BPPT verification to confirm Buyat Bay contamination: Minister
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Manado
State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar expressed optimism on Tuesday that the verification of a joint team's investigation into the Buyat Bay would not alter the results.
Rachmat said the verification, carried out by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), would deal primarily with technicalities applied during the investigation.
"The BPPT is now verifying the results and in a short time, I hope they can confirm things that we have worried and suspected in this case so far," Rachmat said on Tuesday.
The joint team -- the latest to conduct tests on Buyat Bay and concluded them a few weeks ago -- included representatives from the police, the government, activists, the BPPT, and also mining firm PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR), which has been accused of polluting the bay.
The team study found that the bay was indeed contaminated with excessive levels of arsenic and mercury, far beyond the safety levels by any local and international standards.
The team also found that the firm had violated several operating procedures, including the environmental impact assessment document required to operate a business here.
Rachmat said he expected the verification would be complete in the next two weeks, to allow further moves to be taken.
"If we find any party responsible for this problem, of course we'll hold them. We'll find ways so that the follow up of the tests would do good for the Buyat people," he said, adding that the government would also submit the test results to the police.
Laboratory tests by the police also showed that the bay was polluted with high levels of metal substances.
The director of assessment and application of environmental technology at BPPT, Tusi Adibroto, said that the verification would seek to validate the team's findings in terms of academic point of view.
"It's more on the methodology the team used and other technical issues. However, it is unlikely that we would carry out another test unless there are things we find doubtful," she told The Jakarta Post.
However, she was unable to elaborate on the specific points the BPPT wished to validate nor how long the process would take.
Tusi added the decision to carry out a verification was made after members of the joint team had different interpretations on several findings and assigned the BPPT as a third party to draw alternative conclusions.
On Monday, the police submitted the case files of six executives of NMR to North Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office after previously being returned to the police last month due to lack of evidence and documents.
The police, led by National Police director for special crimes Brig. Gen. Suharto, also brought along the six executives to be transferred under the prosecutor's custody.
However, the prosecutors refused to take the executives since their files were yet to be reviewed and a transfer was only feasible after the files were declared complete.
The six executives -- Bill Long, Phil Turner, David Sompie, Jerry Kojansow, Putra Jayatri, and Richard Ness -- remains under city arrest.