Clearing up Ok Tedi-its worse than we thought!

The big Australian mining company, BHP, has admitted that environmental damage down stream from its giant Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea, will be worse than it orig inally expected. The admission comes as the company con siders scientific evidence collected as part of the require ments of a compensation settlement with landowners, who in 1994 brought, what was then, probably the biggest ever damages case to be lodged with the Australian courts. It is the scale of the mine and the fact that after 15 years of operation it has wrought huge changes not just in the envi ronment but in the lives of nearby villages that make this a difficult problem to solve.

Each day, the mine pours a staggering 80,000 tonnes of waste water, rocks and sediment into the Ok Tedi river. That waste has polluted people’s water supply, killed off marine life they used to eat and forced them to move their gardens to less fertile ground where they will not get choked with silt.

Die-back has killed off the vegetation along many square kilo metres of the Ok Tedi’s formerly rich flood-plain and the river bed has risen by up to 5 metres since mining began in 1984.

Scientific work by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) found sediment in the river contained heavy metals includ ing cadmium, lead, zinc and copper. Its report said high sediment loads and metal contamination had rendered the first 70 kilome tres of the Ok Tedi ‘almost biologically dead’ and ‘dramatically reduced species biodiversity over the next 130 kilometres’(to the junction with the Fly River).

But there is much more to Ok Tedi than this appalling environ mental damage. The mine has brought services to people that the cash-strapped PNG government will never be able to deliver.

Since the mine opened, infant mortality in the region around the mine has gone down from 300 per thousand to just 15, the average lifespan has increased from 30 to 50 years and the inci dence of malaria among village children is down from 70 to 15 percent. Royalties and compensation payments have seen villagers gain access to cash, often for the first time, and provided village amenities such as meeting halls, solar electricity and school build ings. Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML), the company which oper ates the mine, has established a business development program which has seen more than 80 landowner businesses established -

in 1998 OTML says they earned 80.6 million Kina and employed 1,050 local people.

In announcing the results of new scientific work by a team ol world class scientists, OTML Managing Director Roger Higgins said the environmental impact of the mine would be ‘significantly greater’ than expected in earlier studies. The four options OTML is now considering to deal with environmental damage are; to con tinue a dredging trial in the Lower Ok Tedi, to dredge and pipe tailings 130 kilometres to a huge storage area in the Lower Ok Tedi, to do nothing or the early closure of the mine.

According to Higgins none of the options offer a clear solutior and the even closing the mine early will not stop dieback extend ing beyond the areas currently affected. For Nick Styant-Browne the lawyer who brought the original compensation case on behall of the lower Ok Tedi landowners, ‘lt’s a breathtaking admission ir the context of BHP’s historical position which has been initially “there is no problem” and then after that “if there is a problem i is small it is managable, it is being overstated, it is nothing tc worry about’”. The ACF on the other hand has welcomed the admission. T think that provides an opportunity for all of us; BHP Australians and the people of PNG to think about the future and say "OK we’ve got a big problem, what are we going to do aboui it” said ACF Deputy Director, Don Henry. The public relations disaster BHP has faced over pollution from Ok Tedi in the past 5 years has shaken the company to its core. It was a catalyst for a shareholder revolt and a major corporate restructure. New Managing Director, Paul Anderson, appears willing to work gen uinely with landowners, conservationists and the PNG govern ment and tackle the difficult issues. OTML has spent Asloo mil lion on its dredging trial. The results show that even it continues to spend $3O million a year, dredging will not stop the river bed from rising. Flooding will continue and dieback is expected to extend into the Middle Fly area, more than 200 kilometres down stream from the mine. According to Higgins, the storage of piped tailings will create social and environmental problems because of the amount of land required (approx 20 sq kilometres) would occupy almost the entire area of one clan. The full scientific evi dence on the options for Ok Tedi will not be released publicly until August. When it is, all those involved will need to hire their own independent scientists, and comb through the report’s detail for its implications, and then be prepared to raise their voices.

Landowners along the entire 1,000 kilometre course of the mine and Fly rivers will need to be consulted. Options other than those proposed by BHP and OTML should also be considered and the various stakeholders provided with the resources to properly develop these options. The experience at Ok Tedi shows mining companies should not be exempted from environmental legisla tion. Such exemptions, inflict unecessary suffering on the inno cent and do not absolve companies of their moral responsibility to clean up the mess they have made. ■

Jemima Garrett

Sydney