Environment minister corrects Freeport's environmental audit report

Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf on Thursday gave a number of corrections to Freeport's publicized external audit reports that only mentioned the goods side of the audit result.

Sonny told Petromindo.Com that his office and the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) has the authority to verify the result of Freeport's external environmental audit conducted by Montgomery Watson.

Sonny, who is also chairman of Bapedal, said that the summary of the audit report that was publicized in January 2000 was not in accordance with information contained in the whole audit reports and a number of facts in the field.

Contrary to the publicized audit report, Sonny said, Freeport had not yet implemented fully the environmental management plans (RKL) and the environmental monitoring plans (RPL), as it presented to the government.

The minister acknowledged that Freeport had implemented a toxic waste (B3) management system, but not all the processes met with national and international standards.

And based on Bapedal's twice field observations, total soluble solid for Freeport's tailing exceeded the tolerable level of 400 mg per liter.

Sonny said that the publicized reports that only mentioned the good sides and did not touch the bad sides could mislead the public.

Sonny said that his office had not yet thought of legal actions against Freeport because of publicizing the unacceptable audit reports.

However, the secretary at the office of the state minister of environment, Sudarsono, said that it was likely that his party would take legal measures against Freeport if the gold and copper mining giant did not heed the correction presented by the office and Bapedal.

Meanwhile, a Bapedal deputy chairman, Masnellyarti Hilman said that her office had allowed Freeport to dispose its tailing to Lake Wanagon as long as the tailing dispose to the lake did not contain mining acid. (godang)