The civil trial against the Swedish company Boliden for the toxic discharge from the Aznalcóllar mine begins this Tuesday in Seville after 25 years of judicial pilgrimage since one of the largest ecological disasters in Spain occurred and for which the Junta de Andalucía claims almost 90 million euros to the mining company for the environmental restoration expenses incurred.
In the trial for this spill, which took place on April 25, 1998, twelve witnesses and an expert proposed by the three companies that are part of Boliden (Boliden Apirsa, Boliden AB and Boliden BV), all of them sued, will testify.
There will be six days over three weeks and with a total of 13 interrogations, including that of the former CEO of the former Empresa de Gestión Medioambiental S.A. (Egmasa) Javier Serrano Aguilar, for example.
In the preview that took place last September, the lawyers for the Board maintained that they have standing and that they have the “legal obligation” to claim this amount in accordance with the Mining Law, while the company assured that the Board spent the half of the money it claims in “a green corridor” and not in mitigating the consequences of the spill.
The legal representation of the Board argues that with the fracture of the pool of the mining complex, five million cubic meters of mud were spilled that reached the surroundings of Doñana, there were 37 tons of dead fish and 4,400 hectares were affected, for which it claims almost 90 million euros for cleaning.
For its part, the mining company defends that the Andalusian Government authorized in 1996 the regrowth of the pool that later broke and that they removed the sludge “voluntarily”, something that cost them 80 million euros and was not covered by insurance.
The claim of the invoice to the Swedish group that exploited the mine then has been in a “judicial pilgrimage” for almost 25 years – this is how the Supreme Court defined it – which in 2015 returned to the starting point.
The criminal proceedings were closed in 2001 when the Seville Court confirmed the filing of the case, after which the Board filed a civil lawsuit that was also inadmissible.
Given this, in 2004, the Andalusian Government agreed to impose a fine of almost 90 million on Boliden through administrative proceedings, but the mining group appealed and both the TSJA (in 2007) and the Supreme Court (2011) agreed with it.
With all these avenues closed, the Board appealed the civil avenue and it will now be the court 11 of Seville that judges the case.
The toxic flood affected 4,634 hectares, advanced more than 60 km and was stopped three days later, at the gates of Doñana thanks to the erection of a dam.
The spokesman for the Junta de Andalucía and Minister of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy of the Junta de Andalucía, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, trusts that “justice will be done” in the trial aimed at resolving the latest lawsuit promoted by the Junta de Andalusia against the Swedish company Boliden.
Speaking to the media in Níjar (Almería) this Monday,
Fernández-Pacheco recalled that this area is currently “restored” and has recovered its “high value”. “From the Board we work so that the balance between the conservation of the ecosystems and the economic development of the mine, which supposes the future and the well-being of so many families, is compatible”, he added.
Andalusia has marked in black on the calendar April 25, 1998, when at dawn the dam of the pond burst with toxic discharges from the Aznalcóllar mine (Seville), producing the greatest ecological disaster in the history of the community.
Only the work of the tractors of the rice farmers, who built an emergency wall, prevented the arrival of four cubic hectometres of acidic water and another two of sludge loaded with heavy metals to the Doñana National Park, thus avoiding an even greater evil.
The rupture of the pond belonging to the Boliden Apirsa company released acidic waters and toxic sludge containing arsenic, cadmium, mercury and other heavy metals onto the Agrio and Guadiamar rivers, causing their riverbeds to overflow and flooding the surrounding lands. along an extension of 62 kilometers.
In total, 4,634 hectares of agricultural and pasture areas were affected and the sedimented sludge in the first 40 kilometers of the channel reached a thickness of more than three meters in the areas close to the pond and several centimeters at the entrance of the ponds. marshes. On the day of the spill, the fish were jumping out of water whose pH was similar to that of a car battery.
The acidic waters were retained thanks to the improvised wall created by the locals, in view of the inaction of the institutions in the first moments of the ecological disaster.
Today, the area has been rehabilitated, and in the midst of the judicial labyrinth, the municipality of Aznalcóllar is asking for a solution that allows the reopening of the mine, which could employ a thousand people.
Organizations such as Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, SEO/BirdLife or WWF do not agree with this measure and seek a transition that allows a balance between the environmental and the economic reactivation of the region.
For its part, the Junta de Andalucía, now in the hands of the PP with an absolute majority, considers that the reopening will increase the significant weight of the Andalusian mining sector.
