Mine told to pay compo for cyanide spill
The National, Copyright 2000
November 8, 2000
By HARLYNE JOKU
TOLUKUMA Gold Mine (TGM), a subsidiary of Australia's Dome Resources, has been asked to compensate the Yaloga and Inaina villagers who were affected by the cyanide spill accident in March this year.
The Office of Environment and Conservation (OEC) has recommended this course of action by TGM in a report made public this week titled, 'Environmental Impacts and Investigation Report into the Tolukuma Gold Mine Cyanide Spill.'
According to the report, on March 21 this year, a transport helicopter accidentally dropped a tonne of sodium cyanide strapped in a crate while doing a routine cargo run from its Veimauri base camp to the Tolukuma Mine site. The impact site where the cyanide pellets fell is 15 km south of the Tolukuma Mine and some 73 km north-west of Port Moresby.
The incident, according to the report, was the first of its kind in PNG involving the spillage of highly toxic chemical while being transported by air.
The report revealed that since the day of the spill, the villagers of Yaloga and Inaina located downstream of the spill site feared for their lives and refused to eat any fish from the river, or even swim in it. TGM had provided food rations to these villages up until early June when the spill clean-up operation was completed.
But the OEC, in its European Union-funded report, said that social inconvenience had been caused as a result of the spill and TGM would have to adequately compensate the villagers.
"TGM should immediately hold consultation meetings with the affected landowners, with a view to negotiating an amicable compensation package for payment. The package will also take into account provision of relief supplies provided to date," the report said.
Further, the report has recommended that the OEC should consider fast-tracking the Environment Bill that is now before Parliament and that the Government should approve the revised standards for water quality for immediate adoption.
"Standards for cyanide concentration in soils should be developed for the country," the report recommended.
Also, commenting on possible future spills in the country, the report recommended that the response priority should be to notify all downstream water users including villagers and communities to prevent the use of contaminated waters and riverine resources.
The OEC has also strongly recommended that the State should set up an environmental disaster committee to effectively attend to and coordinate such accidents and spills in the country.
The report further suggested that the committee should be chaired by the OEC and should come under the umbrella of the National Disaster and Emergency Services. And, an environmental disaster trust fund should be set up by the State for the committee to enable it to attend to similar accidents and spills that may occur in the future in a timely manner, which has proved difficult for the OEC due to the lack of resources.
The report was officially made public during the launch of the Environmental Code of Conduct for the mining industry on Monday.