Peruvians, Missourians discuss lead contamination

CRYSTAL CITY, Mo. -- Separated by thousands of miles and different languages, residents of Herculaneum, Mo., and La Oroya, Peru, where the Doe Run Co. operates lead smelters, found they have much in common.

They met Saturday -- with the help of an interpreter -- at a Presbyterian church in this community about 30 miles south of St. Louis to share stories as well as strategies for ridding their communities of lead contamination while retaining the industry that drives their towns' economies.

They were brought together by an international Presbyterian partnership focusing on human rights, economic development and environmental justice.

"It's the hope of a healthy environment, community and children that has brought us together today," Herculaneum resident Leslie Warden told the gathering of 35 participants. "We don't want our communities used as toxic dumping grounds, or our children as lead detectors."

Doe Run wasn't invited to this meeting, though both groups have ongoing conversations with the St. Louis-based company whose Herculaneum lead smelter is the nation's largest.

In both countries, Doe Run considers itself a good corporate neighbor that has worked to reduce its pollution.

Doe Run bought the huge, state-owned metallurgical complex at La Oroya in 1997. It is Peru's largest mining complex, employing 4,000 workers and processing copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver. La Oroya is 85 miles east of Lima, a four-hour drive into the high central Andes.

The Herculaneum plant came under scrutiny when Missouri health officials pressed Doe Run last year to offer buyouts to homeowners within a certain radius of the smelter. Offers to families with young children came first, and the second phase of buyouts has just begun.

The state released a study in February 2002 showing that more than half of children living near that smelter had elevated levels of lead in their blood, making them susceptible to reduced intelligence and health problems.

Under orders and oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency, Doe Run is spending millions of dollars to clean Herculaneum yards, homes and streets. The company also was ordered to pare its air emissions to federal standards -- something Doe Run says it has done that the last two quarters of 2002.

Residents, who remain suspicious of Doe Run's good intentions, said the plant cut emissions by shifting operations to other smelters. The company says it's making improvements.

"They're doing the same thing in Peru that they did in Herculaneum," said Brenda Browning, who moved from Herculaneum when her child registered unsafe blood-lead levels. (For Doe Run) "to sacrifice the health of a community for their own financial gain is unacceptable."

Peruvians Dora Santana and Esther Hinostroza -- nurses and community organizers -- told the gathering that ambient levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic are at dangerously high levels in La Oroya.

They cited a Peru study in 1999 that found 98 percent of children around La Oroya had blood-lead levels that exceeded the standard, with 20 percent needing immediate medical evaluation. Tests in 2002 by two toxicologists from Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, corroborated the results.

Instead of working for a solution, Hinostroza said, Doe Run Peru has embarked on a "hostility and misinformation campaign" and is "mobilizing workers against us."

Doe Run's multi-metal smelter in Peru was built in 1922 and was sold by that country when Peru privatized its industries and left a legacy of "enormous environmental problems," said Anna Cederstav, a staff scientist with an Earthjustice affiliate in Peru that is pushing for massive cleanup.

She said Doe Run has until 2006 to comply with a "weak" environmental cleanup plan that Peru imposed as condition for the sale.

Doe Run spokeswoman Barb Shepard said the company already is complying with the plan and has reduced levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic.

Even if Doe Run were to shut down the Peruvian smelter, she said, the contamination it inherited affects blood-lead levels. The company has social and health workers in La Oroya teaching residents ways to mitigate lead in the home and the streets.

"Peru is a challenge," she said. "We know we have critics out there. We're doing it one step at a time. It won't be fixed overnight."

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On the Net:

Earthjustice: www.earthjustice.org/regional/international/

Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense:

www.aida2.org/english/projects/prjlead.php

Doe Run: www.doerun.com/ENGLISH/html/stlouis.htm

Doe Run, Peru: www.doerun.com.pe/