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ARGENTINA:
Uranium-Polluted
Water Is Legally Safe to Drink
Marcela
Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) -
Laboratory testing ordered by an
Argentine court concluded that
the water consumed by close to a
million people living near a
nuclear facility is contaminated
with uranium and not fit for
human consumption.
However, there is every
indication that the residents
affected will be defeated in the
legal proceedings underway for
the last five years.
On Wednesday, environmental
activists from Greenpeace
Argentina dressed up as waiters
and attempted to serve
"uranium-contaminated" mineral
water to Minister of Federal
Planning, Public Investment and
Services Julio de Vido outside
the headquarters of the
ministry, which oversees the
country's nuclear activities.
The issue goes back to 1958,
when the Ezeiza Atomic Centre
(CAE) -- located 40 kilometres
from the Argentine capital and
next to the international
airport of the same name --
began to bury radioactive waste
despite the protests of nearby
residents who feared the
contamination of the Puelches
aquifer, the source of their
drinking water.
Argentina has two fully
functioning nuclear plants,
Atocha I and Embalse, under the
direction of the National Atomic
Energy Commission and agencies
for the development of nuclear
technology applied to health
care, agriculture and industry.
The CAE is one of these
agencies.
Despite continued protests, no
action was taken until 2000,
when a federal prosecutor saw a
complaint published in the
letters to the editor section of
a Buenos Aires newspaper and
proceeded to file a suit in the
federal court of Judge Alberto
Santamarina.
The letter had been written by
Valentín Stiglitz, president of
the Association Against
Environmental Pollution in the
Buenos Aires district of Esteban
Echeverría.
In his letter to the editor,
Stiglitz called attention once
again to the danger of uranium
contamination of the water from
the Puelches aquifer, resulting
from the CAE's burial of
radioactive waste nearby, a
practice that continued until
the late 1990s.
Esteban Echeverría, Ezeiza,
Montegrande and la Matanza are
heavily populated working-class
districts of Greater Buenos
Aires that have all been
affected by the pollution.
Claudio Carusso, a member of the
Association, told IPS that the
number of people endangered is
close to one million.
After two years of struggling
with the lack of funds to pay
for the water to be tested
abroad, the judge contracted
geologist Fernando Díaz of the
University of Buenos Aires to
carry out the testing. He
submitted his results in late
December 2004.
A copy of the study, more than
600 pages in length, was
anonymously deposited in the
mailbox of the Esteban
Echeverría headquarters of the
Association, said Carusso, which
is how the local residents
learned of its results.
The study determined "the
existence of significant
contamination from the
activities of the Ezeiza Atomic
Centre, which affected the
underground water in the region
to a degree that prevents it
from being suitable for drinking
by humans."
Díaz concluded that the water in
74 percent of the 46 wells
tested was not fit for drinking,
with uranium concentrations of
between 50 and 80 micrograms per
litre.
Two other radioactive agents,
radon and strontium, were also
detected, along with nitrate
levels far greater than those
permitted for human consumption.
When the study was made public,
it prompted a reaction from the
Argentine Nuclear Regulatory
Authority (ARN), which is
responsible for monitoring
activities in the industry. A
statement released by ARN
ensured that regular testing was
carried out in the area around
the atomic centre, and the
results "comply with Argentine
standards in this respect."
ARN also stated that the
proportion of uranium in the
water also met World Health
Organisation (WHO)
recommendations, and that the
drinking water in the region was
therefore "radiologically fit
for human consumption.
This point constitutes the crux
of the issue, noted Carusso. The
WHO establishes 15 micrograms of
uranium per litre of water as
the maximum for human
consumption. But Argentina's
hazardous waste legislation sets
the threshold at 100 micrograms
per litre.
"The ARN protects itself by
saying that the levels are
within legal limits, despite the
maximum amounts allowed by the
WHO and by many other countries,
which are between 20 and 25
micrograms per litre," said
Carusso. "Obviously, the law
needs to be changed."
Local residents are also angered
by the fact that the judge
failed to take precautionary
measures once he was in
possession of the test results.
"On the contrary, it seems that
they did everything possible to
keep the study from getting
out," said Carusso.
Judge Santamarina's secretary,
Guillermo González, told IPS
that preventive measures were in
fact ordered. However, he failed
to specify what these measures
were, and merely referred to a
copy of a one-page press release
prepared by the court, which
also leaves out any details of
the purported measures, as he
himself admitted.
The communique states that "the
testing that reports the
presence of radioactive elements
in the underground water is
preliminary," and that
"complementary measures" had
been requested from a team of
specialists in various
disciplines, who were to draft a
counter-report.
The court also forwarded Díaz's
study to the Ministry of Health
(which oversees the Secretariat
of the Environment and Natural
Resources) and to the
corresponding provincial
authorities in Buenos Aires,
"for any health-related efforts
that may eventually be
entailed."
Environmental Secretary Atilio
Savino said he was "not
worried", because the ARN had
established that the complaints
were unfounded.
Dozens of environmental
organisations are backing the
campaign waged by the residents
of Esteban Echeverría, and will
be taking part on Apr. 1 in a
demonstration aimed at drawing
attention to the issue and
demanding the adoption of
measures to protect the public
from the pollution.
Juan Carlos Villalonga, the
director of campaigns at
Greenpeace Argentina, commented
to IPS that "the battle between
the interests of the health of
the citizens and the nuclear
industry is very uneven." He
also admitted that he is afraid
the ruling in the trial
currently underway will go
against the local residents.
Villalonga maintained that even
if the exact concentrations of
uranium are not known, it is
still obvious that the water is
highly toxic and harmful to
human health.
When Argentina set the maximum
allowable limit for uranium at
100 micrograms per litre of
water, it based its decision on
the legislation used in Canada,
a country with significant
natural deposits of this heavy
metal, Villalonga said.
However, Canada subsequently
lowered the limit to 20
micrograms, while Argentina kept
it at 100.
"Argentina's legislation is
outdated, and is designed to
shelter a dirty industry," he
said. Unfortunately, though, it
is still the law of the land,
and will most likely lead to
defeat for the victims of
uranium contamination.
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