Background

Doe Run is a US mining company based in Missouri that bought the metals refinery complex originally constructed in the town of La Oroya by the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation. This complex, at some 3,500 meters above sea level, was built in the 1950s and was a technological triumph at the time. However, it was also an ecological disaster as fumes from its smoke stack (the highest in the world) damaged the pastures of neighboring communities that began a long struggle in defense of their land and rights.

Doe Run’s Actions in Peru

Doe Run bought the complex in 1997 from Centromin (the previous owner, a state enterprise) at a price less than half of the value of its assets. At the time, this was justified by the argument that an international firm would make investments that would improve the environmental situation. Studies produced by the Peruvian Ministry of Environmental Health, the Inter-American Environmental Defense Association and the Union for Sustainable Development (UNES) find that health indices and environmental quality in La Oroya have deteriorated significantly since Doe Run acquired the complex.

For example:

• The Ministry of Environmental Health finds La Oroya population blood lead levels at 28.6 ug/dl (Ministry of Environmental Health, DIGESA 1999), with 67% of children less than 10 years old at levels between 20.1 and 44 ug/dl. The maximum tolerable limit for children recommended by the World Health Organization is 10 ug/dl.
• The average blood lead level for pregnant women is 34.9 mg/dl. The World Health Organization recommendation is 30 mg/dl.
• In 1999, concentrations of the toxic gas, sulfur dioxide (SO2) averaged 934 ug/m3, (Ministry of Environmental Health, 1999) far surpassing the World Health Organization limits of 125 ug/m3.
• Between 1995 and 1998, according to company information, concentrations of lead in the air increased 1163%, arsenic 606% and cadmium 1990%.
• The complex pollutes the Mantaro River, causing high acidity with elevated levels of arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, magensium, lead and zinc.
• Emissions affect a wide region around the complex, including the districts of Sacco, Huaynacancha, Yauli, Morococha, Paccha and Huay and Huay. Levels of lead in pastures (traditional livelihood in the region is sheep, llama and cattle ranching) has been found to be 51 ppm (Ministry of Agriculture 1997), surpassing the 30 ppm limit for sheep recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, 1980)
• The InterAmerican Development Bank identifies La Oroya as the most polluted zone in Peru.

When Doe Run purchased the complex, it agreed to undertake an investment program to modernize the plant and equipment and to meet the requirements of the Environmental Management and Remediation Plan (PAMA in Spanish, a legal requirement in Peru). However, because of the decline in the prices of most metals since 1997 and the company's desire to pay for its investment program from income generated by the refinery itself, it has decided to delay until the end of the period of the PAMA (2006) the largest single investment: scrubbers to reduce SO2 emissions from the smoke stack. Townspeople and surrounding peasant communities are being required to suffer the health and other impacts from the refinery for several more years in order to enable the company to generate the income to finance the required investment. Production levels have risen with the ironic result that air pollution levels have also risen.

The local population has not been passive in the face of this situation. A coordinating committee has been formed to link the town of La Oroya to immediately surrounding communities and to those further away but affected by streams and the pattern of the winds that carry the fumes. Attempts are being made to document the nature, levels and trends of contamination in order to build a case for requiring the company to advance the date of its investment in scrubbers. However, they are discovering that the company is legally protected by the PAMA that has been approved by the Ministry and an environmental audit company selected and paid by Doe Run itself is supervising the implementation.

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