US firm kicked out of Peru mining group for pollution

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

US firm kicked out of Peru mining group for pollution
23 mins ago

LIMA (AFP) – Peru's mining, oil and energy association (SNMPE) said Saturday it has expelled US mining company Doe Run from its roster for not cleaning up its pollution problems, which environmentalists say are among the worst in the world.

"It has not shown... any willingness to comply with its environmental commitments and its obligations to the country, its workers, the La Oroya population and its creditors," SNMPE said in a statement.

Doe Run in 1997 took over La Oroya mining complex and the Cobriza copper mine in Peru's central Andean mountain region, where it mines for lead, copper, zinc, silver, gold and a series of byproducts including sulfuric acid.

The US company's La Oroya mining operation was listed in 2007 by the international environmental group Blacksmith Institute as the sixth worst polluted site in the world.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100130/sc_afp/peruusminingenvironment

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Which makes me rejoice when I see that the rights of indigenous

peoples can be respected now and again.

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1222-hance_avatar.html

In James Cameron's newest film Avatar an alien tribe on a distant planet fights to save their forest home from human invaders bent on mining the planet. The mining company has brought in ex-marines for 'security' and will stop at nothing, not even genocide, to secure profits for its shareholders. While Cameron's film takes place on a planet sporting six-legged rhinos and massive flying lizards, the struggle between corporations and indigenous people is hardly science fiction.

For decades real indigenous tribes around the world have faced off with corporations—mining, logging, oil and gas—determined to exploit their land. These corporations, much like the company in the film, usually have support from the government and access to 'security forces', sometimes in the form of ex-military or state police. Yet unlike the film, in which the indigenous group triumphs over the corporate and military invaders, the real-life stories of indigenous tribes rarely end justly: from Peru to Malaysia to Ecuador their struggles continue.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Doe Run Smelter in Peru Loses Environmental Certification

Doe Run Smelter in Peru Loses Environmental Certification
Children living near smelter contaminated with high levels of lead

April 9, 2008

Lima, Peru -- Doe Run Peru, which operates one of the largest metal-smelters in the western hemisphere, has lost its Environmental Certification in a highly unusual move taken by the company's independent third-party auditors. TUV Rheinland initially granted the certification less than two years ago, but revoked it March 11, 2008 citing non-compliance with Peruvian environmental laws and the lack of adequate pollution prevention measures.

The loss of the certification comes on the heels of a $234,000 US fine imposed last year against Doe Run Peru for several serious violations of environmental laws in Peru. This week, Peruvian authorities released a report detailing those violations, including noncompliance with the standards for lead and particulate matter.

Doe Run Peru obtained the environmental certification under ISO 14001 in 2006 calling it a "significant milestone in delivering on our commitments to our communities, our employees and the environment." The Doe Run Company's web site calls the ISO certification an "internationally recognized symbol of a company's dedication to superior quality, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement."

Nevertheless, a number of studies conducted by the government as well as international health experts have shown that almost all of the children living in the area surrounding Doe Run Peru's smelter have unacceptably high levels of lead in their bodies. Many are severely exposed and require immediate medical treatment.

More:
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/2008/doe-run-smelter-in-peru-loses-enviornmental-certification.html

http://www.worstpolluted.org.nyud.net:8090/files/FileUpload/pics/2007-reports/peru3.jpg

http://www.davidrochkind.com.nyud.net:8090/content/photos/peru001A.jpg

http://filer.livinginperu.com.nyud.net:8090/news/img/la_oroya_2.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_llr9PUTAKAs/Sjbz-vKvnDI/AAAAAAAAAGk/zKn5oQtAccM/s320/dirtycities_cubatao.jpg http://filer.livinginperu.com.nyud.net:8090/news/img/la_oroya.jpg http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/020409/040209_peru_lead_hmed8a.hmedium.jpg

http://www.panachemag.com.nyud.net:8090/Web/BeSeen/OpenUniversity09/OP01.jpg
Owner, Ira Rennert, on the left, and goddawful _Bush ally, John Bolton on the right.

http://www.pbase.com.nyud.net:8090/aclark79/image/64272958.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_j1WCY4T_2yI/SVSc5f8Q6TI/AAAAAAAAFR4/SemROJL57ls/s400/ira+rennert+and+peter%27s+pond+lane.jpg2.jpg http://images.businessweek.com.nyud.net:8090/ss/07/06/0627_nouveau/image/3-irarennerthamptons.jpg

Rennert's house, the most expensive private home in the U.S., at Long Island, New York

http://www.15minutesmagazine.com.nyud.net:8090/images/power_benefits/pow_0806_04-01.jpg

Ingeborg and Ira Rennert with Bibi Netanyahu at Gateways gala at
the Waldorf

Wikipedia:

Ira Leon Rennert (born 1934, Brooklyn, New York) is an American billionaire investor and businessman. Using junk bonds to finance his acquisitions of companies, often in bankruptcy, Rennert has amassed significant holdings in basic, cyclical industries, like mining and metals, including lead smelters, coal mines, magnesium producers and vehicle assembly lines. Today he controls one of the nation’s largest privately held industrial empires, and his personal fortune is estimated to be $4 billion.<1>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Rennert

~~~~~~~~~
Poisoned city fights to save its children

Families in a Peruvian valley choked by toxic gas from a smelter are taking on a US metals giant

Hugh O'Shaughnessy in La Oroya, Peru
Sunday August 12, 2007
The Observer

http://image.guardian.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/08/11/peru10b.jpg

Children wearing masks play near the towering chimneys
of Peru's La Oroya refinery and metals processing
plant. Photograph: Reuters

At an altitude of 13,000ft the Andean air is clear. A plume of white smoke rises from the chimney at the La Oroya smelter, hard at work refining arsenic and metals such as lead, cadmium and copper. But today the company is not discharging any gases over this city in central Peru. 'It's a nice day, so the company won't be letting off any gases,' says Hugo Villa, a neurologist at the local hospital. 'They keep the worst emissions to overcast days or after dark.'

When the gases are released, they make this one of the most polluted places on the planet, with La Oroya ranking alongside Chernobyl for environmental devastation, according to a US think-tank, the Blacksmith Institute.

The company is a US corporation, Renco Doe Run. The gases are the product from the main smelter a mile or two down the valley. The high mountains around keep out the cleansing winds, meaning that airborne metals are concentrated in the valley. Neither humans nor nature can escape the company's outpourings of poisons. And, despite evidence that gases have been behind the premature deaths of workers and residents young and old, the business-oriented, pro-US government of President Alan Garcia is too afraid of foreign investors to do anything about it.

Now, however, the townspeople, once muted by their worries about losing their jobs with the valley's biggest employer, are turning their attention towards Ira Rennert, Renco's proprietor.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/12/environment.pollution

[dipsydoodle]

3. a $234,000 US fine ?

I bet that really hurt them - NOT.

[Judi Lynn]

10. You can be sure this is going to make U.S. owner Ira Rennert think twice

about destroying the health of an entire town again!

Dennis O'Brien
La Oroya: A Poisoned Town, A Billionaire's Profit

La Oroya, Peru is one of the most polluted places on the planet. Situated high in the Andes, scouring acid rain has made it a moonscape. According to one recent study, 97% of the children suffer from lead poisoning. The average child in La Oroya has twice the arsenic and six times the cadmium in his blood than the average American child.

Sagaponack, Long Island has pristine beaches and some of the most beautiful homes on the planet. Even by the opulent standards of the Hamptons, one mansion stands out. Perhaps palace is a better word; Fair Field dwarfs its neighbors and mocks nature with narcissistic grandeur. It's over 100,000 feet, has 29 bedrooms, three dining rooms, multiple libraries, bowling alleys, squash and basketball courts, a $150,000 hot tub.

What do these two places, separated by 3,000 miles, have in common? They are both owned by a man named Ira Rennert.

Rennert is an industrialist in the natural resources business. He controls the Doe Run Company, which claims to be the largest company of its kind in the western hemisphere, and US Magnesium. The EPA just announced last week that they want to declare US Mag's Utah plant a Superfund site, because of 'largely uncontrolled' releases of PCBs and Dioxin. Rennert bought the metal processing plant in La Oroya, Peru in 1997.

He got a good deal, too. At $125 million, he took over a big producer of lead and copper. But there was a catch: as part of the agreement to buy the facility, Rennert's company promised to clean up its operations within 10 years. According to many in Peru and the United States, it has failed to do so. It is a failure that has affected the health of a generation of kids and continues to make La Oroya a paradigm of pollution.

When we discuss pollution these days, we tend to focus on global effects of global consumption - warming caused by billions of individual lifestyle choices. La Oroya, however, is a place where the effects are felt here and now. Successive generations of families poisoned, without the means to leave.

Ira Rennert's monstrous home on the beach proves vulgarity knows no bounds, and the fact that it has been paid for, at least in part, by his operations in La Oroya, is truly shocking.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-obrien/la-oroya-a-poisoned-town_b_130448.html

10 Minute video:
"House of Lead: A story of greed" - La Oroya, Peru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpwu8DOmzoU

Ira Rennert's Republican campaign donations:
http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=Rennert&fname=Ira

[Judi Lynn]

13. You're right. He's probably still sneering about it. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

4. Here's another corporate practice, revealed in this situation--cut and run....

The end of the same article (the OP):

"SNMPE said expelling Doe Run from the association would not affect its mining business, but noted that the company was presently in 'a serious financial crisis.'

"The association said Doe Run had notified Peruvian authorities it would be unable to comply with an environmental clean-up program it assumed when it began working in Peru.

"The Energy and Mining Ministry said Doe Run had only complied with 52 percent of the 2006 PAMA environmental program in La Oroya and needed another 160 million dollar investment to complete it according to plan.

"SNMPE said Doe Run's 'lack of interest in completing PAMA violates the association's ethical principles and code of conduct,' earning it its expulsion.

"The US mining company had already been suspended from SNPE in late June."

------------------------------

So the big execs and the rich investors come in, extract the gold or whatever, and all the profit, never intending to comply with environmental regulations, loot the company then cry bankruptcy. 'Gee, sorry about the biggest toxic mess on earth. Gotta run!'

Not that the corrupt Alan Garcia government of Peru would do anything about this, but there outa be a law that requires the global corporate predator to post a bond for environmental cleanup, just as a landlord requires a cleaning deposit-only bigger. And/or, a means of extracting the money from the profiteers down the road. Government regulation--by strong, principled, leftist governments (the real conservatives--leaders who conserve the public's resources and rights) is the only way to do this. Global corporate predators will NEVER do this voluntarily. Their MO is the opposite--take all the profits, avoid all social responsibility.

[JoeyT]

5. Tune in next week

When we discover Peru is harboring Al Qaeda operatives and we're forced to invade them or they'll follow us home.

[Left Coast2020]

6. Perhaps the EPA could increase the fines for some of these

scumbag polluters, and help put a dent in the national deficit. Maybe help with green jobs investment. We really need to get away from this friggin coal garbage.

[fascisthunter]

7. Good for Peru (nt)

[winyanstaz]

8. good...I just dont want to see them coming back into America either...

[Vidar]

9. Kudos to Peru.

[SpiralHawk]

11. I am willing to bet a sack of doughtnuts this corporoclown is a Republicon

Any takers?

[Judi Lynn]

12. Churches unite over La Oroya pollution

Churches unite over La Oroya pollution
National Catholic Reporter, July 20, 2007 by Barbara Fraser

In a country where ecumenism is still tentative, one issue that brings churches together is protection of the environment.

The threat to people's lives and health because of pollution in La Oroya is "a fundamental reason for unity," said the Rev. Rafael Goto, an evangelical minister and president of the National Evangelical Council of Peru. "The value of human life is one of the key elements of ecumenical encounter."

Goto was a member of an ecumenical delegation that traveled to the United States in June to pressure the U.S. owners of Doe Run Peru to move faster to clean up La Oroya.

The threat to people's lives and health because of pollution in La Oroya is "a fundamental reason for unity," said the Rev. Rafael Goto, an evangelical minister and president of the National Evangelical Council of Peru. "The value of human life is one of the key elements of ecumenical encounter."

~snip~
The goal was "not only to knock on Ira Rennert's door, but to touch his heart, to offer him the opportunity for an ecological conversion, a conversion of social responsibility," Archbishop Pedro Barreto of the Catholic diocese of Huancayo, Peru, said before the trip. "From our faith, we want to support him so that the company can become a leader in the change we seek for our region."

Rennert refused to see the delegation. Nevertheless, Barreto called the ecumenical delegation "unprecedented" and said he considered the trip "very positive."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_/ai_n20510800

http://www.ezermizion.org.nyud.net:8090/sites/ezer/_media/mediabank/579_mb_file_3a7c9.jpg http://www.15minutesmagazine.com.nyud.net:8090/images/power_benefits/pow_0708_01-01.jpg

http://www.panachemag.com.nyud.net:8090/Web/BeSeen/OpenUniversity/G2.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/07cV0qr4N22MF/340x.jpg

[pjt7]

14. I believe Ira Rennert operates

out of the same Upper East Side power Synagouge that Bernie Madoff bilked.

What a piece of "work"

[Judi Lynn]

15. So that's how they met. Yikes. I've heard Rennert got reamed in Madoff's trap.

It's heartbreaking thinking of such a great humanitarian as Rennert getting bamboozled by that nice Mr. Madoff!

[BlueCollar]

16. Thanks for posting this

I lived in La Oroya during the early sixties. Unfortunately,

"...SNMPE said expelling Doe Run from the association would not affect its mining business,..."

edit to add text from article