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dam-l Polluted mine water threatens SA river/LS

Sorry this is a bit old, I just found it.



WildNet Africa News Archive


      Warning of major environmental disaster if mine terminates all
activities. (8 July, 1999)

      A major environmental disaster could be in the making if the
beleaguered East Rand Proprietary Mines Limited (ERPM) ceases all its
mining
      activities and stops pumping water from its shafts.

      ERPM is a member of the Amanzi Treatment Venture, a project aimed at
purifying millions of litres of polluted underground water pumped from mine
      shafts. The project was initiated almost two years ago in an effort
to deal with the danger posed by underground water which is steadily
filling up
      abandoned mining shafts in the province.

      It is feared that the water from mine shafts, polluted by heavy
metals and salts, could start surfacing and cause damage to building
foundations, increase
      the risk of sinkholes and pose a threat to freshwater reserves.

      A source at ERPM, who did not want to be identified, said yesterday
the mine has two mining shafts, one pumping 18 million litres of water per
day
      (water produced on the ERPM property) and the other between 30 and 35
million litres of water (pumped out of defunct mines), to maintain the
water
      level so the mine is not flooded.

      All this water is pumped into storage dams, where it is treated and
eventually discharged into the Klipspruit, which flows into the Vaal
Barrage. If
      there was a total cessation of the pumping operations from the mine's
shafts it is expected that the water could rise and eventually surface, the
source
      said. This could result in contaminated water polluting nearby rivers.

      There was also the possibility that the contaminated water could
cause sinkholes, the source said. It is estimated that it could take
between
      two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years to reach this stage, then we
could be facing an ecological disaster," he added. It is expected that it
could cost
      hundreds of millions of Rands to bring the water level down to its
present levels once the mine has been allowed to flood.

      Doctor Mthethwa, of the Group for Environmental Monitoring, said
yesterday this problem was a source of concern for GEM as it could pose an
      environmental threat in a province already dealing with pollution
problems from mines. He said Gauteng was already dealing with the problem
of acid
      mine drainage from mine dumps in areas such as Meadowlands.
      By Melanie-Anne Feris. Courtesy of The Star.



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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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