is more populated and people know more about the environment and pollution than in La Oroya where people might not know as much, and might not have as much resources. So as somebody said, this news need to be kept alive, and continued to be brought attention of the Peruvian population especially, so as to create more social pressure and got this smelting company place to close.

  • Rachel in Peru

    There was a Chilean pasta company that had their factory over by the Pantanos de Villa in Chorrillos. It was forced to shut down. – They donated pasta to the kids that lived up the hill in Delicias.