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Marine tailings disposal
Volume 13/Number 6/June 1982
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" B u t I do love you, Cynthia! It has nothing to do with the fact that we are the last two surviving specimensof marine life in the entire ocean."
Watering Down Pollution Safeguards Water Authorities in Britain have won their fight not to allow members of the public to use the authorities' public pollution registers as evidence in prosecutions against them. The move will impede new legislation to be implemented in 1984, designed to enable people to prosecute authorities who discharge too much effluent or too strong an effluent into rivers. Members of the public who wish to prosecute will instead have to take fresh samples from the river and pay for them to be analysed. The 'watchdog' legislation was introduced as water authorities in the UK not only set and enforce their own standards on discharges but also run the sewage works. It is thought that half the sewage works in the country regularly contravene the set standards, a situation which has been exacerbated by government public spending cuts.
ITOPF Plan Spill Inventory An inventory of oil spill response equipment in Europe is to be developed by the International Tanker Owners' Pollution Federation (ITOPF). The inventory, carried out by ITOPF under contract to the European Economic Community (EEC), will contain a list of skimmers, booms, pumps, workboats, aircraft, dispersants, portable storage facilities and specialized personnel available to other member states in the event of a major oil spill. The majority of the data will be collected through questionnaires but ITOPF will also send representatives to the countries to obtain additional information. Further information: John Archer, ITOPF, Stapel Hall, Stonehouse Court, 87/90 Houndsditch, London EC3.
Marine Tailings Disposal A Symposium on the Disposal of Tailings to the Sea was held at Ketchikan, Alaska, on 22-23 March 1982. The initiative was the proposed development of a molybdenum mine at Quartz Hill, 35 miles east of the city. Co-sponsors were the regulatory agencies- USDA Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency-Region 10, and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation-and US Borax & Chemical Corporation, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation. Four sessions ranged from general considerations to specifics. Session 1 included land disposal options in wet mountainous regions, behaviour of mine tailings in the marine environment, physical oceanography of fjords, and tailing density current behaviour. Session 2 involved three Canadian case histories, two from terrain similar to Quartz Hill. Pre-operational environmental impact assessments from the arctic lead-zinc Polaris mine were presented, followed by outfall performance monitoring at the Kitsault molybdenum mine, and trend analysis of the 10-year data bank of Island Copper Mine. In Session 3 a government scientist responsible for an inquiry into a marine discharging mine summarized his report. The final Session on the Quartz Hill development included the ore-body petrology and petrography, physical and chemical oceanography of the two fjords potentially options for receiving the tailing, and the benthic ecology of the fjords. It is intended to publish the Proceedings in book form.
Californian Sea Otters at Risk A paper published recently by the US Fish and Wildlife Service reports that a maj or oil spill off the Californian coast could have serious consequences for the already-threatened sea otter population• 183
_ _
,..
-o
°
" B u t I do love you, Cynthia! It has nothing to do with the fact that we are the last two surviving specimensof marine life in the entire ocean."
Watering Down Pollution Safeguards Water Authorities in Britain have won their fight not to allow members of the public to use the authorities' public pollution registers as evidence in prosecutions against them. The move will impede new legislation to be implemented in 1984, designed to enable people to prosecute authorities who discharge too much effluent or too strong an effluent into rivers. Members of the public who wish to prosecute will instead have to take fresh samples from the river and pay for them to be analysed. The 'watchdog' legislation was introduced as water authorities in the UK not only set and enforce their own standards on discharges but also run the sewage works. It is thought that half the sewage works in the country regularly contravene the set standards, a situation which has been exacerbated by government public spending cuts.
ITOPF Plan Spill Inventory An inventory of oil spill response equipment in Europe is to be developed by the International Tanker Owners' Pollution Federation (ITOPF). The inventory, carried out by ITOPF under contract to the European Economic Community (EEC), will contain a list of skimmers, booms, pumps, workboats, aircraft, dispersants, portable storage facilities and specialized personnel available to other member states in the event of a major oil spill. The majority of the data will be collected through questionnaires but ITOPF will also send representatives to the countries to obtain additional information. Further information: John Archer, ITOPF, Stapel Hall, Stonehouse Court, 87/90 Houndsditch, London EC3.
Marine Tailings Disposal A Symposium on the Disposal of Tailings to the Sea was held at Ketchikan, Alaska, on 22-23 March 1982. The initiative was the proposed development of a molybdenum mine at Quartz Hill, 35 miles east of the city. Co-sponsors were the regulatory agencies- USDA Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency-Region 10, and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation-and US Borax & Chemical Corporation, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation. Four sessions ranged from general considerations to specifics. Session 1 included land disposal options in wet mountainous regions, behaviour of mine tailings in the marine environment, physical oceanography of fjords, and tailing density current behaviour. Session 2 involved three Canadian case histories, two from terrain similar to Quartz Hill. Pre-operational environmental impact assessments from the arctic lead-zinc Polaris mine were presented, followed by outfall performance monitoring at the Kitsault molybdenum mine, and trend analysis of the 10-year data bank of Island Copper Mine. In Session 3 a government scientist responsible for an inquiry into a marine discharging mine summarized his report. The final Session on the Quartz Hill development included the ore-body petrology and petrography, physical and chemical oceanography of the two fjords potentially options for receiving the tailing, and the benthic ecology of the fjords. It is intended to publish the Proceedings in book form.
Californian Sea Otters at Risk A paper published recently by the US Fish and Wildlife Service reports that a maj or oil spill off the Californian coast could have serious consequences for the already-threatened sea otter population• 183