Shoddy mining tainted Palawan

NICKEL mining operations in Palawan have already contaminated a river system with unsafe levels of carcinogenic or cancer-causing chemicals, Filipino and Japanese environment groups today revealed.

In a press conference in Quezon City, environment activists from Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE-Japan) and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) presented findings from an environmental field research study conducted in a river located downstream near the Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation’s (RTNMC) mining operations and the Coral Bay Nickel Processing Plant’s operation.

The study, which started in 2009, analyzed water samples and revealed that present levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI), a toxic and carcinogenic chemical, had already exceeded safe levels in the Togupon River.

It showed that present levels of Cr-VI contamination in water samples from the Togupon River ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 milligrams per liter (mg/L). This exceeds the Philippines’s Cr-VI effluent standard of 0.1 to 0.2mg/L.

Similarly, the levels of Cr-VI contamination in water samples taken from the Togupon River’s estuary ranged from 0.05 to 0.15mg/L—exceeding both the Philippines’s Cr-VI environmental standard of 0.05 to 0.1mg/L and the Japanese environmental standard of 0.05mg/L by by one to three times over

“The water contamination originated from upstream mining or/and refinery operations,” said Hozue Hatae, researcher of FoE-Japan.

Togupon River runs through the area where the nickel mining operations of RTNMC and the nickel processing facility of Coral Bay Nickel Corp. (CBNC) are present. Both projects are financed and pursued in partnership with Japanese multinational corporations and institutions, such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.

“The Cr-VI contamination in Tagupon River is a serious environmental offense and poses health hazards as it exceeds by two to six times the Philippine Standard for Drinking Water and the Philippine Water Quality Criteria for Toxic and Other Deleterious Substances for Coastal and Marine Waters for the Protection of Public Health. The toxic chemical’s presence in estuarine basins also connotes possible effects on the area’s fisheries,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

The Philippine maximum allowable limit for Cr-VI for fresh waters anddrinking water is 0.05mg/L. –JING VILLAMENTE, Manila Times