The trial of the Aznalcollar ecological disaster opens on Tuesday in Seville. It is one of the worst ecological disasters in Spain.
In the middle of the night, on April 25, 1998, the dam and the dykes of two storage basins containing 31 million tonnes of waste with a high content of heavy metals gave way. They are located in Andalusia in Aznalcollar, a region with a long mining history. The facilities belong to a company that operates a pyrite deposit, and another mine where zinc, lead, copper and silver are extracted. Seven million tons of acid mining waste suddenly pour out and pollute 80 kilometers of waterways and nearly 10,000 hectares of land, including 3,500 hectares of crops of rice, wheat, cotton and fruit trees.
The water level rose 3.60 meters in just half an hour. The toxic and black sludge could reach three meters in height near the basins. Thirty tons of dead fish are collected, and tens of thousands of birds, including geese and storks. In total, 11% of the birds in Doñana National Park, a World Heritage Site, are contaminated.
A quarter of a century after this ecological disaster, it is finally time for this long-awaited trial, as presented by the Spanish press. For everyday life El País, this is a key trial, because it will decide whether the mining multinational Boliden must pay the costs of sanitation, cleaning that the Andalusian government is claiming. They are valued at 89 million euros.
The newspaper considers that this environmental disaster marked a turning point for the conscience of the populations, the Spanish authorities and the European authorities who reinforced their legislation on the management of mining waste in terms of safety. The Boliden mining disaster took 25 years to be judged, confirming the difficulty of enforcing environmental responsibility.