Public Involvement and Participation Component of the Remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area
Figure 1 A conceptual framework depicting the sequence of the public involvement and participation process
PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS
The following submission include extracts of the Proceedings of the Third International Seminar on Mine Closure, 14 – 18 October 2008 and unless the disquisitions composing the Proceedings of the Seminar on Mine Closure be viewed with their relations to the Public Involvement and Participation Component of the Remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area, and the arrangement which I give to the subject, their pertinence and importance can hardly be seen completely.
To lighten to the reader the labour of catching the arrangement, I have divided the submission in 3 parts. I have placed at the beginning of section, the title of the academic paper and its author/s and the relevancy of the academic paper to the remediation objectives of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area. I have distinguished sections which are conceived as particularly pertinent to the public involvement and participation component of the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area, by yellow highlights. I have neither attempted to alter the wording of the quotations nor to disguise the area or country to which the findings or recommendations pertain. I have cut out considerable portions from the academic papers, which I considered not particularly relevant. Perhaps this has been done rather too freely; but I thought it might be convenient to consider sections that are particularly relevant. If a copy of the Proceedings of the Third International Seminar on Mine Closure is within the reader’s reach, it is recommended that the academic papers from which I have quoted, be read in their entirety.
My self-imposed task required of me merely to select and collate the findings and recommendations of these academic papers which have relevancy to the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment, with specific reference to the public involvement and participation process, and not the adaptation of these findings and recommendations, which I trust the Regulators and the Mining Interest Group will attend to.
A list of the academic papers quoted is subjoined to this submission.
I intend to show the relations of matters pertaining to mine closure to matters pertaining to the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area, particularly with reference to community involvement and participation; to show that there are principles and distinctions common to both mine closure and the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment; and to show that the findings and recommendations of various experts, in spite of the great peculiarities, might be made to conform to a single data set for scrutiny and application regarding the public involvement and participation component of the proposed remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment.
Unless the considerable mass of papers[1] on the Wonderfonteinspruit and related issues are brought together and wrought, the noblest recommendations, the highest faculties, the most unwearied research which were employed by many scientists and academics, will be in vain. It is therefore strongly recommended that there must be a structure reared out of them to execute a plan for the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment, with particular reference to the public involvement and participation component.
The questions and challenges involved in the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment and the role of the public are so numerous and difficult, that what I intend to produce in this submission will be very imperfect. I therefore shall ask your advice upon many points; also to criticize with unsparing severity; for it is only by this that I can ever learn to accommodate my role as Convener of the public involvement and participation component of the remediation programme of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment to the wants of the public, the state and the mining interest group.
It is sincerely hoped that the public involvement and participation process will be open to foster interaction and will incorporate the comments of affected communities and interested parties – a continuing and an adaptive process – and not a mere formality. It is respectfully submitted that I could not afford to expend my labour and time upon a mere formality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE
Objectives of the public involvement and participation component of the remediation programme of the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment ………………………………………………...... 5
“Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Develop Closure Cirteria in Tropical Australia – H.D. Smith ……………………………………………………………………….. …………….6
Tools for Integrated Closure Planning - A.M. Fleury; C. Copley ……………………………..8
Karst, Mining and Conflict – A Historical Perspective of the Consequences of Mining on the Far West Rand – E.J. Stoch, F. Winde, E. Erasmus …………………………………………………9
South Africa’s Challenges Pertaining to Mine Closure – The Concept of Regional Mining and Closure Strategies – D.M. van Tonder, H. Coetzee, S. Esterhuyse, N. Msezane, L. Strachan, P. Wade, T. Mafanya, S. Madau ………………………………………………………………….. 12
South Africa’s Strategy for the Management of Derelict and Ownerless Mines – H. Coetzee, N.R. Nengobela, C. Vorster, D. Sebake, S. Mudau ………………………………………………..…15
Radiometric Surveying in the Vicinity of Witwatersrand Gold Mines - H. Coetzee ……………17
PART ONE
Objectives of the public involvement and participation component of the remediation programme of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment (References: South Africa’s Challenges Pertaining to Mine Closure – The Concept of Regional Mining and Closure Strategies by D.M. van Tonder et al; Establishing a Framework for Intervention and Remediation of Radioactive Contamination from Gold Mining – Learning from the Past - J.F. Ellis; South Africa’s Strategy for the Management of Derelict and Ownerless Mines – H. Coetzee et al; Radiometric Surveying in the Vicinity of the Witwatersrand Gold Mines – H. Coetzee)
Ø Negative perceptions of real or perceived environmental impacts within the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment have been fuelled by an apparent unwillingness of regulators and to industry to discuss these impacts in public. It is recommended that public communication regarding mining related environmental impacts within the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment be approached transparently, but that government departments and regulators take a proactive stance in providing reliable information with sufficient detail to allow interested and affected parties to make informed decisions regarding their environment.
Ø A large body of research into the environmental, health and safety aspects of mining within the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment has been undertaken but much of this has remained confidential to both the mining industry and regulators. Valuable work which could faciliate the efficient implementation of workable solutions is often unavailable to those people working towards such solutions due to its confidentiality or simply due to the fact that it is inaccessible.
Ø To identify and quantify current environmental conditions and impacts, and potential future impacts related to mining.
Ø To identify appropriate solutions (grounded upon common and traditional knowledge, and expert opinion) to strategic problems, e.g. rewatering, mining waste/dust, water and sediment pollution, soil pollution, bioaccumulation of heavy metals in crops and pasture land, instability/seismic events within the region.
Ø An important component of the remediation programme should be the involvement of local communities in the implementation of solutions. In many cases, this will require a concerted programme of training and skills development to empower community groups and local small and medium contractors to undertake rehabilitation and mitigation activities. It is also likely that many of the skills transferred to communities may be applicable in or convertible to other fields, stimulating local economic development after the rehabilitation programme has been completed.
Ø To ensure the protection and safgeguarding of biodiversity in the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment.
Ø To ensure protection of the environment affected by gold mining, using best international practice management interventions and the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) with respect to the current and future situations.
Ø To ensure the protection of the resources affected by the gold mining, particularly water resources[2].
Ø To ensure that the rehabilitation and remediation of the affected land and wetlands within the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment is undertaken to appropriate levels.
Ø To make provision for post-remediation stewardship, in order to continue monitoring the implementation of the remediation programme. Monitoring committees must be established and these monitoring committees must remain in place beyond the remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area.
Ø To encourage the individual mines within the Mining Interest Group to work together to achieve the goal of leaving a self-sustaining ecoystem and for providing the basis for sustainable economic activity after remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment.
Ø To ensure that the remediation programme is adequately financed, implemented and monitored within all jursidctions.
Ø To ensure that water at mining and mineral processing sites is more efficiently managed and valued.
Ø To develop a radiation management strategy for the area:
o Radioactivity has become an area which requires special attention because of a history of extreme secrecy and confidentiality on all nuclear issues.It has been shown that the risk posed by uranium an important by-product of gold mining within the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment and an identified hazardous component of the wastes and effluents from gold mining activities, occurs due to both radiotoxicity and chemical toxicity with, in some cases, the chemical toxicity dominating over the radiotoxicity. It is therefore logical that an integrated approach be adopted for the management of radioactive and chemical contamination and that this be facilitated by the different government agencies and regulators involved.
o The lack of high confidence assessments should not at any stage prohibit intervention from being applied, predominantly by the regulators, but also by the industry and other stakeholders. The criteria for intervention should be predetermined so as to ensure that the safety of members of the public is not compromised by protracted interpretations of safety levels.
o The major primary pathways by which contamination can enter the environment from a mine site are the airborne pathway, where radon gas and windblown dust disperse outwards from mine sites, the waterborne pathway, either via ground or surface water or due to direct access, where people are contaminated, or externally irradiated after unauthorized entry to a mine site, by living in settlements directly adjacent to mines or in some cases, living in settlements on the contaminated footprints of abandoned mines.
o Direct access to mine sites may expose the public to risk due to direct external gamma radiation, inhalation and ingestion of radionuclides and chemotoxic metals, as well as the physical dangers inherent to mining sites.
o To limit the risk due to external gamma radiation, the Chamber of Mines uses a guideline that each tailings deposit should have a 500m buffer zone surround it, where no human settlement is allowed. In many cases, however, this guideline has not been adhered to in the development of new settlements. A portion of Kagiso township, e.g. is built within the 500 m buffer zone surrounding a slimes dam.
“Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Develop Closure Cirteria in Tropical Australia – H.D. Smith
(“Local” should augment the term “traditional” in order to make it relevant to the proposed remediation of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area. Of relevancy too is the following principle of the National Environmental Management Act, No 107 of 1998, namely: “Decisions must take into account the interests, needs and values of all intersted and affected parties, and this includes recognising all forms of knowledge, including tradtional and ordinary knowledge.”)
· The ultimate and desirable outcome for rehabilitating exhausted mines is to leave the affected land in a state that has future value for use by subsequent generations.
· For companies to meet this goal, and ensure that stakeholder satisfaction is obtained, consultation with land owners prior to mine closure is essential.
· Achieving stakeholder satisfaction requires that traditional (local) ecological knowledge is included in the mine closure process.
· Many rehabilitation and closure plans are designed to meet the short-term needs of the mining company, and not the long-term requirements of indigenous society.
· This is of immense distress to traditional people, who have witnessed and endured the destruction of their own sustainable environment and socio-cultural systems only to see them replaced by damaged lands that offer little or no value to future generations.
· Common ground must be established between western science and systems of traditional ecological knowledge.
· In order to achieve this, mining companies, regulators and practitioners need to engage fully with indigenous landowners when making decisions that affect their land. If traditional ecological knowledge is used to develop mine site rehabilitation criteria, then systems capable of measuring whether or not the outcomes have been achieved to the satisfaction of indigenous people need to be designed.
· A questionnaire-style survey was first used to understand the perceptions held how mining affects the environment, and to identify the matters that were of principal concern.
· Individual responses to the questionnaires were recorded, followed by group discussions and the generation of a consensus response.
· Direct participatory dialogue with senior traditional owners about these environmental requirements was then undertaken.
· These protocols and procedures have no time limitations, and have been designed to reflect customary law.
· Detail that provided a holistic view of the environment was first sought, followed by specific information relevant to each environmental requirement.
· It was then possible to use computer graphics to simulate the post-mining environment and by implication, its function and performance.
· Closure criteria are highly dependent upon the nature of the environment and the mine: they vary widely between ethnological groups and thus need to be formally developed on a site-specific basis that accounts for relevant cultural, social and spiritual factors.
· Their absence from the post-mining environment leaves a significant tear in the traditional cultural fabric, and ultimately creates social dysfunction.
· Sets of ‘Environmental Requirements’ that have been imposed on the mining company are currently used as the guiding principles for rehabilitation of the mine, but they do not necessarily require any detailed consideration of the landowner’s wishes.
· Designed to be non-prescriptive, they do not contain sufficient detail to have value as closure criteria, and so cannot serve as measures against which the success of rehabilitation can be measured. (To exemplify: Closure criteria of “wilderness status” or “agricultural use” without corresponding water use have little value.)