Police tests confirm bay polluted

Police tests confirm bay polluted

Abdul Khalik and Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Police laboratory tests have found heavy metal contamination in
Buyat Bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, silencing doubts over the
pollution that has allegedly caused health problems for
residents.

Although not blaming PT Newmont Minahasa Raya mining firm,
which has for years disposed of its tailings in the bay, National
Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung said on
Friday the police would ask the company to suspend operations in
a bid to prevent the pollution from further affecting locals'
health.

"Our laboratory tests show that Buyat Bay is contaminated. The
tests on several samples we took from several locations in the
bay indicate that the level of metal exceeds the standard set by
the Office of the State Minister of the Environment," said
Suyitno.

Newmont Pacific Nusantara's environmental advisor Ali Sahami
had told The Jakarta Post the company was aware of the high
concentration of mercury and arsenic in the sediment of its
tailings and frequently reported it to the government. He said
the tailings were detoxified before they were deposited anywhere
in the ocean or on land.

Suyitno would not confirm whether the findings would enable
the police to charge the company with environmental crimes as the
demand to halt its operations will have little impact. The
company will close down in October, when its license expires.

Simon Sembiring, director general of geology and mineral
resources at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said
the company may stop operations earlier than October as it had
processed most of its stockpiles.

"It is still processing roughly 40,000 tons of ore stockpiles.
It's not much, so it may be completed by the end of this month,"
Simon told reporters on Friday.

The company ceased mining operations in 2001 due to depleting
gold resources.

Simon added that the company would have to do reclamation work
at the mining site until it met requirements under a post-closure
plan.

"They have to make sure the mining site is safe," Simon said.

Kasan Mulyono, PT Newmont's public relations manager, said he
could not speculate on the police announcement as the company had
not received officially notification from the police.

"To date, all reliable results from independent and accredited
laboratories verify that Buyat Bay is not contaminated," he said
in a press released made available to the Post.

Suyitno revealed no details of the heavy metals that had
contaminated the bay.

The National Police earlier this month sent a team to take
samples in 10 locations in the bay and surrounding areas. The
samples included water, mud from the floor of the bay, fish and
blood and hair of residents.

In 2001, the Office of the State Minister of the Environment
established that 0.008 milligram per liter (mg/L) of mercury in
every 5,000 cubic meter was disposed of by PT Newmont per day.
The arsenic level was 0.5 mg/L, while cyanide was 0.5.

Chandrawati Cahyani, a biology expert from the Office of the
State Minister of Research and Technology, said Indonesia had set
the mercury level at 0.002 mg/L for safe drinking water while a
colleague, Amin Soebandrio, an expert on physical health, said
mercury could endanger human life if its content in the blood
exceeded 30 micrograms per liter (ug/L).

Several earlier tests indicated that the mercury content in
residents' blood exceeded the average level of 8 ug/L set by the
World Health Organization.

Aside from mercury, tests also found that the urine of
residents contained between 85.63 parts per million (ppm) and
188.13 ppm of arsenic.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said the
contamination must have originated from Newmont as there was no
other source in the area. Besides, Walhi said that only 95
percent of mercury could be separated from ore while the rest was
released into the environment.