Increased contamination since Doe Run’s arrival.

Doe Run and its supporters often site so-called “dramatic reductions” in contamination levels when defending against claims that the company has neglected its environmental responsibilities in La Oroya. The truth is that, over the last few years, Doe Run has reduced contamination. The problem, however, is that the DRP’s reduction of contamination levels is, for the most part, relative to its own worsening of the situation since 1997, the year it arrived in La Oroya.

A good example is the graph that Doe Run Peru sent CNN for December’s Planet in Peril piece. The graph claims that DRP has reduced lead contamination by 77%. The graph compares 2008 against 1997. That is to say, they are pointing out that lead contamination is 77% lower in 2008 than it was in 1997. I confirmed the numbers with the Ministry of Energy and Mines--the reduction does, in fact, amount to 77%.

1997, however, is the year that Doe Run came to La Oroya and dramatically increased contamination levels (see Anna Cederstav's "La Oroya Cannot Wait", pages 37-52). They have only reduced contamination relative to when they increased it before.

If we really want to measure the changes in La Oroya—absolute changes as opposed to relative—we need to look at the situation as it was before Doe Run came to town.

I have the information for the same monitoring station that DRP used to derive the 77% figure—Sindicato. And when I compared 2008 against 1995 (instead of using 1997 as the baseline), I found that lead contamination at the Sindicato monitoring station did not decrease by 77%. In fact it increased--by 6%.

At another monitoring station, Casaracra, lead contamination increased by 28% since 1995. And at Hotel Inca, lead contamination increased by 255%. That is not a typo: two hundred and fifty five percent.
To be fair, at one of the four monitoring stations that I surveyed, Huanchan, lead levels were reduced by 51%. It should be noted, however, that such a reduction only brought contamination at Huanchan down to a level that is still ten times above the maximum limit set by the World Health Organization.

The point here is that if we are to accurately evaluate progress in La Oroya, we must make absolute comparisons. Relative drops in contamination tell only a partial truth and have the potential to mislead.