I did not know which article to go with today. They were both about environmental destruction in Turkey printed within the last 2 days. One was about the 1,600 hydro projects in Turkey to generate just 8 percent of their electricity, but flooding hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat and farmland. Also probably denying drinking water and irrigation to those downstream. OR the article about the cyanide leak from a mining tailings pond. Oh what the heck, cyanide is so much more fun.
Environmental disaster looms in Kütahya after tailings failure
However, officials have said all the necessary measures have been taken to prevent leakage.
A crisis desk was established in the province following the collapse of the dam’s embankment on Saturday. The governor’s office has announced that nearby villages could be evacuated. The facility, owned by the Eti Silver Corporation, reportedly contains 15 million cubic meters of cyanide. It is located 34 kilometers from the provincial capital, near the village of Gümü?.
“We are calling for urgent measures,” said Mustafa Sat?lm??, the Kütahya representative of the Turkish Foundation for Reforestation, Protection of Natural Habitats and Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA). “If not, it is certain that we’ll be faced with an environmental disaster that will cause irreparable damage.” He said TEMA had grave concerns about the situation. “The amount of disinformation [on a possible cyanide leak in Kütahya] is enormous. We expect officials to make a satisfactory statement on this. We feel that not making statements on the issue won’t get us anywhere.”
Company workers continued work started on Saturday to prevent the cyanide from flowing into the first stage of the dam, from where it could leak outside, while work was also under way to strengthen the embankments.
Sat?lm?? said although TEMA had been unable to acquire official information from technical professionals, they had been able to ascertain that a “severe risk” had formed in the tailing dam’s stages. “The embankment between the second and third stages collapsed, and now the entire burden is on the third stage. Immediate action is needed.”
The Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB) released a statement on Sunday saying that a possible leak would lead to a disaster much worse than a spill of industrial waste in October at an aluminum plant in western Hungary.
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Go there and read. More tomorrow.
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