donyen

Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology in Spain (AACTE)

The toxic spill by the mining company Boliden into the Guadiamar River and the Doñana Natural Park last May highlighted the lack of co-ordination between the Spanish Central and Regional Administrations, and their incapacity to deal efficiently with major environmental hazards. This disastrous event has once more stressed the necessity for a sufficient number of well-trained scientists, engineers and managers in Spain who could deal with these kinds of hazards. The lack of trust and co-operation which exists between the seven institutions involved in the prevention and later on in the treatment of the spill (the Andalousian Directorates of Industry and Environment; the Guadalquivir River Authority; the Ministry of Environment; and the Doñana Natural Park, National Park and Biological Station) has made it painfully obvious that Spain must modernise its institutional framework for the management of waters, mines and natural resources.

The Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology in Spain (AACTE), together with most Spanish citizens, was shocked by the inability of the Spanish Administrations to tackle the public health and environmental hazard issues, worsened by their conspicuous efforts to minimise its political consequences. One of the few positive actions was undertaken by César Nonbela, president of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), who quickly created a ‘commission of national experts’. The commission’s task is to provide the Spanish authorities with guidelines for both the treatment of the toxic spill and the monitoring of its effect on the health of  the local people and ecosystems. The AACTE is concerned, however, about the size of the commission which includes at least 17 members. Many are academics without much experience in detoxification, ecotoxicology and monitoring of soils, river beds, and aquatic and floodplain ecosystems following mine spills. We strongly suggest a reorganisation of the commission. This should become smaller and incorporate international engineers/scientists with the relevant expertise. While Spain lacks specialists with on-hand experience in the above-mentioned fields, this is readily available in heavily industrialised countries (such as Germany or the Netherlands) and in countries with strong mining industries (such as Canada, Australia or the USA).

Furthermore, we would like to urge the commission to produce a public report objectively evaluating the impact of the spill. This would include an overview of the processes following soil and groundwater pollution; it’s short- and long-term effects on public health; future potential use of the affected soils and rivers; and the damage caused to the natural ecosystems. Such a public report would represent an invaluable step towards designing and evaluating  appropriate detoxification and management strategies, which should always be based on the worse-case scenarios. The report should be public and readily available to everyone in order to keep Spanish citizens well informed and allow for thorough evaluation by the international scientific community.

We congratulate the Andalousian Environmental Council and the CSIC for setting up a monitoring  program for water and aerosols, and for enabling it’s access through the Internet. We encourage them to extend the monitoring program to soils, groundwater, river sediments, and  (aquatic and terrestrial) flora and fauna; also to present these results, together with a description of the analytical methods utilised, to the public. Besides the great interest of the scientific community in this data it would also serve to prevent both the current wave of public distrust and the occurrence of potential frauds.

The different institutions involved in the clean-up and management of the area should make a significant and honest effort to resolve the lack of a structured decision making system both inside and outside the Doñana Natural and National Parks. Such an effort must go hand-in-hand with public information, to prevent the accumulation of mistakes and omissions hidden behind a wall of institutional obscurity. In summary, we ask for rigorous problem analysis, competent and professional implementation of solutions and transparent decision making.
Finally, we would like to send a message to politicians who coined phrases such as ‘we have saved the Doñana’ and who continuously demean the effects of the contamination. Working with the worse-case scenario is not alarmist but merely prudent. It would be foolish to expose the ecosystems of Doñana and the local people to the risk of discovering the implications of the worse-case predictions once it would be too late to tackle the consequences. Politicians should, instead, devote their efforts to building an environment of trust and shared goals between farmers, fishermen, environmentalists and scientists, even if this involves a political cost. Many still seem to be unaware of the complexity of the problem. The effects of the spill will persist for decades and, therefore, require a long-term action plan independent of the existing Spanish or Andalousian Governments. If the Spanish Administration would decide to seek advise from the world’s best specialists we might begin to learn from such calamities instead of mourning them.
 
Antonio Aparicio Juan
President of AACTE
Professor of the Universidad de La Laguna and member of the Instituto
de Astrofísica de Canarias
Tlf.: +34-922-605245 (Antonio Aparicio Juan)
Fax: +34-922-605210
E-mail: <aaj@iac.es>
AACTE Web page: <http://www.econ.upf.es/~ninomora/aacte.html>

Document prepared  by Javier Escartin, Luis Santamaria y Pablo Valverde, members of AACTE' Commission on Do~nana