Acid mine drainage: Government should act before Joburg sinks
The Democratic Alliance (DA) urges the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs to act immediately to avert overflow of acid mine drainage below the City of Johannesburg. The city sits on top of what is referred to as the Central Basin, an area with a legacy of over 100 years of mining. In the absence of the pumping of mine water from this basin for more than a year now, the acid mine drainage is rising at between 600mm and 900mm a day, with its current level being 600m below the surface. At this rate overflow will happen in the city, possibly even in the CBD, in early 2012, compromising the integrity of buildings and causing incalculable damage. The window of opportunity in which to formalise a concrete response to this impending disaster is now only a few weeks away, as the lead time for the required engineering will take between 7 and 8 months thereafter.
MPs of the DA that serve on the Portfolio Committee of Water and Environmental affairs have spent the last few days touring various sites in Gauteng and Mpumalanga that are currently experiencing acid mine overflows or are likely to experience overflows in the very near future. On the East Rand, we saw firsthand the disaster that is the Aurora mine, where untreated or partially treated acid mine drainage has been flowing into the adjacent Ramsar wetland for much of this year. This mine, beset by financial problems, that include the non-payment of workers, needs to increase its pumping and treating of water or risk further mineral reserves below the East Rand being lost.
On the West Rand we saw firsthand overflow of acid mine drainage on the property of Rand Uranium, which began in January this year but has continued unabated since then. The current rate of overflow is 12 Ml a day. Rand Uranium, like Aurora, has to deal with the drainage from many mines that have operated in their respective basins, over time, but are now closed. This may not be a fair situation but it is a reality. The legacy of mining is shocking, and the Department of Mineral Resources stands accused of doing nothing to deal with these problems. The Department of Water Affairs has had to take the lead and its officials are frustrated by the lack of action by Mineral Resources. But the Water Department has also been dragging its feet, caught up in bureaucracy. The suspension of the DG of this Department in July 2009 also set back efforts to come up with a coordinated response. We have lost many months in the interim.
The warnings of acid mine drainage overflow have existed on the West Rand for almost 15 years. Civil society has played an active role in alerting government to the impending threats. There was overflow in 2008, and now again in 2010. The Minister stepped in with a short-term solution earlier this year when she committed R6.9m for the purchase of lime to partially treat overflow of mine water in the West Rand. While we have it on good authority that the financial commitment has not been fully delivered, the treatment option itself has caused more problems. While helping to reduce the acidity of water, it has left a sludge of heavy minerals, in downstream dams, which can be reactivated by subsequent overflows. We saw firsthand the Hippo Dam in the Krugersdorp which has been turned into a reactor dam, something which should never exist outside of a mining property.
At this time the West Rand basin is full and the Central Basin is rising. Their fortunes are joined. The DA is aware of a solution that has been proposed by members of the mining sector, which was presented to the Department on 14 July 2010. It is a result of over 4 years of hard work and research on the part of various stakeholders. It is as far as we know the only real option on the table, ready to move if approved quickly. Essentially it involves the pumping of acid mine drainage from the Western Basin into the Central Basin through a new pipeline, and then subsequent pumping out of the Central Basin where the water will be partially treated before discharge. It is not perfect, but then the immediate risks are so immense, that if we were to wait for the perfect solution Johannesburg will experience a disaster. Such a response also buys some time in which a more permanent solution can be worked out which would, among other things, need to include a higher degree of treatment of the water that will be discharged.
The DA believes that this is an emergency situation. Officials of the Department, with the active support of the Minister, need to devote their energies over the coming days to authorising definitive action by the mines, in conjunction, with some financial support from the Department. The Minister's own reputation is on the line. She will be measured on how she responds to this emergency.
Statement issued by Gareth Morgan, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, July 29 2010
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
