From Paul Oosting

Botnia Pulp Mill War

Six Schoolgirls Sicken from Botnia Pulp Mill Fumes Botnia aks Forgiveness as Locals Complain of Unbearable Stench

November 23, 2007 – Fray Bentos Uruguay. Local residents of Fray Bentos denounced unbearable foul stench spewing from Oy Metsa Botnia pulp mill’s chimneys. Six schoolchildren in a local Fray Bentos school fell ill and vomited when, according to their teacher, “a sudden odor invaded the school building, burning our nostrils, … it was really unbearable, we hadn’t experienced anything like that before”, said Erika Peroux, the students’ teacher.

Botnia came out quickly to local media, and begged forgiveness of the residents of Fray Bentos for the odor. Eugenio García, Botnia’s Production Engineer stated that, “the containment system failed, releasing low concentrate gases into the air … The most important thing is to ask for forgiveness”.

At the local school most directly affected by the Botnia stench, teachers thought it was a gas leak, and proceeded to open windows, which according to statements made to radio stations, “only made matters worse”.

Peroux indicated that “if anything goes wrong with Botnia, we will inform it.” Today’s contamination, is one of a series of incidents that have occurred since the plant began operating a few weeks ago. 

This one, however, was “very surprising, and ugly … what we really hope is that this doesn’t occur frequently because it would compromise the health of the community”, said a local resident who spoke with media sources eager to report news of the incidents.

Echoing comments made over a year ago, by the World Bank-hired consulting firm Eco Metrix about expected eventual local adaptation to the new features brought by Botnia, Delia Alba of Fray Bentos commented to local press that the local population “is more or less aware that it has to get accustomed to the stench”.

Botnia is also facing, only days into its launching, a law suit filed by factory worker for a near fatal toxic accident that sickened 20 workers and landed two in the hospital. One of those is still gravely ill. He claims to have been abandoned by Botnia despite his declining health.

Yesterday, a boat leaving Botnia’s mill loaded with cellulose, hit a sandbank in the shallow and narrow Uruguay river. It remained stranded until the publishing of this release, awaiting a rise in water level. Botnia had claimed in its Environmental Impact Statement that the river was wide and deep. It’s these sorts of gross errors that local communities have contested in the company’s and IFC’s assessment of the impacts to be expected from the mill.

Botnia communicated to the public that the putrid stench was not harmful to human health.

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Paul IJ Oosting
Pulp Mill Campaigner

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc.

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