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LEGAZPI CITY: Environment officials are making sure
the multimillion-dollar mining company in Rapu-Rapu, Albay, will
no longer be able to effuse hazardous tailings and would rather
strictly comply with the laws against pollution, intoxication and
other degenerative effects of improper mining activities.
This was the assurance by the
Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) after the mining firm
resumed its operations last month.
The Lafayette mining company is
under tight watch after the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB)
issued an order that allowed the resumption of operation of its
Rapu-Rapu Processing Inc. (RRPI).
A team of technical staff from
EMB was assigned to conduct routine inspection of the mining
facility and to monitor the respondent’s compliance to its earlier
vow to comply with the requirements imposed by the PAB.
EMB-Bicol regional director
Gilbert C. Gonzales stressed that a weekly monitoring of the
firm’s processing operation is needed to check the company’s
compliance to environmental standards.
Gonzales said that a technical
team has been dispatched to conduct a weekly inspection of the
environmental ponds, efficiency of the detoxification facility, acid
mine drainage management and remedial measures to protect the water
bodies in the surroundings of the mine site as part of the
operational control measures prescribed by the DENR and independent
team of experts.
DENR Secretary Angelo T. Reyes as
PAB chairman lifted the cease and desist order after the DENR and
independent expert teams found the RRPI compliant to environmental
standards during the 120 days test run.
The RRPI was penalized and fined
with a total of P16.7 million for environmental violations due to
two incidents of mine tailing spills in October 2005.
 --PNA
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