Industrial waste ruling desputed by companies

JAKARTA (JP): Local mining and industrial companies called on President B.J. Habibie on Friday to review the new ruling on the management of industrial waste, saying the ruling would kill them.

Executive director of the Indonesian Mining Association (IMA) Paul Louis Coutrier said Government Regulation No. 18/1999 on the management of toxic and dangerous materials, which was decreed by the President on Feb. 27 this year, contains strict conditions that few mining and industrial companies were able to meet.

"The conditions set in the regulation are even far stricter than those implemented in such developed countries as the United States, Japan and Canada, where people are much more aware than us about the environment and have better technologies to protect the environment," Coutrier said at a news conference at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Coutrier noted that local mining and industrial companies would have to investment heavily to buy technologies for the treatment of their waste under the new regulation.

Some conditions are so strict that no company in the world would able to meet it using the most sophisticated technology.

The regulation stipulates, among other things, that the tailing of mining companies is considered toxic and dangerous if it contains more than 0.004 milligrams of fluoride per liter.

Today, Coutrier said, the most sophisticated technology can only detect fluoride content of more than 0.1 milligram per liter.

He also complained that the government had put the regulation into immediate effect, leaving no time for local mining and industrial companies to adjust to the new regulation.

"Theoretically, all mining and industrial companies have been violating the regulation," Coutrier said.

"The implementation of the regulation will lead to the closure of all mining and industrial companies, especially small and middle-sized ones.

"That means the government and the public will lose millions of rupiah and dollars in potential revenue every year and tens of thousands of workers will be laid off," Coutrier said.

Several top officials of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, who were present at the news conference, supported Coutier's view.

They said both ministries had appealed to the President to review the regulation.

In fact, the officials said, the regulation had been drafted by the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) of the Ministry of Environment along with ministries and related agencies.

But the agency later submitted the draft regulation to the President for final approval along with a document that had not been examined by other ministries and agencies.

The document specified the acceptable limits for chemical contents in mining tailings and industrial waste.

"Certain people have manipulated the draft regulation," Coutrier said without specifying. (jsk)