US firm kicked out of Peru mining group for pollution

[Judi Lynn]

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.

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

[Judi Lynn]

1. 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

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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

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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

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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