Solomons tailings dam spill under control

Transcript

The Solomon Islands ministry of environment says a major spill-over at the Gold Ridge mine tailings dam has been brought under control. 

Heavy rains caused the dam to overflow its spillway last month.

The permanent secretary of the ministry said drastic action was taken to avoid a breach in the dam wall, allowing the land-owning company Gold Ridge Community Investments Ltd to pump untreated water from the dam to contain the spill.

Melchior Mataki told Koroi Hawkins the company stopped pumping untreated water from the dam last Friday and has returned to treating water before discharging it.

MELCHIOR MATAKAKI:  The ideal situation here is for discharge from the TSF to be done with treatment. This is the ideal situation and we from the ministry of environment that is also something that we would like to see take place. But the unfortunate thing as I said is that the water level was dangerously very high and off course the key risk or the highest risk then is that if we do not take any measures to arrest or to stop the spill-over then we risk also the integrity of the full dam itself. So based on that the company was also given permission to discharge without treatment together with treatment. So they have pumps that are running from the treatment system as well as directly from the TSF. So really this is really about risk management. And I know it is not the, it is not the best situation that everybody would like. But we really have to take measures to mitigate the situation that is at hand.

KOROI HAWKINS: And I understand you have sent some tests away for the effect of the spillover into various rivers and you are waiting on results from those?

MM: Yes we have sent samples to our partners this is from the government side. The company by virtue of its license is also obligated to do likewise so in other words they also have to collect their samples, both water and sediment samples from the river systems. And also set it off so, they have also done that. So they have also independently sent their samples as well. So we are just waiting for the results to come back. 

KH: And in the meantime the ministry of health I understand has released a precautionary statement for people not to cook not to drink or use the waters in the rivers. Did they consult you is that something that you are aware of before that went out?

MM: The actual press release that was put out I didn't really get to sight the press release before it went out.

KH: And is it accurate are you in agreement with what it is saying?

MM: Well generally I would say that I think the press release from the ministry of health is a, they have taken a precautionary principle in advising people about the risks that are in there. But perhaps maybe its too, a bit extreme in a way but I think the overall intention here was to get people's attention to see that people are restrict the use of the river.

KH: The state of disaster declared last year that is still in place I understand, what does that mean and why is it still in place?

MM: The state of disaster was not lifted the National Disaster Council made the decision not to lift it basically because we knew from the start that the TSF was already full of sediments. In other words it is very susceptible to rainfall. Any rainfall above 25 mm for example would definitely increase the water level. So generally we know that the TSF was already very full and because of that it was very susceptible to any amount of rain that goes in. Because it is not just rainfall falling directly on the TSF but also run-offs from the catchment from the TSF. So with that we decided that it is better to have a state of disaster in place to help instate appropriate measures like what we have just taken in allowing the company to also discharge without treatment to ensure that the water level is brought below the spillway.