Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Contrary to police findings, a joint government team comprising 14 agencies has concluded that Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, where PT Newmont Minahasa Raya stopped operations late August, is not contaminated by heavy metals.
The study was conducted from August 28 to September 12 by a team of 57 experts from 14 related agencies, including the Office of the State Minister for the Environment, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Health, the National Police, several universities, the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) and the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam).
Around 200 water samples from Buyat Bay and neighboring Totok Bay, the nearby villages of Buyat Pante, Buyat and Ratatotok villages, the Buyat and Totok rivers, as well as air in the surrounding areas were taken for analysis in seven accredited laboratories in Jakarta and Bogor, West Java.
In its report on the laboratory tests, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post on Monday, the join team revealed that the mercury level in Buyat Bay was less than 0.5 micrograms per liter (fg/L) or far below the 1 fg/L standard set in Ministerial Decree No. 51/2004 on seawater pollution levels.
The team also discovered that the arsenic content in the bay was only around 2 fg/L, much lower that the 12 fg/L standard set in the decree.
The results obviously challenged laboratory tests conducted by the National Police, which showed that Buyat Bay was polluted by US-based PT Newmont, the only mining company operating there for six years up until Aug. 31, 2004.
The police said their laboratory tests, which examined at least eight samples, found the mercury and arsenic levels in the bay reached an average of up to 4.668 fg/L and 16.968 fg/L respectively.
Subsequently, the police named five Newmont employees – American Bill Long, Australian Phil Turner, and three Indonesians David Sompie, Jerry Kojansow, and Putra Jayatri – as suspects and detained them two weeks ago.
The company's president, Richard B. Ness, was also declared a suspect in the Buyat Bay case. He was briefly held and later released due to health concerns. However, he must report to the police on Mondays and Thursdays.
Newmont has repeatedly denied all charges, arguing that at least three independent laboratories concluded the bay was not polluted.
However, the police pressed ahead with prosecuting the company's executives.
Earlier this month, they submitted the case file of the six suspects to the North Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office, which later returned it to the police due to insufficient evidence.
The joint government team also found that the mercury and arsenic levels in the Buyat and Totok rivers were below the 0.001 milligram/liter (mg/L) and 0.05 mg/L standard set in Governmental Decree No. 82/2001 on river water quality.
The mercury and arsenic contents in fish were also below the standard of 0.5 parts per million (ppm) set by the World Health Organization, and 2 ppm set by the Australian and New Zealand governments for mercury and arsenic respectively, the report said.
Earlier, the Japan-based Institute of Minamata Disease had made similar conclusions, saying health problems due to mercury exposure were not observed among villagers living around Buyat Bay.
The surrounding environment was not contaminated as shown by low mercury levels in fish samples taken from the bay, it added.