| Acid mine water pumps only to be working by March 2012 |
| Posted by Enviroadmin | ||
| Wednesday, 02 March 2011 10:38 | ||
 Department says plan to manage acid mine water drainage in the Witwatersrand area in place.
WORK has begun on a plan to ensure pumps are in place by March next year to manage acid mine drainage in the Witwatersrand area, Department of Water Affairs spokesman Sputnik Ratau said yesterday. The report of an interministerial committee on acid mine drainage was posted on the department’s website yesterday, a day before the committee’s deadline to respond to nongovernmental organisations’ application for the report to be released under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.The report received mixed reactions but there was widespread relief that the government had acknowledged the urgency of the problem. Acid mine drainage is already polluting water on the West Rand. Gold Reef City, on the Central Witwatersrand Basin, stands to be contaminated if acid mine drainage is not well managed there. The committee ’s first recommendation was to pump water out of the Witwatersrand’s Western, Central and Eastern basins to maintain levels "at least below the relevant environmental critical levels". Steps also had to be taken to reduce the flooding of acid mine drainage into abandoned mines .Risks included increased seismic activity, contamination of shallow groundwater resources, "geotechnical impacts" in areas where water rises close to urban areas, and serious environmental and ecological consequences , including to sites of international importance. Full article here |
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