ITOGON, Benguet—Water samples from three rivers affected by the tailings leak of Benguet Corp.’s shuttered Antamok mine have passed the standards of the Environmental Management Bureau, meaning the accidental leak has been contained, the company said.
The sampling was part of an independent study jointly commissioned by Benguet Corp. and the EMB to validate the contamination of the Ambalanga, Liang and Agno river systems from the accidental leak of the underground Antamok mine’s tailings impoundment area last October, caused by heavy rains triggered by Super Typhoon “Lawin.”
One of the large-scale mining companies operating in the province, Benguet Corp. traces its operations back to 1903. Its Antamok underground mine stopped operating in 1989, and its open-pit counterpart last operated in 1998.
BC management submitted to the Cordillera EMB office the results of the independent third-party laboratory analysis of the water sampling made by CRL Laboratories along different areas of the affected rivers.
CRL, an accredited laboratory of the EMB, reported the samples taken from the various water sampling stations were below the limits set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Among the water sampling stations subjected to assessment and evaluation included the Asin Dalupirip; Depey, Tinongdan; Baloy, Tinongdan; Apechay, Poblacion; Apechay-Ambalangan convergence; Colbath, Balisong; Laing penstock; and Liang Dam.
Tests conducted on the water samples included shimadzu analytical methods, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and standard methods for the examination of water and waste water.
Lawyer Froilan Roger C. Lawilao, BC administration department head, said the company’s cleanup along the stretch of the Liang river and its downstream was completed by Jan. 7. They reported it to the EMB-CAR and the regional office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau before their joint inspection to validate such report.
Lawilao said the final decision on the possibility of the country’s first and oldest mining company being fined for the accidental tailings leak now lies with the Pollution Adjudication Board, thus earlier reports on Benguet facing millions of pesos in fines “are considered premature.”
Since the accidental tailings leak, Benguet Corp. had mobilized volunteers and personnel in a massive cleanup of the Liang River. This “illustrated their desire to perform the needed measures to prevent the various river systems from being contaminated,” the company said in a statement.
“We remain committed to our responsibility to clean up whatever areas that were affected by the accidental tailings leak. We believe we were able to comply with the mandates of the law to ensure that the river systems will be spared from the hazards of mining,” Lawilao stressed.
The EMB-CAR and the MGB-CAR are expected to come out with their own findings and recommendations, to be transmitted to the PAB for final adjudication.