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| Ang surface disposal na ginawa ng Marcopper sa Calancan Bay. Mula sa Google Earth |
Kaya matindi ang naging dagok nito sa kalikasan, kalagayan at kalusugan ng mga taong naninirahan doon.
The very first permit granted Marcopper to dump waste into Calancan Bay, in 1975, was in fact only for a submerged disposal system. The authorities specifically requested that the disposal system be submerged as this would necessarily place the tailings in deep water and protect corals and seagrasses in the bay. Yet the dumping was done via surface disposal close to shore...
In fact, it was well known by 1975, that surface disposal into shallow waters was a destructive way of disposing of mine waste. It was for that very reason that the Philippine environmental authorities had insisted on submerged disposal for the Calancan Bay tailings. While submerged disposal has since also been shown to be destructive and has been banned in Canada, surface disposal does far worse damage. Rescan was also to advise Marcopper later to implement a submerged system in Calancan Bay to minimize further environmental and social impacts, but this was not heeded.
...According to health experts, lead and cyanide both attack the central nervous system and poison blood, thereby leading to shakiness, lack of balance and anemia. Lead poisoning especially leads to reduced mental functioning and memory loss; in children, it can result in retarded mental development.
Based on the DOH-UP team's findings, seven government agencies petitioned the Office of the President to declare a state of calamity for health reasons in Calancan Bay, which President Ramos did in March 1998.
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| Ganito ang pagtatapon ng mine tailings sa Calancan Bay. Deretso sa dagat ARAW-ARAW, GABI-GABI mula 1975 hanggang 1991. |
Bakit naman nila sinuway at iginiit ang SURFACE DISPOSAL? Sagot: DAHIL ITO AY PAGKIKITAAN PA NILA PAGKAT MAS MAKAKATIPID PA ANG KUMPANYA HANGGANG $25-MILLION DOLLARS KADA TAON, O 17% NA KATIPIRAN SA CAPITAL COST!:
By pumping their tailing into the sea, mining companies remove unsightly tailings on land. They "solve" the problems of maintaining impoundments and dams, and managing acid mine drainage an metal leaching from tailings impoundments, sometimes "in perpetuity". And in case of dam failure, mining companies avoid the risks of social rage an of expensive clean up. Unlike on land, if something goes wrong with an STD system, there is little the company, or anyone else, can do...
STD is also a relatively cheap mine-waste solution. Placer Dome's Dick Zandee wrote in a 1985 article about their surface disposal system into Calancan Bay in the Philippines that, "operation of the current sea-disposal system costs less than half as much as the operation of the tailings-pond system." For the Kitsault mine in Canada, which was given a special site-specific exemption in 1979 to operate an STD system, it was estimated that STD would save the company $25 million dollars per year in tailings disposal costs relative to the cost of land-disposal. The U.S. Department of the Interior concluded that, on average, STD use resulted in a 17% reduction in capital costs and a 1.6% increase in operating costs.
...Even in recent years, shallow surface dumping of tailings, with very damaging consequences, continues to occur, such as at Placer Dome's Marcopper mine in the Philippines (1975-1991)...
Source: Mining's Problem with Waste, Submarine Tailings Disposal
