The National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo) is conducting final analyzes to determine Possible presence of cyanide and mercury In the Jashal Basin, in San Juan, after Many fish The dead began to appear day after day for two weeks. In addition, there was a service outage in the past hours Marine activities At the Cuesta del Viento Dam, apparently due to the appearance of Spots on the skin From people who paddle.
Preliminary studies conducted by the same university concluded: The presence of chlorine In the La Palca River, which is located about 100 kilometers from the Veladero mine owned by Barrick Gold. The detection of this chemical brought back to the memory of the neighbors the specter of the leak that they remember in 2015: At that time, one of the official measures to mitigate the environmental crisis and neutralize the cyanide in the water was Use of chlorine.
Cyanide is used in mining Extraction of gold and silverThis is through a process called filtration. Its function is to dissolve the precious metals contained in the metal in order to recover them later. However, as a possible cause of fish death, is the possible pollution of the water resulting from it Agricultural activity.
According to Saúl Zeballos, a member of the Jáchal no se Toca association – which monitors environmental quality in the context of risks -, although cyanide can be neutralized in a short time using chlorine, “what has not been reduced is mercury Which comes with cyanide.” This raises doubts about the possibility of the presence of heavy metals continuing in the water stream and causing the death of the fish. Justice moves forward Investigation By virtue of his position.
In the same area of the Cuesta del Viento Dam, water activities take place in the parador of the “Todo Viento” association. It has been suspended -As announced- until further notice. One of the boaters, Alejandro Montaño, said that he and a number of teachers at the maritime school Strange black spots appeared In different parts of the body. That’s why they said they will wait for final analyzes of the water to evaluate how to proceed.
It is these analyses, now requested by the municipality of Jashal, that will shed light on whether there is The presence of mercury In the place where fish die. The information that raised the suspicions of the residents of Jashal was the first official version that was circulated about the cause of these deaths, which was published by the provincial government related to the accident. Alleged lack of oxygen in the water. However, the first analysis performed by UNCuyo concluded that the oxygen level was normal.
Clarion It contacted sources from the university laboratory, who confirmed that new water samples had already been taken and that the final results – to definitively determine whether there was mercury – would be available after about Two weeks.
In this scenario of uncertainty, neither the mayor of Jashal nor the government led by Marcelo Orrego has ordered it at the moment Restrictions on water use From that basin. All actions, in the face of the psychosis caused by the above events, were taken only by civil society. No official statement was issued by the mining company on this matter.
The Jáchal No se Toca association stated that in the last few hours it had sent a documentary letter to Orrego in which it accused him of failing to comply with “the duties of an official aggravated by the inaction to confront the pollution caused by mining activities in the Jáchal river basin that has caused the death of thousands of fish.” but, It’s still not clear What the reason is, so we will have to wait for the final results to determine.