Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, SEO/BirdLife, WWF/ADENA, Ecologistas en Acción, and the association ADECUNA have hark back to the Aznalcóllar accident that occurred on 25th April, 1998. They have also emphasised that this catastrophe could have been avoided. In addition, these environmental organizations have alerted the population to the danger that currently exists in the area due to the toxic spills from Las Cruces mines.

Under the motto “1998 Aznalcóllar mines = 2008 Las Cruces mines. No more toxic spilling”, the spokespeople of these five well-known environmental organizations and this local association have jointed together to denounce the ecological degradation of the Corredor Verde of Guadiamar, five years after its inauguration. In addition, they have lamented the current situation in Aznalcóllar and Los Frailes where mud and residues were stored in tailing dams and unfortunately breached. They have also alerted to the dangers of contamination of the Niebla-Posadas aquifer, and the leaching of contaminant residues towards the stream of Los Frailes. In the same way, they have shown their opposition against the mining project of Las Cruces, in Gerena, due to the contamination of the Niebla-Posadas aquifer and the heavy-metal toxic spill to the Guadalquivir river.

As viable solutions, these organizations have proposed the enlargement and conservation of the Corredor Verde of Guadiamar, the environmental restoration of the mining enclosure of Aznalcóllar and the prohibition of toxic spilling of La Cruces mines.

The environmental organizations have criticized the public administration for only insisting at this time in the recovery actions they have undertaken in the Guadiamar, and for forgetting the character of announced catastrophe, and for dodging the situation on the mining installation, and the Guadiamar river.

In the present act there are been Jaime Machicado from Friend of the Earth; Mario Rodríguez, from Greenpeace; Alejandro Sánchez, from SEO/BirdLife; Juan Carlos del Olmo, from WWF/ADENA; Theo Oberhuber, from Ecologistas en Acción; and José Antonio Figueras from the association Adecuna of Aznalcóllar,.

1998. The Announced Catastrophe

Environmentalists remembered that the toxic spill of Aznalcóllar was an announced catastrophe that could have been avoided if the basic mechanisms of prevention and environmental control of the competent administrations, had worked correctly. The catastrophe was announced several times from December 1995 until the year of the catastrophe, in 1998. Nevertheless, the politicians in charge did not do anything in response to the denounces from a former technician and environmental organizations, about the mining complex.

The 25th April 1998, in the early morning, the tailings dam at the Aznalcóllar mine, property of the company Boliden Apirsa, spilled 5.5 million m3 of toxic mud and about 1.9 million m3 of acid water, with serious consequences for the ecosystems of the rivers Agrio and Guadiamar, and also contaminated the marshes of the Doñana National Park and the Estuary of Guadalquivir. Mud annihilated more than 4,600 hectares of culture and paralyzed the mining activity, leaving more than 500 mine workers without job.

From that moment, two environmental restoration projects began in the Guadiamar and the Doñana marshes, and in the Corredor Verde and Doñana 2005, with a public investment of more than 300 million Euros. Ten years later, it would be right to consider that the results of both projects were better than expected, considering the magnitude of the environmental, social and economic disaster. Anyway, lamentably all the costs caused by the catastrophe have been assumed with public money, whereas Boliden ,the company directly responsible for the catastrophe, took the benefits and the subsidies and did not fulfilled any of their environmental and social responsibilities.

2008, A Learned Lesson?

The signatory organizations state that the investments and the environmental recovery solutions carried out in the last ten years are currently threatened by diverse dangers, such as the spills of Las Cruces mine that can even get as serious as the Aznalcóllar catastrophe.

They are four main threats to the Guadiamar river basin and the Doñana marshes: the city-planning projects that threaten the role of the Guadiamar river as a green corridor; the water cession of the Agrio reservoir for agricultural and industrial activities, that would turn the Guadiamar river into an irrigation channel to supply crop fields; the lack of restoration of Aznalcóllar mining area that is still a heavy- metal contamination source, due to the existence of filtrations; and finally, the mining project of Las Cruces, that will spill heavy-metals to the Guadalquivir river, something that could perfectly be avoided due to the existence of a zero spill system.

Moreover, the little monitoring that exists in the Corredor Verde has favoured the development of prohibited activities in its surroundings, degrading the natural environment and the street furniture: the prohibited driving of quads, motorcycles and SUVs, illegal hunting and fishing, bonfires and barbecues in points non-authorized, acts of vandalism against the street furniture, etc.

The lack of long term commitment with the total recovery of the Guadiamar river and its hydrologic river basin has restrained the extension of the Corredor Verde towards the north, so as a result Sierra Morena and Doñana have not been really connected through the river. Finally the Corredor Verde would imply an especial intense work in the Aznalcóllar area to recover the mining zone and to eliminate the environmental impacts of the Guadiamar, situated at the north of this municipality.

Route from Las Cruces to Guadiamar

26th April 2008

Anniversary of the Aznalcóllar catastrophe

The 26th April, the environmental organizations have organized a route from Las Cruces mine to the Corredor Verde of Guadiamar. It will start from Santa Justa Station, at 10:30 in the morning, and at the same time, and from different points of Andalusia, other buses will go towards Las Cruces mine, in Gerena (Seville).

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26 de abril de 2008
Aniversario de la catástrofe de Aznalcóllar

At 12:00 in the afternoon, at km 5 of the SE-52 motorway from the A-road N-630 towards Gerena a demonstration will be held in the main entrance of Las Cruces mine. A manifesto will be read in the presence of the mass media. Later on, the route will continue towards the PAMA (Environmental Activities Area of Aznalcóllar) to see the tailing dam breached and to visit to the Aznalcóllar mining area.

The route will finalize at 14:30 in the Corredor Verde of Guadiamar, in the Recreational Area of the Puente de Las Doblas, where organic food from La Ortiga Organic Consumers Association would be tasted. Finally, the buses will return to their destinations at 17:00 hours.