WITH the closure of Alumina Partners (Alpart) imminent due to the global economic recession, residents of south Manchester are concerned that the bauxite company may not honour its obligation to reclaim the mined lands in the parish, thus putting them and their children in harm’s way.

The mined areas include Rose Hill, Albion, Brokenhurst, Lancashire, Lewis Field, Java and Providence, where huge craters and exposed red dirt are evident. In Rose Hill alone, a huge crater – which appears to be more than 200 feet deep and at least 800 feet wide – is just metres away from the roadway and several homes in the area.

“We have to warn the children not to play near here because we all know what can happen,” one male resident told the Sunday Observer.

But according to Alpart’s community relations officer Julian Keane, the company has no plans to leave the damage caused by their mining activities unattended.

“A reclamation plan is being put in place and in three to four weeks, we will have a detailed plan. Alpart intends to honour its obligation to the Jamaican people,” he said.

Although some 1,900 workers have been made redundant, the company will keep about 100 staff members to maintain its Nain refinery and to carry out land restoration in keeping with the mandate of the country’s mining act.

Keane added that the pit at Rose Hill – referred to by the company as pit number 135 – was fenced but that it had been vandalised.

“That particular pit was fenced so someone must have removed the fence. We have faced that problem on a number of occasions, but if it needs re-fencing we will re-fence it,” he said.

Under the rules laid down by the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), deep craters which are left after mining is completed must be refilled. Bauxite companies are also required to restore the land and replace at least six inches of top soil in mined areas.

Keane said Alpart has been operating in accordance with the regulations.

“We have been doing reclamation above and beyond what the Jamaican Government requires,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Environmentalists have, however, criticised bauxite companies for employing inadequate methods in land reclamation. The results, they argue, have been dust hazards, low yields to farmers who occupy mined lands, and threat to life and property.

St Elizabeth residents point to the July 2005 accident in Myersville as a perfect example of the threat it poses to life and property. As Hurricane Emily pounded the island’s south coast that year, five people – including Natanya Irvin, 24, her five-month-old son and daughter, five – drowned after the vehicle they were travelling in was swept into a deep ravine by raging flood waters. Larry Stewart, 41, and Jermaine Spooner, 22, were also casualties of that incident; they died attempting to save Irvin and her children.

Residents of Myersville say the ravine was left by bauxite miners who had mined the land more than three decades before.

Former Member of Parliament for South St Elizabeth Lenworth Blake said the deaths could have been avoided if the ravine was properly filled.

“That tragedy could have been averted,” he said.

When the Sunday Observer visited Myersville recently, several heads of cattle were seen grazing in the deep pit.

A 2004 amendment to the Mining Act, which applies a fine of US$25,000 (J$2.2 million) for each hectare of mined land not restored for more than three years, has seen an increase in compliance by bauxite companies, according to information out of the JBI.

“As of December 2008, just over 8,000 hectares have been disturbed for mining. This is less than one per cent of the country’s land mass. More than 60 per cent of the area disturbed for mining has been reclaimed and certified by the Commissioner of Mines,” the JBI said in a release to the Sunday Observer.

The institute has also insisted that it would be placing bauxite companies’ reclamation efforts under close scrutiny over the next 13 or so months, as they (bauxite companies) downsize operations to cope with the global economic recession.

Meanwhile, farmers in communities surrounding the Alpart refinery have in the past complained that their yields have been significantly low when they farm mined lands and have blamed the bauxite companies’ tardy approach to reclamation for their dilemma. But the JBI said it conducted soil assessment on mined lands in St Ann and Clarendon and crop yields could be higher with the proper farming techniques.

“The results show that under managed conditions, the yields of crops grown on mined-out lands can equal or even exceed the national average. The institute has been transferring the technology and best practices to farmers in mining communities,” the release said.

But while the residents who live near to mined lands are concerned about reclamation, others like those who live near to the Windalco-operated red mud lake at Battersea in Manchester and in the Essex Valley, are worried about possible contamination of the underground water supply if toxic caustic soda and other forms of bauxite waste seep into the aquifers.

“There are times when the stench is unbearable. People should not have to live so near to this poison,” complained one resident.

The JBI is, however, adamant that the rules were being adhered to and that the sites were not a health hazard as red mud disposal techniques had improved.

“Red mud is now disposed of in man-made sealed ponds and modified disposal sites. The capacities of these disposal areas are enhanced by thickened mud and recycling of effluent as is the case with the Battersea mud disposal site in Manchester,” the release said.