Mercury named as pollutant in Cisadane River<\/p>\n
BOGOR (JP): An environmentalist said on Friday that Cisadane
\nRiver, the water of which finds its way into homes across Jakarta
\nand Bogor, has a high level of mercury.<\/p>\n
In a discussion on illegal mining here, the West Java chief of
\nthe Environmental Impact Management Agency, Dodo Perdata, claimed
\nthat illegal gold mining on Mt. Pongkor in Bogor has contributed
\nmajor contamination in the river.<\/p>\n
\"Ever since economic turmoil hit the country three years ago,
\nsome 6,000 illegal miners have thronged Mt. Pongkor and process
\nthe ore with mercury,\" Dodo said.<\/p>\n
Mercury does not dissolved, he said, adding that a total of
\n16.2 tons of mercury per month were used to process the gold.<\/p>\n
\"Thirty percent of the mercury waste (or 4.86 tons) is dumped
\ninto the Cikaniki I and Cikaniki II rivers, which are upstream of
\nCisadane River.<\/p>\n
So imagine the level of mercury contamination,\" Dodo said at
\nthe discussion attended by Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo
\nBambang Yudhoyono, Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf and health
\nministry expert staff member Dadi S. Argadirja.<\/p>\n
Dodo quoted fact from research done by his office in June
\n1999, which reveals that the Cikaniki I and II rivers have an
\naverage mercury content of 3.58 part per million (ppm).<\/p>\n
\"In several parts of the river, the mercury levels have even
\nreached to 28.38 part per million (ppm). In the case of Minamata
\nGulf in Japan where the contaminated water caused brain damage in
\nhumans, the mercury levels were only 25 ppm,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Several dailies earlier reported that water samples from the
\nriver, which flows from Bogor through Tangerang, west of Jakarta,
\nshowed mercury levels at 3.33 parts per billion (ppb).<\/p>\n
\"Based on the research, it was also found that mercury content
\nin the water has exceeded the maximum level of 0.1 ppb,\" Dodo
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Separately, the production chief of Bogor-owned tap water
\ncompany Ino Surisah denied reports that Cisadane River was
\ncontaminated by mercury.<\/p>\n
\"We've run a test on the river water and sent the sample to
\nISO certification issuer PT. Sucofindo's laboratory in Jakarta.
\nThe results show that there was no mercury detected in the
\nwater,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"We are very concerned about this because 65 percent of water
\nprocessed in the company comes from Cisadane River,\" she added.<\/p>\n
Sonny said the government was considering of banning the use
\nof mercury in the gold mine.<\/p>\n
\"The ban will be imposed through a ministerial instruction or
\na presidential decree,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The miners have been accused of playing a significant role in
\nthe contamination of Cisadane River.<\/p>\n
For several years, poorly equipped gold miners have died
\ndigging shafts in the Pongkor area to collect earth from which
\ngold is extracted.<\/p>\n
Yet this has not stopped others filling their places as they
\ncome all the way from the West Java, Lampung and North Sumatra.<\/p>\n
Both ministers Bambang and Sonny suggested that PT Aneka
\nTambang, the enterprise running the Mt. Pongkor gold mine, hire
\nthe illegal diggers to avoid dispute.<\/p>\n
Deddy Aditya, president of PT Aneka Tambang, however, rejected
\nthe idea, fearing that thousands of people would throng the
\nalready unstable ground.<\/p>\n
\"The condition of Pongkor is different from that of other gold
\nmines in the country. Pongkor has deep, vertical holes rather
\nthan horizontal ones.<\/p>\n
\"It is impossible for a mine with a diameter of only four to
\nsix meters to be filled with dozens of unskilled labors. The
\nsafety and security risks are too high,\" Deddy said. (21\/24\/edt)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/mercury-named-as-pollutant-in-cisadane-river-1447893297",
"image": ""
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