100km/h Winds in Costerfield

(Important Update: At the bottom of this page we asked the Departments concerned a very important question.

To their credit they were rapid in their response and replied as follows:

I can confirm that we are aware of the WHO recommendation highlighted in your email.
 
“The possibility of co-exposure of consumers to arsenic and antimony in drinking water would necessitate an assessment of the local geological conditions on a case-by case basis. If both elements were found to be present, case-specific risk evaluations for possible additivity and synergistic effects would need to be performed”
 
I can confirm that the Golder work program developed in consultation with DSDBI, DoH, EPA and DEPI  includes assessment of local geological conditions, and assessment of arsenic in water.  I also can confirm that we are testing 8 metals in water, soil, air, sheep and eggs.   These include arsenic and antimony.  This data is being collected to assess the cumulative risk to residents.  That is the risk posed by the metals in combination with the other metals.  As recommended by the WHO this will include risk evaluation for possible additivity and synergistic effects. *

(*Edit 20 August 2015: these synergistic/additive results are still to be provided to the community)
 
We welcome this open exchange of information and hope that it bodes well for future, further inclusion of the Costerfield Community in the health issues that surround their beautiful town.

Nevertheless, some serious issues are still posed by the other material we present on this page - and indeed by the response from the Department; we deal with these issues here and here - therefore we have left it here to keep the very important unanswered questions posed, and to accommodate further information that will be forthcoming soon. And so...)


We’ve seen this document before:

From the Mandalay ERC Minutes, 21 November, 2007:

6 Quarterly Environmental Monitoring Report

6.2 Air Quality & Dust

DISCUSSION

Visible dust from the mine

[Local resident] B** asked what about the possibility of uplift dust over one location to a more distant location.

Colin Burns [AGD] stated that this can happen with respirable dust but not with deposited dust which is relatively course.

B** stated that dust from the mine is visible when he has walked down to the mine on several occasions.

Colin Burns stated that dust seen by B** is suspended dust and much finer than deposited dust. Suspended dust can be at a higher concentration further from the source but this is not the case with deposited dust.

And we saw this quote in the same piece:

Department of Health Senior Medical Adviser Dr Danny Csutoros in the McIvor Times on 13 August, 2014:

"We had a couple of samples that didn't make sense - a couple of people who were way out of the area with high antimony."

 Oh, and this from the 2003 Workplan for Underground Mining 4200/5380:

Mine exhaust air will be discharged from at least one ventilation rise into the atmosphere. Exhaust air will contain particulates in the form of dust, blasting products, including CO₂, CO, SO₂, NO_X and ammonia gases (NH₄). The key contaminants in terms of potential effects on downwind air quality are considered to be CO, NO₂ and dust.

***

Winds were wild around Costerfield earlier this week... gusts of a hundred-plus kilometres an hour... and sometimes, like earlier this week, at around 7pm, too - change of shift at the mine; that's when the mine blasts prior to the start of the next shift, because the mine itself is clear of workers. It's not the first time the wind has blown fiercely in Costerfield over the past decade...

We also know that particulate monitoring ceased in Costerfield on 13 February, 2006. Until "permanently installed sophisticated real time air quality monitoring" was re-instated in June of this year as part of the 'whole of government' dust suppression strategy.

This bodgied up monitoring equipment had previously told them they didn't have to...

Industry groups have been telling the regulators about these shortcomings since at least 2007 according to this article from Waste Management and Environment Magazine from 6 September of that year. 

Questions that need to be answered by the regulators... DSDBI, EPA, DoH... 

How far do dust, PM10, PM2.5, blasting compounds and respirable silica travel when they leave the Cuffley Vent's 3m diameter exhaust at 43.2 km/h and meet a 100km/h wind? 

Or the Augusta Portal? Just asking... ;)

That kind of event could carry dust and particulate matter onto properties a fair old distance from the mine, one would assume… “way out of the area”, in fact.

At what distance from the mine are Golder Associates testing for the presence of antimony? 

(You won't find mention of Costerfield or Mandalay Resources in their list of Projects on that site, but it is interesting to note that they have provided full time site supervision during construction of the:

• engineered fill

• dual clay liners and leachate detection layer

• HDPE geomembrane liner and cushion layer

• leachate drainage aggregate and leachate collection pipework.

for a Waste Cell in Dublin, South Australia. In 2010. Dual clay liners AND an HDPE liner. Wow! Never thought I'd say that... South Australia, eh?)

Are they also testing for arsenic in Costerfield... and beyond? 

We've asked this next question previously, but it's a good one so we'll ask it again.

How much material – dust, antimony, arsenic, respirable silica, blasting detritus “including CO₂, CO, SO₂, NO_X and ammonia gases (NH₄)” - does EPA/DSDBI estimate has been emitted by the mine via its vents over the past eight years?  

How far has it been blown? What other materials are Golder testing for?

The WHO 2004 background report into antimony in drinking water reads at page 10:

The possibility of co-exposure of consumers to arsenic and antimony in drinking water would necessitate an assessment of the local geological conditions on a case-by-case basis. If both elements were found to be present, case-specific risk evaluations for possible additivity and synergistic effects would need to be performed.

Is this is being done? DSDBI could neither confirm nor deny such testing was planned. Why not? This is a Health issue. What's a mining regulator doing dealing with it?

A simple straight question has been asked of the regulators by email:  

Are Golder testing for synergistic and additive effects of arsenic and antimony? 

A simple straight answer is required.

And it is a very important answer that needs to be provided before the "next phase of testing" commences on MONDAY 6 OCTOBER, 2014 in a compromised and incomplete manner. 

Arsenic was tested for back in 1998 when the Department of Human Services used to do its own testing on behalf of the people of Victoria...

As stated above, the highlighted question above was answered very quickly by the Department concerned. We thank them for their prompt and forthright reply.

Edit: 20 August 2015 - We still await the synergistic data.