Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged the government on Wednesday to immediately relocate people living near Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi following the discovery of high levels of heavy metal contamination by a government-sanctioned team.
The NGOs, who were part of the team assigned to probe possible pollution in the bay, said the contamination was physically hazardous as it adversely affected the water and fish that the people there consumed.
"We recommend that the Buyat Bay community be relocated because the bay is polluted, the fish are not fit for consumption, and even the air is polluted," said P. Raja Siregar of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
The team, the latest to conduct a study on the bay, consisted of representatives of NGOs, the government, universities, the police, and US-based mining firm Newmont, whose subsidiary PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) is being blamed for the pollution.
The team's report was submitted to the Office of the State Minister of the Environment on Tuesday and is expected to be discussed soon during a Cabinet meeting.
There are around 76 families, or up to 300 people, who live near the bay.
Dozens of Buyat people, encouraged by NGOs, filed a complaint with the National Police against NMR in August over alleged contamination that it was claimed had affected their health.
Raja said the team had calculated the Acceptable Daily Intake of arsenic in fish in the bay and concluded that consumption of fish from the bay would lead to exposure to dangerous levels of inorganic arsenic.
"We also calculated the Tolerable Daily Intake of mercury for the community and concluded that consuming fish from the bay would be risky for adults and exceeds the tolerable level for children," he added.
Walhi says the study found arsenic and mercury contamination in the Buyat Bay seabed of 666 mg/kg and over 1,000 f/kg respectively, far exceeding the maximum levels stipulated in the 2004 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) marine water quality criteria of 300 mg/kg and 0.4 fg/kg of sediment.
Ingesting large quantities of arsenic can cause severe skin diseases, lung cancer, dysfunctioning kidneys, skin lumps, stomach cramps, and various other ailments.
The effects of arsenic contamination manifest themselves relatively faster than those of mercury, which could cause failure of the nervous system and loss of balance.
Raja also said the team found no protective thermocline at a higher level than NMR's waste pipeline. The company had previously said there was such a thermocline in its original environmental impact assessment.
A thermocline is a layer in the ocean where the temperature decreases rapidly and acts as a natural barrier that prevents tailings from resurfacing.
Meanwhile, Indro Sugianto from the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) said that both the government and NMR should be held responsible for an environmental crime in the bay as there had been a number of permit violations during the eight years the firm had operated there. NMR shut down operations on August 31.
"They include a breach of operating license requirements relating to regular reporting, a violation relating to toxic waste management, and a violation of the waste disposal permit relating to the disposal of mine waste at sea," he said.
Police have named six NMR executives as suspects in the case, charging them under the Environmental Management Law (No. 23 of 1997).
Violations of the law, if they result in death, are subject to a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail and a fine of Rp 750 million (US$84,269). The law also allows the seizure of corporate profits made as a result of the violations, and the closure of the firm's operations. The NGOs also urged the government and NMR to closely monitor the bay over the next 30 years or until it recovered naturally.
The company has repeatedly denied the pollution, citing the results of a number of recent studies that found that the level of heavy metal content in its tailings was below Indonesian and international standards.