Despite releasing a report that examined Acid Mine Drainage and its effects and pledging R225m for its treatment the Inter Ministerial Committee has no clear plan yet for tackling the problem, beyond accepting that [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 27 Sep 2011

Despite releasing a report that examined Acid Mine Drainage and its effects and pledging R225m for its treatment the Inter Ministerial Committee has no clear plan yet for tackling the problem, beyond accepting that AMD is an issue.

There is no indication that the mining industry is thinking about taking responsibility

This view was presented by Dr Anthony Turton, Vice President of the International Water Resource Association (IWRA), while addressing delegates at the second annual Mine Water Management Conference in Johannesburg.

He went on to explain that even if government did formulate a proper plan it would be very difficult to implement as the mining industry was not cooperating with government to solve the problem.

A game of chess was used by Turton as a comparison for the situation saying that the game was between the mining industry as a collective entity and government as a collective entity and that unfortunately the industry would stay ahead of government.

“I think we are approaching that position where checkmate is about to happen and I think that the mining industry is going to checkmate government because at the end of the day it’s going to come down to the nationalisation of the liabilities and until such time as the mining industry says they are going to pick up those liabilities … government is going to pick them up and thus taxpayers are going to pick up the associated costs.”

He stressed that, unfortunately, he had seen no indication at all that the mining industry was vaguely thinking about taking responsibility for the liabilities and therefore it was a logical inevitable outcome that government was going to have to take steps in this regard.

Turton also discussed the new technology partners, which were emerging to help fight the problem with government, including Aveng, Siemens Sembcorp, MiWaTek and Trailblazer and said that these partnerships would be a useful way to combat the problem and should be thoroughly explored.

By: Michael Bratt
Source: Business Live

Environmental officials are working around the clock to curb the potential dangers posed by the impact of acid mine drainage in the Witwatersrand mining area, government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday.

Acid [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 13 June 2011

Environmental officials are working around the clock to curb the potential dangers posed by the impact of acid mine drainage in the Witwatersrand mining area, government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday.

Acid mine water overflowing from an old mine shaft on the Black Reef Incline, near Rand Uranium's treatment pond, 30 January 2010.

An expert team appointed by Cabinet to advise the interministerial committee on the dangers of acid mine drainage to Gauteng warned earlier this year of the need to avert an impending crisis.

The team, drawn from the Council for Geosciences and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), among others, identified various risk categories, including the contamination of surface and ground water required for agricultural and human consumption.

Their recommendations were housed in an acid mine drainage report.

According to a statement issued by the Department of Water Affairs this week, “important progress” had been made by the state in implementing the immediate and short-term actions recommended in the acid mine drainage report.

BuaNews reported that Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa had also tasked state-owned Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority to oversee installation of pumps to extract water from the mines to onsite treatment plants and construction of an on-site mine water treatment plant in each basin.

There will also be an installation of infrastructure to convey treated water to nearby watercourses and the facilitation of the best model, which shall be proposed to the Department of Water Affairs, for the operations of the pumping stations and treatment works.

Treasury had made a budget allocation of R225-million in the next three years towards the design and building of an acid mine water treatment facility, five million rand of which would be spent on a five-year plan to deal with acid mine drainage.

The statement said recent “collaborative efforts” between the department and Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority had resulted in an investigation of existing mine water treatment infrastructure in the western and central basin mining areas, and of potential institutional arrangements with the mining companies that were active in these basins.

“The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, by way of tender protocol, appointed a professional service provider to provide an intensive appraisal of the available infrastructure and to formulate appropriate engineering options to adequately resolve the acid mine drainage problem,” said the department.

The highest priority is being given to the development of solutions to reduce, if not eradicate, the surface decant of acid mine drainage in the West Rand area.

Also of high priority was the development of measures focused on ensuring that underground mine water levels in the central basin of the mines did not reach the environmental critical level, which would pose a threat.

The department said pumps for the central basin had been procured and were set to be delivered by the end of July.

Other engineering requirements in terms of construction and electrical infrastructure would follow.

In the eastern basin, the department was awaiting final announcements by the liquidators that were administering the Aurora Mining Company.

“The situation is being closely monitored and, if no real solution is provided, government intervention will be unavoidable,” the department added.

Source: Bua News

The government plans to set up a chain of pumping stations and treatment plants to prevent toxic liquids that are building up in defunct gold mines beneath Johannesburg from reaching dangerous levels.

Acid [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 23 February 2011

The government plans to set up a chain of pumping stations and treatment plants to prevent toxic liquids that are building up in defunct gold mines beneath Johannesburg from reaching dangerous levels.

Acid mine water overflowing from an old mine shaft on the Black Reef Incline, near Rand Uranium's treatment pond, 30 January 2010. Photo under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 licence.

The costs will be made known in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s national Budget today. But the government insists that the clock is not ticking as acidic mine water is expected to reach environmentally critical levels under Johannesburg only by June 2012, according to government officials and scientists at a briefing yesterday.

The cabinet also agreed that “further work needs to be done” to investigate the possibility of an environmental levy – to be spent on restoring the environment in mined areas – for consideration by the cabinet.

Water has already leaked from old mines west of Johannesburg in the “western basin”.

“Work in the western basin is immediate,” Thibedi Ramontja, the chief executive of the Council for Geoscience, said after the briefing.

Federation for a Sustainable Environment chief executive Mariette Liefferink said yesterday that while it was heartening for the government to acknowledge the threat of acid mine drainage, pumping the poisonous water only in March 2012 was a reactive measure.

She has opposed the inter-ministerial committee’s claim that there is no contamination of underground water in the western basin, and has called for the government to give time frames for short-, medium- and long-term action to be taken against the underground water.

“To pump water in 2012 is crisis management, the government should have taken measures against acid mine drainage back in 1996, when they were first alerted to the problem. Since the rainy season in December, there has been 2.7 billion litres of acid mine drainage discharged into the river system. We hope that the government will engage with civil society, water end users and mining companies which have to pay for the treatment of the water.”

The much-awaited report by a team of experts – driven by the Department of Water Affairs – would be released only tomorrow, it was announced at yesterday post-cabinet briefing. It would appear on the department’s website. It was completed in August last year but has been ranked “top secret”, according to officials.

A group of environmental lobbyists demanded in terms of access to information legislation that the report be released by today, arguing that it was their constitutional right to gain access to the information, which could affect hundreds of thousands of people in Gauteng, as well as Mpumalanga. They included the Centre for Environmental Rights, Earthlife Africa and the Federation for a Sustainable Environment.

However, at the briefing chaired by new communications boss Jimmy Manyi, it was reported that the cabinet had last week approved the recommendations made by a team of experts to an inter-ministerial committee tasked to investigate solutions to the problem.

Among their recommendations were that water quality neutralisation and metal removal should be improved “in the short term” and that there should be removal of salt loads from river systems in the medium to long term. Some of the bigger pumping operations would go out to tender.

Water Affairs chief operations officer Trevor Balzer reported that pumping was likely to start in earnest in March next year. Questioned why this process would begin only then – after some experts predicted decanting would happen in earnest from February – he said the experts believed the acid drainage levels would only be at an environmentally sensitive level by June next year.

Minister in the Presidency for National Planning Trevor Manuel, one of the members of the inter-ministerial committee who has long made light of the dangers of acid mine drainage, said there was no need for panic.

His colleague, Deputy Water Affairs Minister Godfrey Oliphant, insisted that there had been “constant monitoring” even before the report by a team of experts was completed.

Independent studies show water is rising by 15m a month.

Manuel said in the eastern basin water was at 700m below the surface, while in the central basin it was 500m below – still at relatively safe levels. But he acknowledged that the western basin was more problematic. It was here that “neutralisation” would start.

Oliphant ducked questions about how mining firms at disused mines would be tracked down, indicating instead that there had been “good co-operation” from the mining entities. Neither Manuel nor Oliphant responded to a question about whether drinking water in Gauteng had been affected by the effluent.

By: Donwald Pressly additional reporting by Dineo Matomela
Source: iol BusinessReport

The stark and harsh reality of acid mine drainage (AMD) is laid bare in a report by the Department of Water Affairs.

Episodes of AMD decant are contaminating Tweelopiesspruit. Photo: Alistair-Clacherty

The document [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 20 February 2011

The stark and harsh reality of acid mine drainage (AMD) is laid bare in a report by the Department of Water Affairs.

Episodes of AMD decant are contaminating Tweelopiesspruit. Photo: Alistair-Clacherty

The document includes the findings of an interministerial committee team of experts on AMD, assembled in September to investigate the issue.

“Urgent reduction of water ingress into mine voids remained a high priority,” it says.

The department would neither confirm nor deny ownership of the document.

The document proposes various interventions for three areas: the West Rand (Western Basin), central Johannesburg (Central Basin) and the East Rand (Eastern Basin).

It also notes that recent heavy rain and resultant flooding in Gauteng raised concerns that these conditions would lead to more water flowing into mines and worsening AMD in the province.

“The recent occurrence of flooding is in essence a matter separate to that of AMD; however, cognisance must be taken that flood water has potential to enter mine workings and also increase AMD.”

The document points out that water in mine workings is an important environmental concern.

“As mine water levels rise, it contaminates ground water. Further rises lead to decant (overflow) of the polluted water into surface streams, releasing water directly to mine openings,” it says.

Turning to the Western Basin, the report says the AMD flow rate during the dry season was either absent or of relatively small volumes, typically averaging two megalitres, or 2000000l, a day. But during the wet season, such as in December, this rose to 15.5 megalitres per day, on average.

It says that after heavy rains last month, the decant further increased to an average of 30 megalitres. This is in addition to 12 megalitres of partially treated mine water a day, making for a total of 42 megalitres a day.

“These episodes of AMD decant are contaminating … Tweelopies Spruit and Blaauwbank Spruit (which both flow north into the Crocodile River system).

“Western Basin subsurface mine water is considered to be flowing via underground paths to the Wonderfontein Spruit, a river which feeds into the Vaal River.”

On the Central Basin, the document says previous evidence shows the rate of water rise ranged from 30cm a day in the dry season to 90cm a day in the wet season (averaging about 55cm a day).

“Presently the water level is at 508m below surface and there is no surface decant of AMD,” the report says.

“The latest results indicate the rate of rise fluctuates between 0.37m and 0.47m per day,” it adds.

“Despite the recent high rainfall, there is a slower rise than expected, which is possibly due to delayed ingression or a more extensive network of lateral mine workings at the 500m (below surface) level, which is absorbing the ingress of water.”

The report has the following to say about the Eastern Basin: “As with the Central Basin, there is no surface decant of AMD … and the current subsurface mine water level is approximately 700m below surface.

“Recent rainfall has boosted the rate of rise to around 0.4m per day (about seven times the rate during dryer conditions).

“At the prevailing rate, mine water can flood the pump station in as little as 16 days unless the Grootvlei Mine seriously increases pumping output.

“According to information at the department’s disposal, Grootvlei Mine is in the process of increasing pumping capacity.”

Anthony Turton, a critic of the government’s handling of the issue, said the report seemed reasonable. “I see nothing here that speaks of a cover-up. Nothing mind bogglingly new either, but no cover-up.”

By: Lucky Biyase
Source: Business Live

The South African government has hinted at the introduction of a new environmental tax in an effort to address future eruptions of acid mine drainage (AMD) in a country where the economy largely depends [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 15 February 2011

The South African government has hinted at the introduction of a new environmental tax in an effort to address future eruptions of acid mine drainage (AMD) in a country where the economy largely depends on mining.

Government intends to hold people accountable if found guilty of having polluted water.

This comes as Cabinet meets this week to discuss recommendations made by a special task team to investigate how government should respond to reports of acid water drainage in some parts of the country.

Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, speaking at an Infrastructure Development cluster briefing on Tuesday, said while the proposal has not been tabled to Cabinet yet, it was something the state was “seriously” looking at.

“There have to be mechanisms that are put in place to ensure that the law is adhered to … we all have a duty to ensure that we protect the environment so it’s a discussion that is there. The Department of Finance has a document that is circulating on environmental tax and we will see what happens in the future,” Molewa said.

Acid mine water, or water contaminated with heavy metals as a result of mining activities, is reportedly affecting the Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State provinces. Reports suggest that this drainage poses health and economic risks for the country. Abandoned mines in Johannesburg and Mpumalanga had been the hardest hit so far.

With the mining industry contributing more than 30 percent to the country’s total export revenue, and having employed 2.9 percent of the country’s economically active population by 2009, environmentalists have termed AMD as the biggest single threat to the country’s economy and environment.

Molewa said government will also be pursuing those who have been operating the mines in a bid to recoup the costs of addressing AMD, which have been estimated to run into billions of rands. The department will use Section 19 of the Water Services Act to force the companies that operated the mines to pay undisclosed fines to the department.

“We are going to gazette Section 19 that says we must hold people accountable if found guilty of having polluted water and so on.”

Government has been criticised for the manner in which it has handled the AMD crisis, with environmentalist accusing officials of not acting decisively on the matter.

Molewa told BuaNews that this week’s Cabinet meeting will give an indication of an action to be taken to address the problem, which she admitted was the single biggest environmental crisis facing the country.

The recommendations by the experts are expected to assess the risk and look at what has already been done by various institutions and then explore the available solutions and technology.

“A lot has been said about government’s response to the situation and we would like to assure everyone that we take this very seriously … Government is as concerned about this issue, hence it’s been taken to Cabinet and South Africans will know this week what is to be done,” she added.

By: Chris Bathembu
Source: BuaNews

Shell, Sasol and Bundu are names of companies that are going through application processes to drill exploration holes very deep into the ground in the Karoo in search of water and gas.

Millions [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 February 2011

Shell, Sasol and Bundu are names of companies that are going through application processes to drill exploration holes very deep into the ground in the Karoo in search of water and gas.

Millions of litres of water are needed for fracking - per drilling site.

Shell has opened up a can of worms with their public participation meetings, and there are too many questions that have been unanswered; though the questions have been asked of them directly.

To drill explorative holes, and to look for water at limitless depths, Shell has applied for an EMP (Environmental Management Plan). I am not aware of how deep existing boreholes go down to get water for farming purposes, but all of the farmers say that there is just enough water for them to exist in that harsh environment.  Other hydro-geologists say that there is no more water for any purposes whatsoever in the Karoo.

At the outset, it must be stressed that the problems relating to “chemical fracking” are all about water.

How much water is needed by Shell for drilling and fracking? Shell and the others need millions of litres of water per drilling site, but nobody is willing to say how many drilling sites there are in their proposals, nor how many millions of litres are needed per drilling site.

Will Shell compete with farmers for water? If there is a finite volume in the fossil aquifer, and Shell is to extract more water than before, it is only logical that there will be less water than before. The process may go ahead without any research as to the re-charge of the aquifer. A full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be done to find these facts out.

What will the exploration process do to the aquifer/s in the Karoo? Nobody has drilled any exploration holes as deep as the holes that Shell plans to do.  Shell is prepared to drill up to eleven thousand metres below the surface, some ten thousand metres below sea level to get water. This water could very well be the salinity of sea water (nobody knows), and might be under huge pressure and become artesian which means that sea water could be gushing out to the surface.  At best, saline water will infiltrate the aquifers and create conduits for mixing of the aquifers.

Once exploration is over and the fracking for gas begins, what are the chemicals used to mix with sand and saline water to start the fracking process? Shell persistently refuses to answer this question. They have though made some ludicrous statement about one of them being the same as chemical used to make ice cream. What is more likely, and the reason for their secrecy, is toluene (poisonous hydrocarbons); and other hazardous mixtures and compounds that would normally be compulsory by law to cart away by specialist contractors.  These contractors need to dump these in special places that cannot pollute groundwater. These self same chemicals, legally classified “hazardous” would be pumped into deep holes in the Karoo by explorers looking for gas.

Who cleans up after Shell and others have extracted all of the gas, and moved on? Shell refuses to give any guarantees, whether pecuniary or other, to provide for a cleanup process. We have ample mining disasters in this country that we are not able to fix in a satisfactory and sustainable manner. AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) is an excellent example of this, and this too relates to water.  Several coal and gold mining companies that were listed companies, mined out the merchandise, closed down their operations and abandoned the mines.  Within some years, the rising water has reached the surface.  This water contains strong sulphuric acid with a pH of less than 3, contains Radon Iridium and Uranium, as well as cyanide. The risen water has polluted rivers all around Gauteng and Mpumalanga. The health and safety of the rivers is the job of the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) to fix, and this is a government department, which means that it is the taxpayer that pays for the cleanup, not the mining company. This is patently unfair.

What is Shell planning to do with the gas? Burn it and make electricity on site or near the gas fields. Get ready for this picture. Gas turbine factory type buildings, chimneys and security lights dotted all over the Karoo, until the gas runs out. This process of course will spew further tons of CO2 in the atmosphere. Remember that South Africa is already the highest per capita polluter of the atmosphere from power stations in the world!

Are there any sustainably viable options for the area? Yes lots! There is more than a half million square kilometres of land space for clean energy sources.  This includes the great Karoo, Little Karoo, the Kalahari, where photovoltaic panel farms could be created in a clean but scattered basis, at a far less expensive rate. On one square kilometre one can provide more than 200 megawatts of power.  To give you some idea of that amount of power: this is 200 000 kilowatt hours for say an average of 10 hours. Three hundred of these scattered around the country should provide enough clean energy for the whole of the needs of our country including motorized transport, domestic needs as well as industry and commerce.  Add in a few large wind generators, and for cloudy days, we would have plentiful energy to be able to close all of our carbon dioxide making coal fired power stations, not to mention the troublesome nuclear powered stations – present and planned.

The one thing about South Africa is we have lots of space for this clean technology. What we don’t have is the will. The will is held by a government that owns the power stations and the monopoly of power generation supply.

We need to stop Shell and anyone else that wants to potentially damage our land.  We need at the same time to embark on a new generation of power supply as well.

What we need most of all though is water!

By: Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor – Founder of Water Rhapsody and winner of a WWF Green Trust Award

There have been two conflicting reports about the predictions of weather patterns for the Western Cape winter of [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 01 February 2011

By: Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor – Founder of Water Rhapsody and winner of a WWF Green Trust Award

There have been two conflicting reports about the predictions of weather patterns for the Western Cape winter of 2011. In the Cape Times last week Mmaphaka Tau – Senior Manager of National Disaster Management Centre – seems to be making a faux pas. He voiced criticism of the handling of the release of flood water saying that the sluice gates were opened too late. The chaps in charge of the dams, however, say that they operated the opening in compliance of best international practice.

Drought or flood?

It matters not whether the sluice gates were opened too early or too late.  The real reason why we have floods that do so much damage is the dams themselves.

Dam building

During years of lower than average and average rainfall, a period that lasts up to thirty years, a swollen river gives no warning not to build on a flood plain. Rainfall of perhaps a ten year flood may very well be handled by the flood control mechanisms of dams that are able to handle the rise, allowing water to be let out in a controlled way.

When one gets a flood that happens every 30 years, as has happened this year, the dam only makes things worse. In other words the dam makes no difference to the flood, and even makes it worse.

What has happened is that the ability of the dam to control small floods has drawn cash strapped municipalities to allow development and allow people to build on the flood plain.  The lesson of course is:  Don’t build on a flood plain.  The dam built to control floods will not work.

Prediction

In the same article Mr Tau said he predicted that the floods of up north would spread to Western Cape in June and July this year.  Perhaps Mr Tau is a climatologist? The possibility of June and July floods was rebuffed in the Argus of the same day by various expert climatologists.

It is not easy to read the future, but Capetonians suspect that the next few years will be drought years.

Mr Tau should rather pay attention and address the following emergencies which are incrementally entering our disaster arena.

1.       AMD (Acid Mine drainage) the toxic water in the rivers and ground water in the Gauteng region is spreading east and west.  This water contains Radon, Iridium and Uranium, three radioactive toxic substances, has a pH of 2.8 (strong enough to strip you skin off your body) and heavy metals etc.

2.       Stop any fracking process which may be undertaken by Shell or any other company for that matter in the Karoo.  This process needs an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), yet sole reliance is placed on an EMP (Environmental Management Plan), which can apparently be put together in three weeks – an EIA should take around five years to put together.  Fracking will pollute the groundwater as well as surface water in our land.

A year of no rain in the Western Cape will make the Beaufort West problem look like a country tea party.

Article edited by Jon Boland

The Department of Water Affairs says it is doing everything possible to control the acid mine drainage (AMD) problem that has recently been made worse by heavy rains.

Government acknowledges that amd needs [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 24 January 2011

The Department of Water Affairs says it is doing everything possible to control the acid mine drainage (AMD) problem that has recently been made worse by heavy rains.

Government acknowledges that amd needs to be urgently addressed

The department’s inter-ministerial committee, which was formed to address the problem last year, – will hand over a report to the cabinet in the next two weeks.

“We are on top of the acid mine drainage problem. We appointed a team of experts to compile a report. They have handed the report to us and we are happy with their findings and recommendations,” said the inter-ministerial committee spokesperson, Makhosini Nyathi.

AMD is a chemical reaction process that is a result of sulphate-bearing minerals or pyrite, found predominantly in gold mines, as well as in coal mines, being exposed to oxygen and water.

Nyathi said government acknowledged that AMD was a challenge that needed to be addressed urgently. “This should be done in a coordinated manner between a range of stakeholders that include the mining industry and government,” said Nyathi.

National Water Forum chairman Louis Meintjies said the problem with the contamination of water was not only due to AMD – but also with raw sewage getting into the water system.

“The past heavy rains have caused raw sewage from our treatment plants to overflow and get into our dams. The damage has been done – we need to urgently address this problem,” said Meintjies.

According to Mariette Liefferink of the Federation of Sustainable Environment the concerns pertaining to the problem of the decantation of AMD in the Witwatersrand areas, impacted on the Vaal river system and the Crocodile River.

She said the area comprised four basins in the Witwatersrand, namely the Eastern, Central, Western and Far Western Basins in the Witwatersrand. These stretch from Johannesburg, Springs, Germiston, Roodepoort, Krugersdorp, Randfontein, Westonaria and Carletonville.

“Several studies have been conducted in the areas to determine the nature of the problem and conclusions indicate that there are serious environmental challenges which, if not adequately addressed, result in an imminent crisis,” Liefferink said.

By: Tlalane Tshetlo
Source: The New Age

The team of experts advising the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on acid mine drainage (AMD) has recommended a series of short-term measures to help address the problem, it said on Friday.

Government accepts that acid [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 18 December 2010

The team of experts advising the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on acid mine drainage (AMD) has recommended a series of short-term measures to help address the problem, it said on Friday.

Government accepts that acid mine drainage needs to be addressed urgently

These include implementation plans, enforcing compliance, regular inspection and prevention of ingress as a short-term measure to maintain water levels at least below the relevant environmental critical level.

The IMC said in a statement it had received an updated report from the team on Wednesday.

The scope of the team’s work included assessing the work done to date, assessing available solutions and technology, and propose integrated short-, medium- and long-term solutions.

It also included assessing costs viability, as well as exploring possible partnerships with the private sector.

Government acknowledged and accepts that acid mine drainage is a problem needing to be addressed urgently.

This should be done in a co-ordinated manner between a range of stakeholders that included the mining industry and government should always play a leading role.

The team’s report advocated for the three priority basins (North, Central and Western) to have implementation plans that included pumping and neutralisation of AMD, enforcing compliance, regular inspection and prevention of ingress as a short-term measure to maintain water levels at least below the relevant environmental critical level.

The IMC believed the proposals were founded on scientific research and engineering instead of simplistic and quick solutions.

Some areas needing revisiting included the liability of polluters and costing of implementation.

The recommendations were benchmarked on some countries that had experienced AMD problems, such as Canada and the United States.

The report would be presented to Cabinet early in January next year.

Cabinet would then determine the way forward. In the meantime the team’s work continued.

- Sapa

Tailings Dams are holding millions of tonnes of dangerous metals and leading to severe damage to farms in the Johannesburg area.

Gold mines constitute the largest single source of waste and pollution in [...]]]> Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 December 2010

Tailings Dams are holding millions of tonnes of dangerous metals and leading to severe damage to farms in the Johannesburg area.

Gold mines constitute the largest single source of waste and pollution in South Africa

That’s according to Mariette Liefferink, from the Federation for a Sustainable Environment who showed Business Day around the West Rand and outlined some of the major environmental challenges.

Liefferink says acid mine drainage is exacerbating the problem, because it dissolves the heavy metals and precipitated them in water sources and wetlands, where people grow crops and abstract water.

She says the Lancaster dam in Krugersdorp, which is surrounded by tailings dams, is the source of the Wonderfonteinspruit.

The stream is now filled with acid mine water and its wetlands had been classified as the radiological hotspot by the by the Nuclear Regulator.

“Lancaster dam historically was indeed the source of the most pristine water. It was classified by a 1934 German documentary as one of the seven wonders of South Africa. Today as you can see it is filled with acid water. The Lancaster dam is filled with water of a PH of about 2, 6. It is similar to lemon juice. There is absolutely no life,” she added.

“It is as a result of 120 years of mining and obviously very poor management of wastes from the gold mines. The gold mines generate the most cost of the socio-economic impact and also ecological impact. The gold mines generate 47% of the mineral wastes.”

“Waste from gold mines constitutes the largest single source of waste and pollution in South Africa… Acid mine drainage may continue for many years after mines are closed and tailings dams decommissioned,” Liefferink said.

Next to the Lancaster dam is a brick manufacturing company which is manufacturing bricks made from tailings. Liefferink says the use of tailings to manufacture bricks or any construction material is inappropriate.

She said: “The department of minerals resources have done radiometric surveys within the central, East Rand to the West Rand and found it showed elevated levels of radioactivity as a result of the usage of tailings for construction materials. Bricks are being manufactured with tailings that contain radioactive and toxic heavy metals.”

BDFM Online also visited the Tudor Informal Settlement in Krugersdorp which is erected on land contaminated by mining activities. It is also surrounded by radioactive dumps and tailings dams.

Liefferink says the residents of the squatter camp are exposed to high concentrations of cobalt, zinc, arsenic, and cadmium, all known carcinogens, as well as high levels of radioactive uranium.

She says the informal settlement was built on toxic and radioactive waste mine dumps.

“Those shacks house people that are poor. The houses do not have concrete foundations. People are exposed to radioactivity. The people unfortunately do not have alternative accommodation.”

David Ncwane a resident in the area and who stays in a one room shack says he was aware that the place where he lives was not safe. Ncwane says there was no where he could go because he was still waiting for an RDP house.

Ncwane has a small vegetable garden next to his shack that Liefferink thinks the crops are not healthy for human consumption.

“The people, regrettably, are ill informed and uninformed because the heavy metals accumulate in his crops,” She warned

But Ncwane thinks his crops are safe to eat and says the soil lacks fertilizers. “They take a long time to grow.”

Just outside Krugersdorp is the multimillion rand Amberfield luxury Old Age home which Liefferink says it was built within the 500 m buffer zone of the tailings dam.

She said: “The developer here built a luxury old age home. It was funded by Standard Bank. They didn’t do a basic assessment or a risk assessment. According to the chamber of mines regulations there can be no residential development within a 500 m buffer zone of the tailings dam. It was built on a shallow underground mine land. There had already been three shafts that had collapsed in the area.”

“The whole housing development had cost hundreds of millions of rands. It is now desolate. There is no one staying here.”

Source: Business Day