Ecobreves – CHILE:: State-Run Mining Company Faces Investigation

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Jul 22 2006 (IPS) - Chile’s Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously to investigate the state-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco), to determine its responsibilities in polluting the capital’s Carén estuary. The mining company has a tailings reservoir near the estuary, a body of water that is used for irrigation and animal consumption.

A reservoir dam breach spilled 10,000 litres of liquid waste into the estuary, killing cattle and destroying wildlife.

The coordinator of the non-governmental Sustainable Chile Program, Sara Larraín, told Tierramérica that the “molybdenum and sulphate that has contaminated the entire estuary basin” is just one manifestation of a serious systemic problem — the illegal approval of an environmental decree in 2005, which outlines waste-disposal parameters for Codelco that are less stringent than those for other companies.