March 2007
Lic. Guillermo Antonio Gallegos Navarrete, Alianza Republicana Nacionalista ( ARENA)
Profesor Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Frente Farbundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacionál ( FMLN)
Señor Luis Roberto Angulo Samayoa, Partido de Conciliación Nacional (PCN)
Coronel Carlos Rolando Herrarte, Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC)
Dr. Héctor Miguel Antonio Dada Iréis, Centro Democrática (CD)
Dear Sirs:
We are writing to express our concern that funds allocated for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact with El Salvador will fail to advance MCC sustainable growth and development goals due to metallic mineral mining activity proposed for the same region targeted by the compact. Proposed mining activities are incompatible with the aims that the MCC and the Salvadoran government have articulated in the compact and jeopardize the compact’s success.
We write to highlight our concerns and to ask for your serious consideration of the mining reform law awaiting review by the Economic and Agricultural Commission of the Legislative Assembly. This reform law would prohibit metallic mineral mining in El Salvador, thereby protecting the environmental integrity of northern El Salvador and helping to safeguard the aims of MCC funding.
El Salvador 's compact with the MCC includes funds to support agricultural reactivation and ecotourism in the northern region of the country. The compact proposal specifically noted the "transcendental importance" of the environment and of human development to the success of the compact.
Over the past year, the Salvadoran government has awarded 30 licenses for metal exploration and one license for metal exploitation (extraction) to mining companies from Canada, the U.S., and Australia. We believe that metallic mineral mining activity is incompatible with agricultural reactivation and ecotourism because of its negative effects on the environment and on Salvadoran society.
Through communities in some of our congressional districts which are partnered with affected Salvadoran communities, we are aware that the local population is alarmed about these effects and have voiced their strong opposition to prospective mining projects.
These negative effects include:
- Water shortages: El Salvador suffers from chronic water shortages of water, yet it is estimated that 200,000 liters of water a day will be needed for the mineral extraction process. Water shortages are poised to become a potential source of conflict and social upheaval in El Salvador.
- Increased deforestation: In 2005, the United Nations Development Program ranked El Salvador as the most highly deforested country in the world. Open pit and/or subterranean mining will destroy precious trees and woods vital to the ecotourism and agricultural plans of the MCC compact.
- Water pollution: Most mining activities will occur in the Lempa River basin. Not only does the Lempa River provide water to the northern region of El Salvador, but it also supplies an estimated 30% of the drinking water to the capital city. The cyanide-based process that separates mineral from rock will pollute the Lempa River and secondary rivers flowing from it, risking the health of people and animals using the rivers’ water for consumption and irrigation, compromising agricultural, fishing, and cattle raising land use, and threatening the proposed “green zone” envisaged in the MCC compact.
- Health issues: Mineral extraction will pollute the air with toxic mercury, cyanide and sulfur dioxide gases. Theses gases have been linked to pulmonary and respiratory illnesses, cancer, miscarriages, fetal deformities and are known to cause headaches, loss of appetite, nausea, skin problems, and vertigo.
These effects are directly contrary to El Salvador’s Millennium Challenge Account proposal which states that “ inhabitants in the Northern Zone will benefit from having access to potable water and sanitation services... reduced incidence of illness, reduced health care costs, diminished time to obtain water, reduced costs for water, and reduced harm to the environment.” (p. 10 Summary of the Proposal for Financial Support from the Millennium Challenge Corporation May 2006).
The threat of metallic mineral mining jeopardizing the success of sustainable development plans for northern El Salvador can be halted now, before extraction advances. We urge you and your colleagues to carefully consider the legislation that would prohibit metallic mineral mining in El Salvador.
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
Respectfully,
Michael H. Michaud
Member of Congress
cc: Economic and Agricultural Commission, Legislative Assembly of El Salvador
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