Spanish disaster mine liability unresolved
ENDS Daily - 28/02/00
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Almost two years after a massive spillage of tailings from a
pyrites mine lagoon at Aznalcollar, Spain, which damaged the
environmentally-sensitive Doñana region, liability for the
estimated euros 180-300m (SPtas30-50bn) cost of the disaster
has yet to be established.  The experience demonstrates the
scale of the challenge facing the EU following its pledge to
tighten up on mine safety and liability after January's Baia
Mare mine spill in Romania (ENDS Daily 18 February).

Spanish national and regional authorities as well as
environmental NGOs have made a series of legal claims
against the Aznalcollar mine operator, Swedish multinational
Boliden Apirsa.  These include demands for what a Spanish
environment ministry spokesperson described as
"unquantifiable" costs for environmental damage.

According to the Andalucian government, euros 180m of public
money, including euros 54m of EU funds already spent, will
have been committed when compensation payments and clean-up
and reforestation operations in the affected area are
completed.

A Boliden Apirsa spokesman told ENDS Daily that the company
had spent euros 42m on repairing damage to the mine,
restoring the area around the mine and paying compensation
to affected farmers.  Boliden president Anders Bülow was
quoted last year as saying that the company "intends to
recoup the money it has paid up to now because our
involvement in the clean-up operations does not mean that we
accept legal responsibility".

When Andalucia gave permission to restart mining operations
at Aznalcollar (ENDS Daily 29 March 1999) environmental
organisations objected that mining waste stored at the site,
about which warnings had been ignored before the 1998
accident, continued to represent a hazard and that toxic
material was still leaking.  Spanish and Andalucian
authorities have also been criticised for not withholding
from Boliden euros 3.9m in public subsidies which objectors
argue would be better spent on restoring the environment.

An environment ministry spokesperson insisted that there was
a positive side to the Aznalcollar disaster in that "Spain
now has valuable experience to share" in coping with future
mine-spill accidents.

Follow-up:  Spanish environment ministry
(http://www.mma.es), tel: +34 91 597 6030;  Andalucian
environment department, tel: +34 955 003 000;  Boliden
Apirsa, tel: +34 91 564 4003.