Longtime Greengrants donor and friend, Roy Young, owner of Nature’s Own stores across Colorado, has co-authored an article on the impacts of the horrendous practice of submarine tailings disposal in the March/April 2009 edition of World Watch Magazine.
Submarine tailings disposal (STD) is the term applied to the practice of eliminating mining waste by pumping it into ocean bays and lagoons. Though illegal in the U.S., it is commonly practiced by large-scale surface mining operations in developing countries. In open-pit mines, 99 percent of all rock moved and processed at modern facilities ends as waste. This waste—crushed, mineralized rock and process chemicals—includes components such as copper, lead, arsenic and mercury that are released during the extraction process. When it ends up in the ocean, it can cause irrevocable harm for ocean ecologies and the people who depend on them for their livelihoods.
Roy Young’s generous support was instrumental in founding Global Greengrants Fund sixteen years ago. Virtually all profits from his Nature’s Own retail stores go to fund activist grassroots environmental organizations around the world. In recent years, he has focused this commitment on the social and environmental impacts of submarine tailings disposal.
Roy says of this approach, “After years of being driven crazy by watching the peace and environmental groups I worked with scrounge for money, I did something I never thought I’d do—I became a successful businessman in order to have money to give away to groups whose work I admire.”
Excerpt from the article:
Beginning in 1996 and continuing through at least mid-2004, the Newmont Minahasa Raya goldmine dumped 2,000 tons per day of wastes into the tropical, coral-rich waters of Buyat Bay, off the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia—waters that previously had been the main source of food and income for local families. Soon stories began circulating that the fish were disappearing and that those remaining had deformities. Villagers also complained of strange skin rashes, tumors, and other forms of disease, all of which they claimed started after the waste disposal began. Click here for full article.
To find out about Greengrants’ support for the Buyat Bay case in Indonesia, click here.