Seville, (EFE).- Technicians from the Junta de Andalucía who worked during the Aznalcóllar mine spill in 1998 have confirmed in the trial on the claim of almost 90 million euros to Boliden, that “all” the actions of the Board were motivated by the spill, despite the company’s perception that the cost is inflated.
In the first of the four days planned, the former chief of staff of the Ministry of the Environment, Juan López Domeq, appeared as witnesses. The former coordinator of the Restoration Office created before the spill in 1998, Javier Serrano Aguilar. And the former member of the Technical Office of the Ministry José María Arenas.
The Court of First Instance number 11 of Seville has started a trial this Tuesday that will continue on the next days 6, 11 and 13. And it has counted on this day with the declaration of three of the twelve witnesses and an expert witness. In the process opened against the three companies that are part of Boliden (Boliden Apirsa, Boliden AB and Boliden BV).
The trial, presided over by civil magistrate José Manuel Martínez and which has caused great media expectation, takes place 25 years after the ecological disaster. And it tries to elucidate the claim of 89,867,545 euros by the Board to Boliden.
Necessary actions
The then head of the Environmental Protection Service of the Ministry of the Environment and coordinator of the Restoration Office created at the time of the spill, Javier Serrano Aguilar, has assured, to questions from the parties, that all the actions undertaken by the Board were “motivated” by the spill.
Serrano Aguilar, who directed the Office until November 2000, has said that said actions by the Andalusian Government “were necessary.” And that the objective of the Administration was changing with the passage of time.
According to the technician, the first thing was to remove the sludge from the mine and return it to its owners. So that they could continue with their agricultural activity. But, once it was verified that “it was not possible” for the contamination to disappear completely, the restoration was decided.
The land then no longer had agricultural capacity but neither could it “be left bare.” Because erosion would have dragged the contamination that “still remained” towards the National Park and the Doñana estuary. Therefore, a “revegetation” was carried out with forest vegetation similar to those that existed in other rivers.
The former technician -now retired- recalled that the dimensions of the rupture of the raft -which spilled five million cubic meters of mud that reached the area of Doñana, where there were 37 tons of dead fish and 4,400 hectares were affected- did not have historical precedents. So the Board had to “innovate” in its performance.
A global decontamination of the area
Despite the fact that the line of argument of Boliden’s defense, represented by the lawyers from the Uría y Menéndez law firm, was the one that the Board had already scheduled before the spill and the creation of the Green Corridor, the witness denied it. And he defended the need to proceed with a “global decontamination” of the area.
In his opinion, the dimension of the catastrophe was not only environmental but also had an impact on economic activity. Specifically in some 3,000 hectares of agricultural land, a situation that caused them to be expropriated and to lose their agricultural and tourist vocation.
The former technician from the Board has admitted that a project was needed to “exceed” the impact of the spill. But he has indicated that the area continues to “pay the consequences” of the disaster. And he has ensured that all the actions were carried out with funds from the regional and national administrations. Because the European Union refused, as it argued that the consequences should be borne by the mining company.
“When the restoration of the area was proposed, Boliden had already gotten out of the way,” Serrano declared. Who has warned that this attitude contrasted with the collaboration that the Swedish mining company had at first. Due, in his opinion, to the fact that he was pending a new concession from the Board.
The Green Corridor
Previously, Juan Antonio López, who was chief of staff of the Ministry of the Environment between 2000 and 2004, declared. Who has defended the “comprehensive” performance of the Board in the restoration of the area after the toxic spill.
López has received the first allusions from the defense about the Green Corridor created as a result of the disaster. And he has pointed out that this project was “intimately linked” to the restoration of the area. And it was “necessary” because an aesthetic restoration could not be done.
He also denied that the Green Corridor was proposed before the raft broke, along the same lines as Serrano and José María Arenas, according to which the Board’s actions did not go “beyond” the effects of the spill itself.
Arenas recalled that the spill brought many commercial activities into crisis, such as the rice paddy or the strawberry farm in Huelva, as well as fishing resources and tourist reserves, and warned that the restoration, far from ending then, led to the removal of a wounded “to death” to make him “chronically ill”. EFE