Weight of scientific evidence, facts they want dumped!

Among the many 'unacceptable or unconscionable' terms that has surfaced in the proposed settlement on the Nevada case is that the People of Marinduque represented by the Provincial Government of Marinduque must "stipulate to and admit" certain fictions framed by legal experts bragged about as a 'Dream Team'. Among those stipulations is that: 

"The weight of scientific evidence demonstrates that the mine tailings present in the Province's waterways do not currently pose and have not posed an unacceptable risk on human health." 

"The weight of scientific evidence demonstrates that the mine tailings present in the Province's waterways do not currently and have not had an unacceptable impact on the environment."

So, the next thing they'll tell us now is that the P 20-M USGS Study (one on marine contamination here), paid from taxpayers money by the national government, and the so-called Klohn Crippen Report that warned about the failure of the dams as a "virtual certainty",  and the well-publicized report of the U.N. mission on this major environmental disaster, and the DENR's, the DOH's and other numerous independent scientific studies undertaken to determine the impacts to the environment and human health of irresponsible mining for decades... never existed! 

Some legal counsel on the Nevada case has already done that, in fact, in relation to the $12-M (about P 480-M) escrow fund set up by PDI in 2001 for Boac River cleanup - by claiming the funds never existed! That it is a myth! "A myth built on hope but no less a myth" was what he said on record, remember?

And probably chuckling no end still because we, timawa, seem to believe it and just let it go? So, he's probably poised now to simply just pull off another one, eh?

If we are not 'enlightened', that is:

Abandoned mine tailings pollution pipes at Calancan Bay.
Photo: maharlikafilms

In its first 20 years in the Philippines, the Marcopper Mining Corp. is estimated to have earned more than $1 billion... separate studies by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, and a joint medical team from the University of the Philippines and the Department of Health all indicated that the tailings in the bay have been slowly poisoning the food source of the people here as well as the villagers themselves... then President Fidel Ramos was compelled enough to declare a number of Calancan Bay villages to be in a "state of calamity for health reasons."

- Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

Numerous independent scientific studies of the ravages of mining on Marinduque, including by a United Nations team and United States Geological Survey, confirm the extraordinary and ongoing toxic impacts of uncontained mine waste and un-rehabilitated rivers and coastal areas. As the mine was abandoned after the catastrophic dam failure in 1996, numerous dams and structures have not been maintained and now pose a very real threat of failure and further impacts on lower lying communities and ecosystems. Placer Dome’s own consultants, Canada’s Klohn Crippen, warned in a report leaked in 2001 of “danger to life and property” related to inadequate mine structures holding back waste. These structures have been deteriorating ever since.

- MiningWatch Canada

Boac River photo by Allan Lissner

The impact on the river and people who depend on it for their livelihoods was severe. The rush of tailings displaced river water which inundated low-lying areas, destroying crops and vegetable gardens and clogged irrigation channels supplying water to rice fields.... The effects of the incident were so devastating that a United Nations assessment mission declared the accident to be a major environmental disaster.

  - International Development Research Center, Canada

Boac River. Photo: Pat Roque

The study was commissioned by government of Marinduque, the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau... The Independent Assessment Team (IAT) noted that there has been no serious clean-up and recovery efforts by Marcopper since 1996. The IAT also concluded that potential instabilities in existing mine structures at the Marcopper site "pose the most significant threat to the inhabitants and ecosystems of Marinduque," according to the Philippine Star. - Mineweb

Mine dump at Maguila-guila siltation dam. Photo: USGS

"Companies such as Placer Dome divest from countries with the effect that they avoid liability, yet present themselves as leaders in corporate responsibility," said Macdonald. "The Marinduque case clearly shows the legal for legal stands which control companies no matter where they operate..."

The Oxfam report made several recommendations including not re-opening the Marinduque mine. In addition, the report suggests that Placer Dome and Marcopper fund an independent environmental and health investigation into the impact of the tailings on Calancan Bay. The mining companies were also called upon to fully rehabilitate the Mogpog and Boac Rivers and decommission the Maguila-Guila dam. - MineWeb

Boac town officials during protest rally at Provincial Capitol.
Photo: Myke Magalang

Pressure continues being applied on the Provincial Government of Marinduque to settle in their case against Barrick Gold for the historic pollution caused as a result of the hugely-polluting Marcopper mine. The ‘take it or leave it’ US$20-million settlement looks particularly pathetic, considering the conditions (including full indemnity for Barrick and that none of the payment will be allowed to go to compensating the victims or the restoration of the polluted environment!). Where this leaves other claimants is also a moot point, as some of the victims are directly suing for compensation. As such a rally was organised to protest against the proposed settlement. - London Mining Network

This video features a speech from Barrick Gold’s founder and chairman, Peter Munk, at the company’s shareholder’s meeting in 2010. The video creator added photos from Barrick’s operations around the world, "to expose the delusional and misleading nature of Munk’s words". Many of the photos were from the Marinduque collection of photojournalist Allan Lissner as part of his "Someone Else's Treasure" Series.

"... Rather than settle the case, compensating Marinduquenos for lost livelihood and funding efforts to rehabilitate the damaged eco-systems, Barrick is waging an expensive and lengthy legal battle to avoid responsibility... The San Antonio Pit contains millions of tons of mine waste being held back by failing dams. According to a leaked document from Placer Dome’s own environmental consultants, “failure of the dam is a virtual certainty in the near term”.

- Papua New Guinea Mine Watch

Survey of marine contamination from mining-related activities on Marinduque Island, Philippines: Porewater toxicity and chemistry - R. Scott Carr (USGS Marine Ecotoxicology Research Station), Marion Nipper (Corpus Christi, Center for Coastal Studies), Geoffrey S. Plumlee (USGS)

"...The pore water from station 2 also had the highest levels of heavy metals, particularly cadmium, cobalt, copper, nickel, lead and zinc. The concentrations of cobalt, nickel and zinc were also elevated at station 3. Copper concentrations were also elevated at the two river mouth stations (8 and 9) and near the CMI tailings causeway (station 7).

Visual observations also indicated biological degredation due to heavy siltation and smothered coral at a gradient off the Calancan causeway, suggesting that siltation might also be causing a physical impact. "

... AND FROM THE U.N. MISSION: 

The U.N. Mission final report contains an extensive ecotoxicological assessment, an evaluation of the impacts on human health and well-being, general discussion on the causes, as well as recommendations to avoid future disasters. 

The U.N. Mission team’s conclusions were:

• The Makulapnit and Boac River system has been so significantly degraded as to be considered and environmental disaster; • The aquatic life, productivity and beneficial use of the rivers for domestic and agricultural purposes are totally lost as a result of the physical process of sedimentation;• The coastal bottom communities adjacent to the mouth of the Boac River are also significantly degraded as a direct result of smothering by the mine tailings;• There is no evidence of acute poisoning in the exposed population due to the mine tailings.• There is an increased health and safety risk due to immersion and flooding as a result of the very large volume and physical properties of the mine tailings, should they be mobilized during the wet season; and* Concentrations of trace metals in the mine tailings were not sufficiently high to represent an immediate toxicological threat.

- ADB and the ENVIRONMENT