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The political ecology of water metabolism: the case of the Cobre las Cruces copper mine, southern Spain

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Abstract

Access to extractive resources relies as much on technology and prices as it does on the power to designate ecological and economic meanings to water and other environmental goods. This paper examines the ways in which the mining industry uses scientific models to create meanings for water that in turn legitimizes their access to and control over it. To do so, this paper explores the relevance of combining biophysical analyses—in this case water metabolism—with an examination of those power relations and social constructions that coexist with and affect the flows of water. Based on empirical research, this paper analyzes the evolution of water management in the process of copper production at the Cobre las Cruces mine in southern Spain to identify present contradictions in the strategies adopted by the mining company to avoid water degradation. These contradictions are revealed by examining how water has been framed as a resource not susceptible to being used for purposes other than mining processes. We argue that those framing this environmental explanation—the regional government and the mining industry—are promoting net subtractions of water from an aquifer against current regulations.

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Fig. 1

Source: Andalusian Regional Government 2009b

Fig. 2

Source: Authors’ elaboration in accordance with FRASA 2000

Fig. 3

Source: Authors’ elaboration based on Guadalquivir Hydrographical Confederation (2004) and Andalusian Regional Government (2009b)

Fig. 4

Source: Authors’ elaboration based on Andalusian Regional Government (2009b)

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Notes

  1. It is important to note that we focus the study on the quantitative aspect of water flows. A deeper analysis of water quality issues, although also relevant to the conflict, is beyond the scope of the present study.

  2. This concept refers to the water from the bottom of the pit that emerges naturally as the pit is dug deeper (Cobre Las Cruces 2008). As shown next in the analysis, this concept “appeared” in the technical documents of the water management global plan to justify the identification of mine water as part of the water flows.

  3. Water, although undeniably important as a material flow within the economic processes, has been difficult to integrate into other material flows (Fischer-Kowalski and Hüttler 1999). Nevertheless, many authors have studied water flows separately from the rest of the material flows involved in an industrial activity (Hubacek and Sun 2005; Arpke and Hutzler 2006; among others). The recent work by Madrid et al. (2013), in which the MuSIASEM methodology (multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism) developed by Giampietro (2004) is extended and applied to the study of water, is also noteworthy.

  4. The water requirements of the plant may vary depending on the amount of mineral to be processed. Thus quantities shall be taken as approximate. Indeed the source of the data consider that the amount of reused water may vary from 46.19 to 66.9 m3/h(Andalusian Regional Government 2009b).

  5. “Water needs of the hydrometallurgical plant will be supplied with mine water and reused water…in case of need water from the STP it could be use only with prior permission” (GHC 2013, 35).

  6. The authors have not accessed data of the amount of water polluted through the DRS, only the resulting amount rejected after the RO.

  7. The opportunity cost refers to the “monetary value” of the best, unchosen alternative use when the water is taken for a specific purpose.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Isidoro Albarreal and Antonio Ramos of Ecologistas en Acción for sharing their relevant information. We also thank Vanesa Castan, Sara Latorre, the editor and the anonymous reviewer for their very useful comments. The corresponding author acknowledges support from the Marie Curie Actions—Initial Training Networks—FP7—PEOPLE—2011; contract No. 289374—ENTITLE, European Network of Political Ecology, and from the Spanish National Plan for R+D+I 2008–2011. Sistemas agrarios sustentables y transiciones en el metabolismo agrario: desigualdad social y cambios institucionales en España (1750–2010) (sustainable agricultural systems and transitions in agricultural metabolism: social inequality and institutional changes in Spain). HAR2012-38920-C02-01.

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  1. Department of Economics, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain

    María J. Beltrán & Esther Velázquez

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  1. María J. Beltrán
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Correspondence to María J. Beltrán.

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Beltrán, M.J., Velázquez, E. The political ecology of water metabolism: the case of the Cobre las Cruces copper mine, southern Spain. Sustain Sci 12, 333–343 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0413-1

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