More Oil Spills on the Marañón
Below I translate a recent report by my friend Leonardo Tello Imaina (Director of Radio Ucamara, Nauta, Peru) concerning another of a series of spills involving an oil pipeline -- owned by the Peruvian state oil company Petroperú -- that runs from its base in Saramuro, a community on the Marañón River in the Department of Loreto, upriver, crossing numerous smaller river basins along the way. Oil contamination in this region, while clearly disastrous for immediately surrounding residents who cannot consume the contaminated water or anything that comes from it (e.g., fish), is also disastrous for downriver communities at greater distances. (Even upriver communities are affected because of the topography of parts of the uplands in this region.) The Marañón, along with the Ucayali River, feeds what becomes the Amazon itself.
My clarificatory comments below are in brackets.
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IS IT JUST CUNINICO THAT'S BEEN AFFECTED...?
The second day in Cuninico [a community on the left bank of the Marañón] (July 10), early in the morning, we met with leaders of the communities on the Marañón upriver of Cuninico: Urarinas, Santa Rosa, Nueva Alianza, and Monterrico. They had earnestly requested that we visit their communities in order to see that not only had Cuninico been affected, but also their communities.
They had come to Cuninico to speak with the head of the community in order that the communities come together and demand that they be attended to [by Petroperú]; but previously they had gone to a Petroperú engineer to request that he attend to them as in Cuninico. Petroperú's reply to the leaders was: "hold off, I am going to consult with the leader of Cuninico to see if you all are also affected, in order to attend to you..." The delay is more than is due. The leaders said: "but how is it the leader of Cuninico's responsibility to decide whether we are affected?" Petroperú has struck a new blow which divides community leaders and allows them to continue taking control of the region. It's part of the plan; that's why they chose Cuninico.
A brief explanation of the map of the territory that the oil pipeline crosses and which has been affected by the spill in Cuninico:
1) The spill occurred at kilometer 45 of the oil pipeline -- taking as a starting point the base in Saramuro -- at the site of Cuninico, dumping crude oil into the regions surrounding Cuninico, Urarinas, and Nueva Santa Rosa. The tributaries Zambrano, Yanayaquillo, Zabaloyacu, and Infiernillo have also been affected; these are tributaries that the oil pipeline crosses between Cuninico and Nueva Alianza (see Map 1). The residents of these communities confirm having seen dead fish in these tributaries that are in their territory and in the surrounding low-lying forests [Sp. tahuampas], and that they later began to become ill, primarily the children.
2) The community of Nueva Alianza is located at the mouth of the Urituyacu River. During the visit that we made to the community, a resident told us how, heading up the Urituyacu two hours to fish (see Map 1), the fish that he had caught smelled of oil. They couldn't eat it.
3) One hour upriver of Nueva Alianza along the Marañón (in peque [a kind of motor with a propeller at the end of a long shaft]) is located the community of Monterrico, on an island that faces the mouth of a tributary named Patuyacu (see Map 1), yet another one transversed by the oil pipeline. The residents of Monterrico also found dead fish in this tributary in the days leading up to June 30 [2014].
4) How are we to explain the fact that there are dead fish in this region without the presence of crude oil? In the low-lying parts of the forest, water has no territory, no borders, given that the terrain has formed from years of deposits of sediment from neighboring rivers. The tributaries and water channels are the remains of the path of these rivers in the past. Everything is connected. The contaminated water has proceeded in the opposite direction of the flow of the river, as the residents of Nueva Alianza explained, because between Nueva Santa Rosa and Nueva Alianza the land drops in elevation as one heads upriver along the Marañón, all of which caused the water to run off upriver when river levels began to drop [i.e., in June]. Which has also affected the Urituyacu River. This same behavior of the water has also resulted in many lakes and floodable forest areas being impacted.
5) On those days there were fish. The fish flee from the contamination; those that could flee survived. Those that couldn't continued to die in and around the various communities in which crude is present. In the same way, due to the water and contaminated fish, community residents continued to become ill without understanding what it was that had occurred initially.
6) The pipelines are built in a channel of 1 to 1.5 meters depth and approximately 8 meters width along the spans that border communities. The pipeline during the rainy season is always submerged beneath the water or buried. The pipeline at the sites of the Cuninico and Urituyacu rivers has a surrounding wall that is higher than the riverbank in order to avoid that the water from inside the channel escape should an oil spill occur. This wall only functions during the summer [i.e., dry season]. When the water rises, all the tributaries and floodable forest connect with the pipeline. That was the state of the things on the days of the spill; everything was flooded. This explains the impact beyond Cuninico, Urarinas, and Santa Rosa. Much oil spread throughout the floodable forest, and much reached the Marañón proper. The head of the community of Grau, Don Ander Ordóñez, (at the beginning of July) visited the community of San Pedro, which is 5 hours downriver of Cuninico along the Marañón; he found dead fish. In the communities near Santa Rita de Castilla (145km downriver of Cuninico along the Marañón) there have been cases of adults and children fallen ill due to the consumption of water and fish. The contamination, then, is not just an issue unique to certain communities; it's a concern of the entire river basin. It's a problem as much for the Marañón and all of its tributaries as for the Amazon proper. Whoever wants to reduce the scope of the problem to Cuninico is obscuring the scope of the greater problem, namely entire river basins and the suffering of people.
It is not known on exactly what day the oil spill occurred; but that is not very important. It must have occurred more or less during the last week of June, given the behavior of the water and marks on trees that were at that time submerged underwater. The people noticed it when dead fish began coming downriver and when they sat down at the dinner table to eat fish that wreaked of oil. The press coverage of the recent spill has not been explicit about the magnitude of the impact of the contamination; it's hard if you haven't been to the place and don't understand the dynamics of low-lying forests.
The third day (July 11), we headed for the community of Santa Rosa, passing Urarinas along the way. There we met with and organized a group of community officials to lead us two hours into the forest in the direction of the oil pipeline. We arrived at a spot where it was difficult to continue with our equipment due to the height of the water, which reached our shoulders. The group of residents from Santa Rosa and Urarinas that accompanied us continued slightly further ahead in order to take photos of the impacted site. In the preceding days they had found large quantities of dead fish at the site (within the territory of Urarinas and Santa Rosa). The site smells strongly of oil, and there are remnants of oil on the leaves of surrounding trees. "We're also contaminated, and there are many boys and girls and elderly individuals who have also suffered from diarrhea, dizziness, vomiting, stomach cramps", so say the residents that accompanied us.
The same day (July 11), we headed upriver in peque to the community of Nueva Alianza, located at the mouth of the Urituyacu River, to meet with 12 community officials. At the entrance to the local community center, several mothers were there with their sick children in their arms; they had come to tell us about the epidemic: "we're sick, our children are too, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and we can't eat the fish" [the single largest food staple for local residents apart from manioc]. We went 20 minutes further up the Urituyacu and arrived at the site where the oil pipeline crosses the river. It's at more or less kilometer 55 or 56, and the entire path of the pipeline from Saramuro has been inundated. There are no direct signs of crude, but there are dead fish and sick people.
This is a fishing zone. It's the buffer zone for the reserve [i.e., the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve]; or so the state officially declared it. It's also the lifeline from the Marañón to Yurimaguas, Tarapoto and other cities in San Martín [the neighboring region]; more than one shipment of fish from the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve destined for San Martín via Lisboa has been rejected in Yurimaguas because it has already begun to decompose and wreaks of oil. For these reasons, Yurimaguas and Tarapoto [the two major commercial centers just outside of the low-lying area under discussion] are now demanding fish from Pucallpa, on the Ucayali River. This occurred during the last week in June, 2014 (fuente: Habilitadora en la Comunidad Lisboa -- Río Marañón).
The residents of the communities of Monterrico, Nueva Alianza, Santa Rosa, and Urarinas, along with the residents of Cuninico, claim that no one wants to buy their fish out of fear of the spill. The only change to date has been the directorate of Petroperú, but the pipeline continues...
July 28: journalists brought by Petroperú arrive to do "serious" work; they're set to interview interview people to find out if Petroperú is attending to them well. One hour in peque and another walking along the pipeline channel, there are two women hired as cooks by Petroperú, and they are the ones brought right away to be interviewed. The ability of Petroperú to show its inhuman attitude is boundless.
MACABRE GAME
Petroperú organized games and pageants with the children in Cuninico. There were prizes. Petroperú gave them out. One of the games consisted of the children jumping into the water and going swimming. Petroperú participates in the game, but they don't go into the river. They take out their latest model cameras and shoot off their flashes everywhere. Because Amazonian children look wonderful swimming. The prizes made the children forget about the fear of the contamination. Petroperú takes photos of children swimming in the river in order to say to the public and to the press in Lima and wherever else that here there's nothing going on. Elementary, my dear Watson...
My clarificatory comments below are in brackets.
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IS IT JUST CUNINICO THAT'S BEEN AFFECTED...?
The second day in Cuninico [a community on the left bank of the Marañón] (July 10), early in the morning, we met with leaders of the communities on the Marañón upriver of Cuninico: Urarinas, Santa Rosa, Nueva Alianza, and Monterrico. They had earnestly requested that we visit their communities in order to see that not only had Cuninico been affected, but also their communities.
They had come to Cuninico to speak with the head of the community in order that the communities come together and demand that they be attended to [by Petroperú]; but previously they had gone to a Petroperú engineer to request that he attend to them as in Cuninico. Petroperú's reply to the leaders was: "hold off, I am going to consult with the leader of Cuninico to see if you all are also affected, in order to attend to you..." The delay is more than is due. The leaders said: "but how is it the leader of Cuninico's responsibility to decide whether we are affected?" Petroperú has struck a new blow which divides community leaders and allows them to continue taking control of the region. It's part of the plan; that's why they chose Cuninico.
A brief explanation of the map of the territory that the oil pipeline crosses and which has been affected by the spill in Cuninico:
1) The spill occurred at kilometer 45 of the oil pipeline -- taking as a starting point the base in Saramuro -- at the site of Cuninico, dumping crude oil into the regions surrounding Cuninico, Urarinas, and Nueva Santa Rosa. The tributaries Zambrano, Yanayaquillo, Zabaloyacu, and Infiernillo have also been affected; these are tributaries that the oil pipeline crosses between Cuninico and Nueva Alianza (see Map 1). The residents of these communities confirm having seen dead fish in these tributaries that are in their territory and in the surrounding low-lying forests [Sp. tahuampas], and that they later began to become ill, primarily the children.
2) The community of Nueva Alianza is located at the mouth of the Urituyacu River. During the visit that we made to the community, a resident told us how, heading up the Urituyacu two hours to fish (see Map 1), the fish that he had caught smelled of oil. They couldn't eat it.
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©Radio
Ucamara
(Left Bank of the Marañón; on the map is the National Pacaya-Samiria Reserve)
Mapa
01 drawn by residents of Santa Rosa and Nueva Alianza
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4) How are we to explain the fact that there are dead fish in this region without the presence of crude oil? In the low-lying parts of the forest, water has no territory, no borders, given that the terrain has formed from years of deposits of sediment from neighboring rivers. The tributaries and water channels are the remains of the path of these rivers in the past. Everything is connected. The contaminated water has proceeded in the opposite direction of the flow of the river, as the residents of Nueva Alianza explained, because between Nueva Santa Rosa and Nueva Alianza the land drops in elevation as one heads upriver along the Marañón, all of which caused the water to run off upriver when river levels began to drop [i.e., in June]. Which has also affected the Urituyacu River. This same behavior of the water has also resulted in many lakes and floodable forest areas being impacted.
5) On those days there were fish. The fish flee from the contamination; those that could flee survived. Those that couldn't continued to die in and around the various communities in which crude is present. In the same way, due to the water and contaminated fish, community residents continued to become ill without understanding what it was that had occurred initially.
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©Radio
Ucamara
Mapa
02 drawn by residents of Monterrico
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©Radio
Ucamara 2014
This is the part of the channel where the oil pipeline passes.
The water is lower than the day of the spill, but the pipeline is still submerged.
This is the part of the pipeline that transverses the Patuyacu River.
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The third day (July 11), we headed for the community of Santa Rosa, passing Urarinas along the way. There we met with and organized a group of community officials to lead us two hours into the forest in the direction of the oil pipeline. We arrived at a spot where it was difficult to continue with our equipment due to the height of the water, which reached our shoulders. The group of residents from Santa Rosa and Urarinas that accompanied us continued slightly further ahead in order to take photos of the impacted site. In the preceding days they had found large quantities of dead fish at the site (within the territory of Urarinas and Santa Rosa). The site smells strongly of oil, and there are remnants of oil on the leaves of surrounding trees. "We're also contaminated, and there are many boys and girls and elderly individuals who have also suffered from diarrhea, dizziness, vomiting, stomach cramps", so say the residents that accompanied us.
The same day (July 11), we headed upriver in peque to the community of Nueva Alianza, located at the mouth of the Urituyacu River, to meet with 12 community officials. At the entrance to the local community center, several mothers were there with their sick children in their arms; they had come to tell us about the epidemic: "we're sick, our children are too, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and we can't eat the fish" [the single largest food staple for local residents apart from manioc]. We went 20 minutes further up the Urituyacu and arrived at the site where the oil pipeline crosses the river. It's at more or less kilometer 55 or 56, and the entire path of the pipeline from Saramuro has been inundated. There are no direct signs of crude, but there are dead fish and sick people.
This is a fishing zone. It's the buffer zone for the reserve [i.e., the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve]; or so the state officially declared it. It's also the lifeline from the Marañón to Yurimaguas, Tarapoto and other cities in San Martín [the neighboring region]; more than one shipment of fish from the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve destined for San Martín via Lisboa has been rejected in Yurimaguas because it has already begun to decompose and wreaks of oil. For these reasons, Yurimaguas and Tarapoto [the two major commercial centers just outside of the low-lying area under discussion] are now demanding fish from Pucallpa, on the Ucayali River. This occurred during the last week in June, 2014 (fuente: Habilitadora en la Comunidad Lisboa -- Río Marañón).
The residents of the communities of Monterrico, Nueva Alianza, Santa Rosa, and Urarinas, along with the residents of Cuninico, claim that no one wants to buy their fish out of fear of the spill. The only change to date has been the directorate of Petroperú, but the pipeline continues...
July 28: journalists brought by Petroperú arrive to do "serious" work; they're set to interview interview people to find out if Petroperú is attending to them well. One hour in peque and another walking along the pipeline channel, there are two women hired as cooks by Petroperú, and they are the ones brought right away to be interviewed. The ability of Petroperú to show its inhuman attitude is boundless.
MACABRE GAME
Petroperú organized games and pageants with the children in Cuninico. There were prizes. Petroperú gave them out. One of the games consisted of the children jumping into the water and going swimming. Petroperú participates in the game, but they don't go into the river. They take out their latest model cameras and shoot off their flashes everywhere. Because Amazonian children look wonderful swimming. The prizes made the children forget about the fear of the contamination. Petroperú takes photos of children swimming in the river in order to say to the public and to the press in Lima and wherever else that here there's nothing going on. Elementary, my dear Watson...
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