– as EPA inspects engineering strategies
– 95 percent of Kara Kara creek reportedly cleared

OPERATIONS at the wash-plant at the Bosai Mineral Group Guyana (BMGG), remain closed, following a cease order by the Environmental Protect Agency (EPA). The issue stemmed from the EPA being notified that bauxite sedimentation from the company’s tailings pond was being discharged into the Kara Kara creek, causing discolouration and a high turbidity level. The company was also fined $1, 066, 000 by the EPA.

On Friday, a high level team from the EPA visited Linden to inspect what strides Bosai made in clearing the creek and putting mechanisms in place to ensure the pollution does not reoccur. Bosai’s Senior Technical Service Coordinator, Wainewright Bethune, related that following Friday’s inspection, the EPA placed additional measures on Bosai and also observed the engineering mechanisms being considered by the company, to tackle the issue.

While the plan is still in the surveying stage, Bethune said the EPA gave them one week to submit the analysis of that survey as an avenue of moving forward. He related that Bosai has also implemented systems to clear the Kara Kara creek and 95 per cent of same has been cleared.

Executive Director Dr. Vincent Adams told the Guyana Chronicle, that while it is unfortunate that the creek has already been polluted, EPA is only interested in remedial action, to ensure it does not occur again. He said EPA is not only interested in what is placed on paper but on how effective the designs will be, in the actual fields, hence the visit on Friday. Dr. Adams was unavailable for a follow up comment on Monday. Bosai is currently doing a survey to determine whether the dike where the operation is done, should be elevated. It is also being considered whether the discharge should be rechanneled so that it will have a longer route to travel to the pond, so that there can be more settlement of the particles. Bosai is also looking at creating a network of dams or dikes, so that the flow of the sediment can be constricted.

While the wash-plant remains down, Bethune said the workers were not affected, since they are serving in other ways at the company, as the general operations of the company has not been affected just yet. He is hoping that it will be completely resolved in about three weeks since the company is currently depending on stock-piled wash ore for its operation, which will only last about two weeks.

Bethune explained that since the company installed the dust collectors to significantly reduce air pollution, with little or no dust being emitted into the air, the dust is now being pumped into the tailings pond and far from the company’s expectation, it is not settling as quickly as expected. When the bauxite is washed in the company’s plant, it is transported into the tailings pond, where it is expected to settle and only the clear water should be discharged into the creek and other water bodies. The finer particles pumped into the pond needed some residence time to settle, but apparently this was not as effective as expected to be.

Residents of Kara Kara have also expressed their disappointment in the way the creek has been subject to pollution in recent years. “The creek is our life here, it breathes life into this community, all the way up to Speightland, it is used for transportation, domestic purposes, people fish here every day and people coming here and do all sorts of things,” resident George Lorrimor said. Bethune said that no resident however, has come forward stating he/she was personally affected by the problem and needed to be compensated, but if it required the company would not shy away, since it has been contributing significantly to the environmental cause of Linden, by making generous contributions to the Linden Mayor and Town Council and other organisations.