Doe Run Company

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The Doe Run Company, based in St. Louis, Mo., is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Renco Group, and one of the largest mining, smelting, and refining operations in the world.^[1] Doe Run operates the largest lead smelter in the United States in Herculaneum, Missouri, as well as smelters and refineries in La Oroya, Peru and a copper mine in Cobriza, Peru. The Doe Run Company is owned by Ira Rennert.

Contents 1 Pollution 1.1 Herculaneum, Missouri 1.2 La Oroya, Peru 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Pollution

[edit] Herculaneum, Missouri

Doe Run's smelting operations in Herculaneum have garnered similar criticism.^[2]

Testing by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Missouri Hazardous Waste Program has revealed elevated levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium and other metals associated with smelting in the air, soil, and groundwater in Herculaneum.^[3] The United States Fish and Wildlife Service also found high levels of lead in fish, mice, frogs, and birds tested near Herculaneum.^[4] Many of the birds tested were found to suffer from lead poisoning. Almost half of the children living in Herculaneum who were tested in 2001 near the smelter had high levels of lead in their blood, and a fourth of those under 6 years old had lead poisoning. ^[5]

According to the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group,

28 percent of children under age six have unsafe levels of lead in their blood. In some areas of town, blood-lead levels are even higher. Parents hose down swingsets in their backyards to remove lead particles before their children play on them, and some backyards have such high levels of lead that it's unsafe for children to play there at all. Some residents have moved out of their homes altogether so lead can be cleaned from the interior of their houses and from their yards...The source of the problem is the Doe Run Company's lead smelter, the largest and oldest of its kind in the United States. The smelter's massive smokestack, a landmark since the late 1800s, looms above Herculaneum. The smelter takes in fine millings from the lead mines in eastern and south-central Missouri and converts them into lead-which is then used in shielding, in batteries and other applications where "virgin" lead (with no impurities) is required...Lead dust from the ore-hauling trucks, air emissions from the smelter, and runoff from veritable mountains of smelter waste are released to the environment. In 2000 alone, the Doe Run Company admitted releasing more than 2.2 millions of pounds of lead into the environment, mostly to on-site piles of smelter waste and directly to the air.(5) As a result, air, water, soil, and ultimately children's blood have become polluted with lead.^[6]

Because of Doe Run's emissions, Herculaneum is also home to several toxic sites listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, some of which are considered "major" superfund sites.^[7][8][9]

[edit] La Oroya, Peru

In September 2007, environmental health organization Blacksmith Institute listed La Oroya--a mining town in the Peruvian Andes and the site of a poly-metallic smelter--as one of the World's Worst Polluted Places because of pollution generated at smelting plant currently owned by the Doe Run Company.^[10]

Since 1922, inhabitants of La Oroya and the surrounding region have been exposed to the toxic emissions and wastes from the plant. Prior to the purchase of the plant in 1997 from the Peruvian government by the New York City-based Renco Group, the plant had no environmental controls and effluents and emissions were uncontrolled for 55 years. A condition of the purchase required Doe Run to remediate certain environmental issues, and the company has spent more than $107 million to greatly reduce air and water pollution; however, the plant remains largely responsible for the dangerously high lead poisoning levels found in children and adults' blood, and Peru's Clean Air Act currently cites La Oroya in a list of Peruvian towns suffering from critical levels of air pollution.^[10][11]

Studies conducted by the Director General of Environmental Health in Peru in 1999 (2 years after the smelter was acquired by Doe Run) showed that ninety-nine percent of children living in and around La Oroya have blood-lead levels that exceed acceptable amounts. The drinking water of La Oroya has been shown to contain 50 percent more lead than the levels recommended by the World Health Organization. These studies also showed high levels of air pollution, with 85 times more arsenic, 41 times more cadmium and 13 times more lead than amounts considered safe.^[12]

According to National Geographic,

Exposure to the smelter's pollution has led to dangerously high blood lead levels in nearly all of La Oroya's children...Lung ailments are widespread, and high numbers of premature death have been linked to the smelter's emissions...Likewise, acid rain from sulfur dioxide pollution has destroyed much of the vegetation in the area.^[13]

Because Doe Run Company is a major employer in the city, union leaders and the mayor have often supported the industry and circumvented government attempts to address the pollution.^[12] In a 2007 press release, Doe Run announced that it would appeal a fine levied on it by Peruvian regulators for surpassing emissions standards in La Oroya. Jose Mogrovejo, Doe Run Peru’s vice president for environmental affairs, said that infractions were not of a magnitude that could harm the environment: "Our concern is that people could infer from reading the resolution that it says we have damaged the environment, and that is not the case."^[14]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Toxic Lead Smelting Operation in La Oroya, Peru at YouTube
• The Children of Lead trailer at YouTube
• La Oroya at YouTube
• "Poisoned city fights to save its children"