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An Assessment of Mine Legacies and How to Prevent Them pp 45–53Cite as

Reform, Awareness, Prevention and Remediation Strategies

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Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science ((BRIEFSENVIRONMENTAL))

Abstract

This chapter discusses a number of reforms needed to adjust the country’s legal framework to the requirements of best practice in implementing mine closure. The chapter also examines some prevention and awareness strategies to avoid difficulties during the closure phase of mining projects. The last section includes some remediation strategies to avoid further damage to the district and its inhabitants.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Article 24 of the Mining Law.

  2. 2.

    A closure plan (Plan de Abandono) is defined in the law thus: A plan is a document, duly approved by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, containing actions and deadlines that commits the holder of an exploration concession or exploitation of minerals or hydrocarbons to restore the environment or implement compensatory measures, if any, after completing exploration work or exploitation (Legislative Decree No. 566, 4th October 2001, published in the National Gazette, Number 198, Volume 353, 19th October 2001).

  3. 3.

    Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Resolution Number 493, 2002.

  4. 4.

    See Article 14 of the Mining Law.

  5. 5.

    See Article 14 of the Mining Law and Article 83 of the Environmental Law.

  6. 6.

    See Article 29 of the Mining Law.

  7. 7.

    The government has conducted some work to catalogue all of these sites. See Domínguez et al. (2015).

  8. 8.

    The environmental movement’s awareness strategy highlights the many harmful risks that mining entails. The government’s adoption of the mining ban and the popular disproval of the mining industry mean that this awareness strategy is very successful but until 2016 little had been done to add mine closure considerations to the strategy. See for instance http://www.stopesmining.org/j25/.

  9. 9.

    The prevention of further damage is obvious when the presence of lead in San Sebastian soils is considered. Since MARN (2013) made clear that the levels of lead in the soil in some areas of San Sebastian are higher than the established safe limits, the government’s next step is to test people living in those areas to determine the level of lead in their blood. The second step is to educate the population about how to deal with its presence, how to avoid it and how to recognize the symptoms associated with lead poisoning. The final step is to assist those living in those areas in cleaning up their environment and maintaining it that way. The same approach can be taken with all other heavy metals that are above the safe limit.

  10. 10.

    The legal basis for the government to take such action is found in Environmental Law (1998), Articles 85 and 86 subsections c, d. g and h.

  11. 11.

    Personal communication with the country’s sole environmental judge, Mr. Samuel Lizama Morales (January 28th, 2016). Mining companies, on the other hand, have taken the government to court on at least two occasions in the past few years. The CGC case described earlier in this book is one. The other involves the Canadian/Australian company Pacific Rim. See more on this case here: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/14/el-salvador-world-bank-tribunal-dismisses-oceanagold-mining-firm-250m-claim.

  12. 12.

    http://www.ec.gc.ca/edf-fde/.

  13. 13.

    These techniques are subdivided into passive and active. The former include flooding/sealing of underground mines, underwater storage of mine tailings, land based storage in sealed waste heaps, the blending of mineral wastes, total solidification of tailings, the application of anionic surfactants and microencapsulation (coating). Remediation techniques include abiotic and bioremediation systems. Abiotic systems rely on minerals to neutralize acid discharge and evaporation. There are active systems that use aeration and lime and passive systems that can include the use of anoxic limestone drains. Bioremediation systems use aerobic bacteria to neutralize acid discharge. These are divided into passive and active systems. The former include off-line sulfidogenic bioreactors and the latter include aerobic wetlands, compost reactors, permeable reactive barriers, and packed bed iron-oxidation bio-reactors.

  14. 14.

    The figure includes the use of diversion ditches and berms, collection and treatment with cover, composite soil cover and synthetic liner depending on the requirements of the site. But it does not include the costs of environmental permits, legal, training and other consulting costs, prevention and remediation of contamination already established in the environment, especially that caused by mercury and other heavy metals in soil, groundwater and living creatures. Therefore the rehabilitating of all the damaged ecosystems in San Sebastian will require a much larger investment than the one presented in this study.

  15. 15.

    Based on a flow of 150 l/min (39.6 gal/min), which is the average between the dry and rainy season flows, as baseline and EPA’s average capital costs that range from US$2900 to US$18,500 gal/min.

  16. 16.

    Based on the EPA average annual operating costs range from US$120 to US$420 gal/min. The water flows are based on CEICOM’s estimates.

  17. 17.

    http://www.sodis.ch/methode/index_EN.

  18. 18.

    The Caritas PRA mentioned earlier in this book is part of those efforts.

  19. 19.

    This has already been mentioned in the MARN San Sebastian study (2013). As of the end of 2016, a group of community leaders submitted a proposal for such a system and are awaiting a government response.

  20. 20.

    To this effect, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture stated during one of the RRA interviews that “people in the area do not handle much cattle because there is no access to water in the area and it is well known that the water in the area is contaminated”.

  21. 21.

    See: https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/mercury-free-gravity-borax-method-gbm.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Vladimir Pacheco Cueva

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  1. Vladimir Pacheco Cueva
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Correspondence to Vladimir Pacheco Cueva .

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Pacheco Cueva, V. (2017). Reform, Awareness, Prevention and Remediation Strategies. In: An Assessment of Mine Legacies and How to Prevent Them. SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53976-8_5

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