environment

Mine digs up complaints

Residents say that a sand mine is violating its concession by operating 24 hours a day.

carlos lemos/la prensa

big dig: Anam is investigating this mining operation in the district of San Martín for possible violations of its government concession.1108860

Unlike other sand extraction projects in more remote parts of the country, the mining site operated by Gethsa Internacional in Carriazo, an area east of the capital in the district of San Martín, has begun to affect the residents of nearby towns.

Those residents complain of frequent dust flurries, jarring noise, intensified heat after the felling of several hectares of forest and damage to roads caused by the weight of trucks and other heavy equipment going to and from the mine.

Gethsa Internacional was awarded a concession of 500 hectares in the district in February 2001. Recently, however, the company’s activities have been the source of mounting apprehension among environmental authorities and activist groups alike, who claim that Gethsa has disregarded many of the regulations stipulated in the concession.

For starters, the company’s sand mine in the hills of Carriazo has been operating around the clock for the last two months. Additionally, the 500-meter buffer zones that are supposed to be maintained between the mine and the highway, the Carriazo water tank and the Río Pacora, have been largely ignored.

Moreover, a tour of the facility revealed that the Río Pacora is located less than

300 meters from entrance to the mine, and a trench has been dug to dispose of waste material. The on-duty minedirector refused to give his name, however, and denied that the company was responsible for the trench’s construction.

One Gethsa employee commented that the company does indeed comply with the contract, but then acknowledged that “three thousand yards of sand are extracted a day and the road is more than 200 meters from the mine.” That figure may be in agreement with the eighth clause of the contract, which stipulates that “the approved extraction is three thousand cubic yards per day,” but La Mesa resident Irving Bravo argued that much more sand is likely being removed during the 24 hour-shifts, when he says “nobody monitors the mine, and the trucks that arrive at night are bigger.”

Based on information such as this, Lizandro Arias, director of the Metropolitan Region of the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam), said that she has made “urgent” recommendations for an investigation into the company.

“I have made some comments, such as that they need to repair the streets, clean gutters and build a system of tanks to treat the dirty water, so as to keep impurities, sand and sediment from reaching the river,” she added.

The Anam official confirmed that the mine is somewhat close to the Carriazo water reservoir, but didn’t believe that it was in danger, since it stood on a hill about 400 meters away.

Further down river of the mine, reporters from La Prensa happened upon men loading sand and rocks into trucks. They claimed that they had obtained permission from district representative Hugo Henríquez to disperse the building materials for “the benefit of the community.”

Henríquez, however, denied that he had given permission, but blamed the mining industry for destroying the river, and explained that the material is being used to “repair streets in the community.”