Santo Domingo.- Environmentalists and farmers of the central cities Bonao and La Vega say the craters dotting the hills visible from the highways as far as 10 kilometers away hurt are a type of fatal wound or terminal cancer on the land.

Environment minister Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal himself acknowledges admits it would be a pipe dream to think that even the numerous reforestation projects in the mountains bulldozed by the Canadian miner Falconbridge Dominicana will restore them to their natural state.  “That is not so recoverable; one would need to enter into a philosophical and ethical discussion: it’s taking from there something that cannot be recovered, the mountains that are leveled aren’t recoverable”

The official said however that the renewal of Falconbridge’s environmental permit to resume operations in February stipulates that as they extract the ores they must also reforest or recover the mined areas.

Gold, ferronickel, copper, manganese and, according to ecologists, many undeclared minerals are extracted from the open pit mines in La Vega and Bonao.

As the farmers and ecologists agree on the need to draw attention to the dangers Falconbridge’s operation poses for people, plants and animals, they recall an incident where trucks were dumping the mine’s waste in the hill La Peguera when a dog that wandered was dissolved by the chemicals “amazingly, like an air bubble.”

They say when the plant is operating and the toxic waste is being incinerated it can at be the darkest night and the glow lights up all of Bonao and as far away as Cotuí.

“It’s a cancer that harms our hills, the radiation is damaging the plantations such as avocadoes which are sensitive, it poisons the rivers, damages the rice fields,” said the farmer leader Amelia Clemente.

The ecologist Rafael Jiménez said that after the mine began operations more than 10 types of trees have vanished, such as anacahuita, pomo and caco, and the “Jaiba Cirica,” a small but resilient river crab, along with the barrancolí, a small bird that nests in cliffs, and several types of fish. “What has occurred after Falconbridge makes you want to cry, the list of damages include the streams, gorges and springs at Hato Viejo and El Verde, springs that burbled from the ground, the cascades at La Peguera disappeared and everything went asunder.”

The farmer Agapito Antonio Santos, of the sector Jayaco, also regrets the mine’s arrival. “If Falconbridge doesn’t halt the pollution we’ll all die in these communities. The creeks have dried, we used to drink clean water from the Jayaco river and now it’s about to vanish with the contamination  From the Falconbridge operations when the river swells our little houses float away.”

The report comes one day after the Environment Ministry warned another major transnational, Cemex Dominicana, against polluting the Higuamo river, in San Pedro province (east).

SOURCE: elcaribe.com.do