Riverain residents file US$100M law suit against Omai Gold Mines
By Courtney Jones
Nearly 500 residents from communities along the Essequibo, Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers yesterday demonstrated in front of the High Court as lawyers filed a US$100 million statement of claim on their behalf against Omai Gold Mines Ltd (OGML) for the alleged pollution of the rivers in 1995. The event, timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the breach of Omai's tailings dam which occurred on August 20, 1995, was organised by the Guyana Research Environmental Education Network (GREEN) headed by Washington, USA-based environmentalist, Dr Gustav Jackson. Residents from communities in Regions Seven and Eight, including Lanaballi, Beribissiballi, Bonasika Creek, St Mary's Quarry, Rivers View, Saxakalli and Bartica, some accompanied by their children, staged a quiet picketing exercise under the watchful eyes of a few policemen. "This is a group action on behalf of all the residents in the area and we first filed a writ against Omai to this effect in the High Court on August 17, 1998," Dr Jackson told reporters after filing the claim yesterday. The residents are being represented by local attorneys-at-law, Mortimer Codett and Storm Westmaas, and Courtney Abel and Patrick Patterson of the Caribbean Association of Attorneys (CAA). The statement of claim specifically mentioned OGML, its parent company Cambior Inc; Golder and Associates, an OGML sub-contractor; and Home Insurance based in Montreal, Canada. It said that the residents are demanding US$100 million based on sums paid as compensation in the case of similar environmental incidents occurring in the United States and Canada. The statement of claim is asking for compensation for the pain and suffering OGML has caused residents of the riverain communities since its establishment. It is also asking for a guaranteed potable water supply, restitution of revenue made at the expense of human health and the environment and the correction of the damage done by the mine. OGML is already facing legal action from some residents of the area for the effects of the spill. Residents told Stabroek News yesterday that use of water from the rivers for bathing, washing, cooking and drinking purposes, had led to a number of illnesses such as skin diseases, vomiting, diarrhoea, eye problems and headaches. The breach of Omai's tailings pond dam at its mine site, spilling some 3.2 billion cubic litres of cyanide-laced tailings into the Essequibo River was regarded as one of the largest disasters in this hemisphere. It caused the closure of the mine for nearly six months followed by a massive operation to deal with the effects of the spill. This included a comprehensive environmental assessment of the damage and its effects on the residents in the area of the spill before permission was given for the mine to resume operations. Three days after the spill, the Ministry of Health had warned residents along the Essequibo River including Bartica not to use water or consume fish or shrimp from the waterway. "Cyanide is known to be toxic to all forms of life; even small concentrations are lethal to aquatic life and are certainly harmful to human beings," the ministry had cautioned. Residents yesterday said that their action in front of the High Court was to let all Guyana know what they experienced during the spill. "The Essequibo River is very useful to us in relation to domestic use... but since that spillage we are afraid to use the water. It is polluted and psychologically, people are terrified of the water," one resident said. Captain of Rivers View, Richard Bowen, said the situation has reached the stage where residents still have to walk miles to get potable water and in the process they are exposed to dangerous reptiles and animals. Loris Barker from Monkey Jump Quarry on the Essequibo River, said residents have been affected by an outbreak of rashes, caused by the polluted river water while fishing and the planting of crops has been affected. He described the response by Omai to residents in the area of the spill as extremely poor, stating that some communities were provided with a few water tanks and drums of fuel. Barker said that communities such as Rivers View and Monkey Jump received no help from Omai and even now with reports of rashes and other ailments coming from riverain communities, only representatives of the GREEN group have shown any interest in bringing the whole affair to the fore at this time. Bartica hotel owner and operator, Ossie Melville, said that residents of Bartica are still afraid to use the water from the rivers even after four years. "People get long periods of itching, they can't see, they get diarrhoea and even their hair is dropping out and I have heard that people in Bartica and some other places have even complained of impotence after constant use of the water," Melville said. He also spoke of a good friend whose almost entire stock of cattle died because of the water. Rupert Kaiser of Saxakalli told Stabroek News that after the spill, a team led by the late president Cheddi Jagan, had assured them that the water was safe to use again and to fish from. But according to Kaiser, the team warned that children should not bathe in the water and especially little boys who risked becoming impotent. He said that the main complaints from residents were skin rashes and diarrhoea. The parents of 12-year-old Sobrina Torres, six-month-old Melvin Hayden Conway and three-year-old Sobrina Conway, showed this newspaper their children with what appeared to be rashes covering large areas of their bodies. Meanwhile, Dr Jackson claimed that the Omai class action suit filed yesterday has the support of an environmental pressure group in Washington, USA. This group comprises representatives of the Human Rights and Environmental Coalition, Greenpeace, Earth First, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International and the US State Department. He said that it was the feeling in the group that Omai was looking at the fact that it cost less to pollute the water so as to continue extracting gold from the mine than it cost to ensure the provision of clean water to riverain residents by the provision of foolproof environmental safeguards. When contacted, OGML Public Relations Officer, Sita Mohamed, said that the company was not overly concerned at the filing of this latest law suit and she reminded that a similar action against Omai was thrown out of the Canadian courts. Mohamed said that since the spill, tests by the company, government and independent organisations have determined that the water in the Essequibo River has stayed within the guidelines internationally accepted for potable water. The Omai official also said that she was quite confident that the alleged skin disorders could not be traced to the 1995 spill. Omai's Human Resource Manager, Norman McLean, had said just over a week after the spill that the company had given the Region Seven administration $800,000 and about $1.3 million in supplies including fuel, buckets, water tanks, bleach and water purifiers. Meanwhile, when Stabroek News contacted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the secretary to the Executive Director, Per Bertilsson, said the director and his senior staff were all at a "planning meeting" and were unavailable to comment on the issue until some time today. And in a related development, a letter signed by "The people of Essequibo, Guyana" dated August 17, 1999, was despatched to President of Cambior Inc, Louis P. Gignac, informing him of the law suit. The letter was carbon copied to President Bharrat Jagdeo, the Canadian High Commission and the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy.
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