Milagros Salazar

LIMA, Sep 25 2009 (IPS) – Leaders of the Achuar people are challenging a decision by the Peruvian government to declare that a clean-up effort by the PlusPetrol oil company in the northeastern Amazon jungle has been completed.
When PlusPetrol Norte, the Peruvian subsidiary of Argentina s PlusPetrol, took over oil block 1AB along the Corrientes River in Loreto province in 2000, part of the agreement was that it would clean up the environmental mess left by the U.S. Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy).

But Achuar leader Guevara Sandi Chimboras, treasurer of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO), told IPS that the environmental damages in our territory have not been fixed. Not enough has been done, and there is still clear evidence of pollution in our rivers and lakes.

Sandi Chimboras, who was also environmental monitor of the impacts of the oil industry in his community, said that so far this year indigenous communities have discovered 10 oil spills along the Corrientes River. The latest was found on Sept. 21 in oil block 1AB.

FECONACO leaders have asked PlusPetrol representatives to meet with them on Sept. 29. The native leaders plan to demand that the company fully comply with its pledge to clean up the area.

We also want the government to firmly back up our demands, because this pollution is a longstanding problem, said Sandi Chimboras.
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The Achuar people have been suffering the effects of oil industry pollution since the 1970s, when Oxy began to operate in their territory. Oxy is facing an ongoing lawsuit for damaging the environment and the health of local Achuar people in block 1AB, which it operated from 1971 to 2000.

Of the 8,000 Achuar Indians living in 31 communities in Loreto province, nearly half are direct victims of oil drilling, according to Racimos de Ungurahui, a non-governmental organisation that defends the rights of the Achuar people of the Peruvian Amazon.

PlusPetrol Norte has been operating since 1996 along the Pastaza, Corrientes and Tigre rivers, and expanded its area of operations in 2000, when it acquired block 1AB.

The Argentine company was to clean up the damages left by Oxy, which is accused of illegally dumping toxic wastewater in rivers, causing acid rain with gas flares, and holding toxic waste in unlined earthen pits, while failing to warn the local indigenous people of the health risks.

But a report released this month by E-Tech International, a California-based non-profit technical research firm, found that levels of heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and hydrocarbons in lakes and rivers used by the Achuar community for drinking, washing and fishing are still far above the safety limits set by Peru.

The E-Tech report, carried out at the behest of FECONACO, found that PlusPetrol has not respected national and international standards for environmental clean-ups at block 1AB, and that the government has failed to adequately oversee the effort.

In an earlier report, the technical consultancy firm had analysed the handling of toxic wastewater in the area, and estimated the cost of reinjecting the wastewater back into the ground, in accordance with international practices.

That study was used by the Ministry of Energy and Mines to help draw up a law on hydrocarbons that required oil companies to reinject wastewater as part of any new undertakings.

However, the law did not apply to existing oil operations, such as PlusPetrol s activities in block 1AB, and only in May 2006 did the company commit itself to using the reinjection technique.

The new E-Tech study says the toxic waste left by Oxy continues to pose a serious threat to the health of the Achuar communities.

Sandi Chimboras says the native communities 14 environmental monitors have found the same problems as E-Tech reported.

Another Achuar leader, Henderson Rengifo of the Peruvian Rainforest Inter-Ethnic Development Association (AIDESEP), told IPS that his organisation which groups 28 federations of indigenous peoples is working with the Ministry of Energy and Mines and other central government bodies, to get them to take action against the company based on E-Tech s findings.

The report found toxic substances far above accepted levels, despite the fact that the government and the company are attempting to declare the clean-up work complete.

Neither the company nor the state have made a responsible effort, said Rengifo. Some things have improved, but the lives of the Achuar people are still endangered by a job half-done.

Ministry of Health studies have found high blood concentrations of cadmium and lead in Achuar children.

A 2006 report found that cadmium levels exceeded the acceptable limit of 0.1 mg per litre of blood in 98.6 percent of 199 people including 74 children and adolescents aged two to 17 examined in the Corrientes River basin area. Cadmium levels in 97.3 percent surpassed even those usually found in smokers 0.2 mg even though the subjects of the tests were non-smokers.

Furthermore, dangerous concentrations of 0.21 to 0.5 mg per litre were found in 37.8 percent of the children and adolescents, while the biological tolerance value (BAT) of 0.5 mg was exceeded in 59.4 percent of the minors. Similar levels were found in adults.

This month s E-Tech report also says The lack of erosion control measures threatens streams and rivers, and reported severe erosion throughout block 1AB.

In addition, it found that zinc results for all water samples taken were higher than the Ministry of Energy and Mines guideline level that is protective of fish and aquatic life which form the basis of the Achuar diet.