Region Seven chairman lauds move against muddy miners
Calls for similar action in other areas
By Oscar P. Clarke
Stabroek News
March 24, 2004
Region Seven (Cuyuni/ Mazaruni) Chairman Gordon Bradford is pleased with the action by the Guyana Geo-logy and Mines Commission (GGMC) to reduce the amount of silt from mining operations entering the Essequibo River.
Bradford's comments come after the GGMC announced on Monday that it had ordered the closure of nine small-scale mining operations which were found dumping their tailings into the Konawaruk River. GGMC Head Robeson Benn had warned of the impending sanctions if miners did not clean up their act.
Executive Secretary of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GG&DMA) Edward Shields told Stabroek News yesterday he expected the GGMC and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with the mining operations to ensure the damage caused to the environment by the mining practices is reduced.
He called for higher levels of monitoring, criticising the supervisory capacity of the GGMC, which he said has mines officers in the mining districts whose duty it is to observe such occurrences. The Government Information Agency (GINA) release which announced the closures on Monday, said officers have been in the Konawaruk and Upper Mazaruni areas to advise, assist and where necessary enforce the regulations regarding discharges.
Shields said the GG&DMA, while being supportive of the action to stem the discharge, was still concerned that the situation was allowed to deteriorate to such levels before action was taken. He said members have been told that while they must mine, this is a new age and they have to undertake their operations in keeping with concerns for the environment.
"We need to see more proactive activities than reactive," Shields said, adding that the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) level could not have risen overnight. He alluded to the low level of the Essequibo River, which was not helping to alleviate the situation as is normally the case.
The current low water level in the Essequibo region makes the area more susceptible to contamination, the GINA release had said.
Meanwhile, Bradford highlighted problems of a similar nature in other rivers including the Cuyuni and middle Mazaruni where contamination was also visible, although not at the levels seen in the Konawaruk. He said residents in and around mining districts have been complaining, since they use these rivers to sustain their livelihood.
He also spoke of instances where mining operations were diverting the normal water courses. He was particularly worried about those persons who depend on the river for washing, as a source of drinking water and also as a source of food supply through fishing.
Bradford is advocating similar action by GGMC in other areas to bring order to mining operations and protect the waterways from extinction and pollution.
Benn said in the GINA release that these operators were supposed to ensure that their discharge from hydraulicking and other mining operations was routed into settling ponds from which it could be recycled for reuse or released after settlement.
The release said "the total discharge standard of TSS in water leaving a mine site, adopted by the GGMC is 60 parts per million (60 mgs per litre). Recent discharges listed for TSS content in the Konawaruk River reached over 400 parts per million."
Bradford yesterday alluded to techniques including water ponds being used by Correia Mining Company in its inland operations. This prevents waste being discharged into nearby rivers.
Meanwhile, the GG&DMA was up to yesterday unaware of the identity of the mining operations ordered closed by the GGMC. Several efforts by Stabroek News to contact Benn yesterday on the issue proved futile.
Other miners with whom this newspaper spoke were equally in the dark as to the identity of the operators whose mines were ordered closed. They suggested that these operations could either belong to non-members of GG&DMA or Brazilian operators.
Heavy murkiness in the Konawaruk River and reports of it being declared `dead' emerged in November 2000. Then EPA operations director Denise Fraser had told Stabroek News that there were no immediate plans to address what was happening in the river but that anything would be done in collaboration with GGMC.
An article carried in Stabroek News on November 30, 2000 said turbidity of the waterways in the interior caused by land-dredging and riverbank-mining operations were major environmental issues related to the local mining sector.
According to the article a document prepared by the GGMC earlier that year on the mining sector had noted that turbidity could affect biota, degrade drinking and domestic water quality in communities living downstream of mining operations, and give rise to discolouration plumes that have a negative impact on local communities and other natural-resources users.
Regulations had been issued in 1999 prohibiting dumping of tailings into the Konawaruk River from mining operations on its banks and making it mandatory for buffer zones to be implemented. These measures seemed to have been ignored or not enforced in its strictest sense, a mining official said.
The Konawaruk, located in the Mahdia/Potaro mining district of Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) just below the Potaro River, is some 60 miles long. Over the years of mining operations there has been a noticeable decline in river-dredging operations with more persons embarking on land-dredging, resulting in the depositing of tailings into the Konawaruk River.