MBOMBELA – How safe is the city from hazardous waste pollution? This question was raised following the recent announcement by Delta EMD that it was ceasing its operations. What are the environmental implications of the sites where it has been dumping its manganese residue, and how responsible is the company for future environmental impacts?
DA Ward councillor Mr Hannes de Kock tabled a motion to council yesterday for Mbombela to investigate the reciprocal legal responsibilities between Manganese Metal Company (MMC) and Delta EMD and the municipality, specifically regarding Pappas Quarry.
The waste-landfill site is the property of Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) but is managed by MMC, which produces 99,9 per cent selenium-free electrolytic manganese metal of very high quality. Delta says its responsibility ended when, according to its agreement with MMC, it paid the latter to use the site in the past. It is no longer active since it was decommissioned in 2006.
MMC, which produces pure manganese metal for the aluminium, steel, batteries and welding industry, recently had its closure licence for Pappas Quarry approved by the provincial department of environmental affairs.
According to Mr Wouter Coertzen, MMC’s works manager who is in charge of the company’s environmental affairs, this would allow them to rehabilitate and cap the site. He explains that the material which was deposited at Pappas is the portion of unreacted manganese ore that was not recovered from the extraction process on the plant.
Pappas Quarry’s “floor” consists of the granite koppie which used to be a quarry. Concrete walls form a basin. The soft muddy ore is placed inside and hardens as it dries out and settles. Coertzen says it has lowered by only a metre. Once it has settled completely – a process which may take another 10 years – the site will be permanently sealed with a thick cap which will be covered with a soil layer and vegetation to resemble the surroundings.
“It will never be a normal site again,” he says.
In the meantime, the ore is covered with plastic and the water running off the temporary cover is clean, however, it has been patched in the past which, according to De Kock, raises questions about its durability.
The water coming off the settling manganese, is caught and stored and returned to the MMC plant where it goes through an evaporation process. Coertzen says MMC will retain care and maintenance responsibilities for another 30 years.
He says MMC does regular sampling of the Gladdespruit and the Crocodile River to monitor manganese levels up- and downstream of Pappas Quarry to establish any impact the deposited material might have on the environment. Air-quality monitoring is also conducted to sample dust levels in the vicinity of the quarry.
In a similar fashion, its new designed-for-purpose landfill site at Kingston Vale requires adherence to similar but stricter environmental laws.
The floor is lined with two layers with leakage detection and insulated with a clay layer. Water flowing from the bottom is caught up in tanks and the water from the top is stored in a dam.
This is also returned to the plant and in line with the company’s available environmental policy “to reduce and prevent pollution” and disposing of waste in a regulated manner, the processed water is reused and recycled.
In terms of the operating licence, zero per cent contaminated discharge is permitted here, Coertzen says. The first phase of the site is also almost full and the company is engaging with the authorities on possible further developments which will have to conform to even more stringent legislation.
Ms Carole Freeman of Green Dot Environmental who manages the facility for MMC, says the biggest risk is a spill. Green Dot handles the housekeeping and it keeps the yard clean and the dam levels low to prevent overflowing. They also make sure that the delivery trucks’ wheels are clean before leaving the premises.
The concern remains dust and water pollution, but a possible spill is not limited to the inside of the facility: an 18-ton tanker transports contaminated water from the dump sites back to MMC’s plant. MLM did not respond to the newspaper’s queries.
