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Friday, March 29, 2024

EMB clears miner FCF of contaminating Quezon town rivers

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BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environment Management Bureau has cleared a mining company here of allegedly contaminating rivers in Quezon town.

Engineer Marissa Balubal, EMB’s water quality monitoring section chief, said FCF Minerals Corp. has long been cleared of the allegations of environmentalists, village residents, and anti-mining advocates that the contamination of rivers in Barangay Runruno was due to their mining operations.

“We had conducted a water sampling a few years ago on the alleged contamination of the rivers below the mountains and we found out that it was caused by economic activities of the villagers,” she said.

The cause of the contamination was the formation of huge volume of ammonia due to direct dumping of human, poultry, and piggery wastes in the river, Balubal added.

“There was no findings of cyanide and mercury contamination yet within the rivers and inland bodies of water in barangay Runruno in Quezon town,” she said. 

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She made the statement to allay fears on the conceived dangers of large scale mining projects and in reaction to an issue raised by a participant to the recent training on Solid Waste Management Program in the province inquired on the previous concern of Barangay Runruno villagers.

Balubal also said the test was conducted by a composite team of representatives from the National Commission on Indigenous People, DENR, Nueva Vizcaya State University, Philippine National Police, and provincial government agencies, among others.

She assured Novo Vizcayanos that EMB will see to it that the solid waste management measures of the FCF Minerals will not cause due harm to the primary and secondary areas of their operation.

“We will regularly check their compliance with the SWMP including clean air and water regulations,” he said.

Engineer said the Multi-Partite Monitoring Team will also be responsible in ensuring the mining firm’s compliance and adherence to environmental laws, rules and regulations.

Accumulation of ammonia in rivers and other inland bodies of water severely stresses fish and other aquatic resources. Their further exposure to this is lethal, an official of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said.

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