Serioius Risks of Accidents in Tobasco Due to Pemex Negligence

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

SERIOUS RISKS  OF ACCIDENTS IN TABASCO DUE TO THE NEGLIGENCE OF
PEMEX, ALERT GREENPEACE

Platano y Cacao, Tab.- On the fourth stage of the OIL TRAIL 
members of the International Environmental Organization GREENPEACE,
met today with habitants of the Platano y Cacao rural settlement,
where  two explosions have happened in the last ten years.
GREENPEACE  could  document that PEMEX  does not have the capacity
to guarantee the security of the rural communities established near
the petrochemical plants, oil and gaspipelines..

 Accompanied by the Non Governamental Organizations Santo Tomas and 
the Tabasco Committee for Human Rights,  the GREENPEACE  group was 
presented by the inhabitantas of the settlement with multiple 
denounces about the unfulfilled agreement  between them and  PEMEX
to    relocate the families that live in the risk zone of Platano
y Cacao  and  indemnify the injured people. They denounced also
PEMEX  for  continuing with the same negligence in the maintenance
and  surveillance of  the pipeline.

 GREENPEACE activists put stickers with the message that read:
"MADE  BY PEMEX" over  the  rubbles of the houses destroyed by the
explosion  that happened on February 1995.  "In spite the  elapse
time, neither  the Attorney General , nor PEMEX,  have fulfilled
their obligation to  look for  the responsables of  these
catastrophes" declare firmly  Alejandro Calvillo, Greenpeace
Spokesperson.

 An enormous network of pipelines, for the distribution of natural
gas  and oil, runs through the Mexican state of Tabasco. According
to the  Regional Branch of PEMEX, on the 2,000 km of right of way
belonging  to the company, there are 2,600 established settlements.
The Platano  y Cacao settlement is one of the critical zones, the
region beneath  the soil surface is criss-crossed by some 25
pipelines coming from  the Cactus and Ciudad PEMEX industrial
installations. The areas where  these pipelines criss-cross are
called locally "devil traps" because  the instruments running
inside the pipelines to record their  conditions are called
"diablos". 

 The main cause of explosions in these pipelines is the lack of 
maintenance and surveillance. The risks are increasing because the 
state and federal authorities have not been effective in moving the 
population to a new location. In  the Ejido San Eligio community 
(communal farmland), which belongs to the Platano y Cacao
settlement,  there is a kindergarten just 8 meters away from one of
those devil  traps.

 The GREENPEACE TRAIL TOUR  began on March 31, and will finish on 
April 7 in Ciudad  del Carmen in the state of Campeche. 

ACCIDENTS


Tens of accidents which have taken place during the last decade,
the last one and one of the most serious in July 1996, bear witness
that PEMEX  has not been able to guarantee the safety of the rural
communities living near the petrochemical plants, gas and oil
pipelines 

 An enormous network of pipelines, for the distribution of natural
gas  and oil, runs through the Mexican state of Tabasco. According
to the  Regional Branch of PEMEX, on the 2,000 km of right of way
belonging  to the company, there are 2,600 established settlements.
The Platano  y Cacao settlement is one of the critical zones, the
region beneath  the soil surface is criss-crossed by some 25
pipelines coming from  the Cactus and Ciudad PEMEX industrial
installations. The areas where  these pipelines criss-cross are
called locally "devil traps" because  the instruments running
inside the pipelines to record their  conditions are called
"diablos". 

 The main cause of explosions in these pipelines is the lack of 
maintenance and surveillance. The risks are increasing because the 
state and federal authorities have not been effective in moving the 
population to a new location. In  the Ejido San Eligio community 
(communal farmland), which belongs to the Platano y Cacao
settlement,  there is a kindergarten just 8 meters away from one of
those devil  traps.

 Another issue very related to the accidents is the exemption of 
penalty applied to PEMEX, when time comes to look for
accountability.  The investigations started over two years ago by
the Office of the  Attorney General about an accident in 1995 that
caused the death of  several inhabitants, are kept on a stanstill.
Jorge Madrazo Cuellar,  former head of the National Commission for
Human Rights (CNDH), and  now the Attorney General (PGR), has paid
no attention to the  recommendations he himself had previously
signed.

 In the disaster occurred in February  1995, the explosion of 
three  devil traps in Platano y Cacao produced the death of 7
people, severe  injuries to 23 others and damages to the houses of
118 families that  had to be relocated. The insurance company
Lloyd's Register,  contracted by PEMEX to establish the cause of
the accident, concluded  that the exploding pipelines had lost up
to 50% of their thickness,  after almost twelve years of corrosion.

 The inspections carried out by British Gas and the NKK Corporation
in   May 1996, discovered a total of 2,408 anomalies along the
Ciudad  PEMEUX-Cactus pipelines and the gas pipeline of Ciudad
PEMEX. Two of  these anomalies, ranked as high risks, are located
one just 5 kms off  the Villahermosa, capital city of the state of
Tabasco, and the other   within the  Platano y Cacao Settlement.
This proves that the Mexican  government owned industry did not
amend its maintenance and  surveillance policies after the 1995
accident. In July 1996, just one  month after the inspections, a
gas processing installation in Cactus,  in the state of Chiapas,
which is part of the same pipelines network,  blew up provoking the
worst accident in the last few years.

 Although PEMEX pledge to relocate the inhabitants of high risk
zones  in Platano y Cacao and to compensate the victims of the
disaster, the  unfulfillment of such a pledge has prompted the
community to seek the  intervention of the Tabasco Committee for
Human Rights. The Committee  addressed a letter to the CNDH, with
the following demands:

- To summon PEMEX to produce the results of the  investigations on
the February 16, 1995 accident;

_ To revise the compensation payments for death and injuries as
well as those for damaged crops and property;

- To change the path of the pipelines when they cross or pass
nearby an inhabited area, or to relocate the people through the 
payment of the expropriation of their land;

To implement immediate measures to prevent environmental pollution
and damages to property and crops for which  PEMEX is held
responsable..

 Among the conclusions obtained by the CNDH after the investigation
of  the accident, there are significant expert reports which
indicate  that the corrosion of the pipelines that originated the
explosion  developed over several years without being detected,
although the  surveillance of the pipelines can be done through
very simple  studies. This calls attention  to a clear negligence
from the side of  the Mexican oil petroleum industry. In view of
the evidence, the CNDH   requested  the intervention of the Office
of the Attorney General  which began inquiry 31/95 to clarify the
facts. After a short time  the CNDH detected serious irregularities
in the investigation and no  definitive results have been produced
until now.

AFTER AN  ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION, THE CNDH PUT FOR THE FOLLOWING
RECOMMENDATIONS:



To Adrian Lajous, General Director of PEMEX: To collaborate with
the government of the state of Tabasco to find a solution to the
problems generated by the petroleum industry installations; to
comply right away with the recommendations about safety issued by
the Federal Attorney for the Protection of the Environmental, the
Technical Commission for Environmental Impact Assessment and the
Lloyd Register Company; to take the necessary steps to prevent this
kind of accidents, and to initiate an administrative action against
all staff involved in the February 16th, 1995 explosions. Finally,
to take immediate action in order to relocate the nursery school in
the Ejido de San Eligio.

To Roberto Madrazo Pintado, Governor of the State of Tabasco: to
make a diagnostic of the problems generated by the oil industry
installations and to bring about alternative solutions; to create
a program for civil protection, to assist the population of the
state of Tabasco in case of a disaster; to intervene to relocate
the San Eligio school and kindergarten, and to enforce the
agreements signed by the state in relation to the relocation of the
victims.

To: Julia Carabias, Ministry for Environmental, Natural Resources
and Fisheries: to create a permanent environmental auditing program
for the oil installations in the state of Tabasco.

To Antonio Lozano Gracia, the Attorney General: to clarify the
facts and to impose a penalty on the persons found responsable,
including any PGR expert who may have incurred in irregularities
during the 31/95 inquiry.

In the recommendation 92/100, the CNDH makes known that: "during
the visits ....we have seen pipelines passing through permanent
settlements, and oil wells, burners and gas pipelines a few meterss
away from houses."  

 More that two year after the explosion, the demands of the victims 
and the recommendations of the CNDH are still unattended. Those
whose  properties were  damaged have not been relocated,
accountability has  not been determined and no civil protection
program has been  implemented. PEMEX continues to neglect the
maintenance and  surveillance of the  pipeline network.
Technically, the situation  remains pretty much the same as it was
ten years ago.