Ecobreves – PERU: Investigation Into Gas Leak

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

LIMA, Jan 24 2005 (IPS) - Elena Foronda, head of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, and representatives of the Machiguenga indigenous council are demanding that the authorities conduct a public environmental inspection of the gas leak that occurred in the pipeline that runs from the south-central zone of Camisea to the central Peruvian coast on the Pacific. The pipeline burst on Dec. 22 in the jungle region of the Urubamba River, 1,100 km southeast of Lima. According to official sources, in the seven minutes that passed before pumping was cut off, some 70,000 cubic meters of liquid natural gas escaped.

The company Transportadora de Gas says the environmental damage was ''minimal'', because more than half of the gas evaporated immediately, and the rest was dispersed in the waters of the Urubamba River.

Spokespersons from the Machiguenga community of Ticumpinia told Tierramérica, however, that the leak affected hundreds of local residents and killed off thousands of fish.