Seville, (EFE) recovery of the area amounted to 115 million euros.
The report, produced in 2003, is led by Robert Gibb. That he has appeared as a witness this Tuesday in the trial in which the Junta de Andalucía claims almost 90 million euros from the Swedish mining company in the civil trial that is being held in court 11 in Seville. And that today he has welcomed his third day.
The auditor, the first of the witnesses proposed by the denounced company that appears in the trial, has explained that the amount of expenses for investigation, projects and works amounted to 45.8 million euros. And that this amount, about 30 million, was used to seal the raft.
For the work to remove the sludge, Boliden allocated around 31 million euros. Since, as explained by the auditor, the company was in charge of cleaning the affected northern part. Some 2,800 hectares of the total 4,600 affected.
Other series of losses
The rest of the cost until completing the 115 million were not specified by the auditor. Although in the report that he prepared in 2003 it is stated that they refer to another series of losses that were generated. In addition to a series of actions outside the spill but related to them that are also computed.
As explained by the auditor, the report was made as a result of the “accumulated procedures” to clarify the content of more than 70 folders with invoices and receipts provided by Boliden. All this documentation of the period between 1998 and 2001, this last year only a few months.
It has focused on the 30 million euros that Boliden spent on sealing the waste base. A job that consisted of “waterproofing and fixing” the pool with the aim of avoiding the risk of “toxic runoff” that could reach the Guadiamar and the rest of the area.
He recalled that the mine had between 450 and 550 employees. And that the commitment to maintain the staff had been acquired with the Junta de Andalucía. A condition that the Swedish mining company “always met”, and has described as “very orderly” the process of cessation of the mine’s activity in 2001.
Experts from Sweden
“Boliden did not let the Junta de Andalucía go, they did not abandon it,” the auditor stressed. Who, to questions from the lawyer of the Andalusian administration, wanted to make it clear that despite being a commission they always had “freedom of action” when carrying out the work.
The Board’s lawyer listed a series of concepts contained in the report to account for Boliden’s spending. Among them the payroll of the contracts, warehouse vouchers and others such as the “media impact” or trips from abroad. That Gibb justified in the arrival of experts from Sweden and the realization of some courses.
Previously, three former technicians from the Junta de Andalucía who made reports on the spill have testified, such as José Luis Sáinz, a Forestry engineer who belonged to Egmasa and who has answered the parties’ questions via videoconference.
He explained that his team’s strategy was based on analyzing soil samples that had been affected by sludge. And that this cleaning did not stop until it was demonstrated that there was no longer any index of heavy mineral and arsenic contamination.
“It was not enough to remove the sludge, heavy minerals were left that exceeded the permitted rates and the risk that they would pass into the groundwater was great,” explained the technician.
Conclusions on Thursday
José Joaquín González-Ripoll also testified. Who when the spill occurred was an administrator of the health district to which the municipalities of the affected area corresponded. And he has indicated that a job was carried out that required a great “professional reinforcement”.
The work was epidemiological, veterinary and pharmaceutical, explained González-Ripoll. Who has recognized that the “uncertainty of the extent” of the spill lasted several weeks. And that all the analyzes carried out were transferred to laboratories that the Junta had in Seville and even to other provinces. A job with a cost of 43,903 euros.
The third of the witnesses was Antonio Carvajal, who was a director of the Coopers&Librand company. A company that was in charge of making reports, at the request of the Board to improve the image of the area abroad. With which to alleviate the “bad information” that came from the area and had an impact on the image of Andalusia.
The four witnesses today join the six from the prosecution of the Board who have appeared in the first two days held last Tuesday and Thursday. While for next July 13 a final testimony of an expert proposed by Boliden and the conclusions of the parties are scheduled. EFE