by Evan Jones, Greengrants Grants Manager
Indonesian environmental and human rights groups earned a major victory in November, when the official results of a long-awaited study on levels of heavy metal contamination in Buyat Bay were finally released to the public. The study confirms what several grassroots groups and scores of Buyat Bay residents have been claiming for years – that Newmont Mining Corporation’s Minahasa Mine has released dangerously high levels of arsenic and mercury into the bay, poisoning fish and the local people who rely on these fish as a major component of their diet.
The study, commissioned by the Indonesian government, brought together NGOs, scientists, mining industry representatives and other stakeholders. It is the latest development in an intense controversy that also has resulted in the jailing of four Newmont officials in Indonesia.
The study casts grave doubts about the safety of a controversial method of waste disposal that Newmont has practiced in Buyat Bay since 1996. Known as submarine tailings disposal (STD), treated mine waste at Minahasa containing a variety of naturally-occurring and highly toxic heavy metals has been dumped into the bay at a rate of 2,000 tons per day. Although attractive to mining companies because of reduced costs, this practice is particularly risky when conducted in shallow tropical waters, since warm water and surface currents facilitate the spread of contaminants.
These areas are also among the richest and most diverse marine ecosystems in the world, which makes them especially vulnerable to toxins. Coastal communities in the tropics are often highly dependent on local waters for their food and economic well-being, further compounding the harmful effects of submarine tailings disposal.
Newmont has insisted, however, that the practice is safe, since it puts the tailings through a detoxification process before they are dumped. Newmont also notes that the STD system is preferable to piling the tailings on land where they take up much-needed agricultural space and are subject to disruption by frequent earthquakes in the region (see Newmont: Now and Beyond 2003, Minahasa, Indonesia). Even though Newmont says it holds all the necessary permits to conduct STD in Indonesian waters, it should be noted that in Newmontís home country of the United States, the practice of STD is effectively banned under the Clean Water Act, and has never been permitted.
Official confirmation that STD is resulting in significant levels of pollution comes as mixed relief to the citizens of the villages of Buyat Pantai and Ratatotok, whose complaints of skin ailments, headaches, and other health problems have been repeatedly challenged by Newmont officials, who claim that they are the result of poor nutrition and unsanitary conditions. The report confirms that the sediments of Buyat Bay are contaminated with dangerous levels of arsenic and mercury (some measurements reaching 100 times the concentrations of control sites), and it goes further to categorize Buyat Bay as “possessing high risks for human health”. Furthermore, it indicates that Newmont has breached several Indonesian laws on the dumping of toxic waste and that Newmontís environmental impact statement was critically flawed. It also recommends that the practice of STD no longer be allowed in Indonesia due to the dangers it poses to the environment and to human health (WALHI: Buyat Bay Is Polluted).
Although several studies have recently been conducted on pollutants in Buyat Bay, their results have been vigorously contested by both sides due to limitations in scientific scope and stakeholder participation. This government-commissioned study has taken great care to address all of these issues, so it will be harder to dispute than previous efforts conducted on a smaller scale.
In some ways, what is most remarkable about this recent news is that the Indonesian Government has responded to the crisis in Buyat Bay. Wide geographic and cultural distance separates the fisher people of Buyat Bay from government authorities in Jakarta 1,300 miles away. Collusion, bribery and limited enforcement resources almost always give a corporation like Newmont the upper hand.
Local voices were heard in this case largely through the efforts of a team of Indonesian public interest groups, including the Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM), Friends of the Earth affiliate WALHI, the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) and many others. Several of these groups were aided by small grants from Global Greengrants Fund.
Grassroots Action to Support the People of Buyat Bay and Beyond
To help villagers in Buyat Pantai and Ratatotok learn more about the affects of pollution and participate in decisions that would effect them, JATAM, WALHI, Global Response, and others organized a series of conferences with Newmont officials to discuss the current situation at Buyat Bay and Newmontís reclamation plans. The government-sanctioned study highlighted at the beginning of this article also was the result of the cooperative efforts of several groups to engage the press and stimulate public demand for an official investigation.
Several lawsuits on behalf of affected communities have been filed against Newmont for violation of a host of Indonesian environmental standards. A lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid for Health Foundation seeks more than US$540 million in damages for the local community. Another suit soon to be lodged by WALHI will seek comprehensive cleanup at Newmont’s expense. Groups hope that this will (at very least) force Newmont to make its case in a national court and that it will prompt investigations into alleged corruption during development and operation of the Minahasa Mine.
JATAM also has been working in collaboration with the to convince the World Bank to follow the recommendations of its own Extractive Industry Review committee and end all financing for mining operations around the world using STD. Although the Minahasa Mine did not use World Bank financing, many mines do, and most of the worldís international financial institutions rely on World Bank guidelines and practices when considering projects to finance.
Minahasa Mine ceased operations in August 2004 as the gold ran out, but cleanup may take decades, and it remains to be seen whether anything can be done to make Buyat Bay safe. Issues of the safety and legality of STD in Indonesia are more important than ever. Newmont is currently operating a second mine using STD in Nusa Tenggara on the island of Sumbawa where the mine pipes tailings at a rate more than 50 times higher than at Minahasa (a staggering 110,000 tons per day). At least eight other STD mines are under consideration in Indonesia, and most are far larger in scope than Minahasa. Although recent progress is encouraging, it is only a very promising start.
Get involved! Let us help these groups that are keeping the pressure on Newmont and the Indonesian government. Please consider a gift to Global Greengrants Fund.
You also can join a letter-writing campaign initiated by Global Response.
For more information on the practice of submarine tailings disposal around the world, please also visit Project Underground: STD Toolkit.