The trial of the dumping of toxic sludge from the Swedish-Canadian group Boliden’s mine in Aznalcollar, in southern Spain, opened on Tuesday, July 4, before the Spanish courts, twenty-five years after this environmental disaster. , one of the worst to hit the country.
With our correspondent in Madrid, Francois Musseau
90 million euros. This is the staggering sum claimed by the Andalusia region from the Boliden company for its responsibility in the tragedy of Aznalcollar, named after the small neighboring town.
On April 25, 1998, the failure of a dam in a tailings pond of this open-pit metal mine led to the spillage of more than five million cubic meters of polluted sludge, containing heavy metals such as arsenic. , cadmium or mercury, in a river. Some 4,300 hectares of land had thus been contaminated. After eleven years of mining this iron, zinc and lead mine, Boliden had to pack up.
Court battle
Since then, an interminable legal battle has begun until today, with the opening of the trial and the allocation of responsibilities. The Andalusia region claims to have spent tens of millions of euros for the cleaning of the contaminated hectares of the Guadiamar river, which stops at the gates of the Doñana natural park, a jewel of biodiversity classified by Unesco, its bed and its banks.
Opposite, the Boliden company has always denied its responsibility and implicated a subsidiary of the Spanish construction group Dragados, which had built the basin. She also argues that this drama supposed financial losses of 115 million euros, then bankruptcy. No question for this group therefore to honor the 90 million claimed by the Andalusia region. It is the hearing of Seville which will decide. The verdict is expected by the end of July.
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