Australian gold miner Troy Resources has been fined $1 million by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the spillage of some 5,000 litres of fuel at its Karouni, Region Eight worksite and it has been ordered to pause works to emphasise safety measures.
The EPA believes the incident could have been avoided had certain safety measures been taken and scolded the company for what it believes was an accident that endangered the lives of its employees.
“As a consequence of this incident, the agency wishes to advise that, in accordance with Section 39(3) of the Environmental Protection Act. Cap.20:05, Laws of Guyana, “Every person who causes serious environmental harm by polluting the environment intentionally or recklessly and with the knowledge that serious environmental harm will or might result, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable to the penalties prescribed under paragraph (h) of the Fifth Schedule,” a letter sent by the EPA to the company’s Government Affairs Manager Michael Rodrigues on March 26th 2020, said.
The letter was seen by Stabroek News.
“Pursuant to Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act….This letter serves to inform you that the Agency has administered a fixed penalty in the sum of One Million and sixty six thousand, six hundred and sixty six dollars ($1,066,666) in order to discharge your liability to conviction in a court of law; payable within twenty-eight days from the date of receipt of this letter,” the document said.
This newspaper made several attempts to contact Rodrigues but calls to the company’s office proved futile.
Stabroek News also tried contacting EPA Executive Director Dr Vincent Adams but calls to his mobile number went unanswered.
According to the letter, it was the company which provided information about the spill to the EPA through a letter dated March 23rd 2020. As part of the requirement for a permit, persons/organisations have to sign that they will report all accidents and environmental hazards.
The EPA responded that given the current coronavirus travel precautions, it was at the time, unable to send in a team for on-site investigations and verification but informed that it had spoken with the site manager via telephone.
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hereby acknowledges receipt of your letter dated March 23rd 2020, regarding the negligent and illegal discharge of approximately 5,000 liters of fuel into the environment at the Karouni Mine of Troy Resources Guyana Inc, on March 22nd, 2020. We also recognise the additional information provided via telephone conversations, by Mr Brad Mitchell, General Manager of Troy Resources Guyana Inc, during the two days following the incident, including his apologies and his acknowledgement that the incident was definitely avoidable,” the EPA letter stated.
“By reason of the travel precautions caused by the coronavirus, the Agency is presently unable to conduct an onsite investigation and verification of the circumstances surrounding the incident. However, based upon your March 23rd, 2020 letter, and our telephone conversations with Mr Mitchell, our understanding of events is as follows,” it added.
From the conversation by phone, the EPA surmised in the letter that “Fuel was being transferred via a transfer line to a fuel storage tank housed in secondary containment. The full-marked automatic shut-off actuator was non-functional, resulting in the overflow of fuel into the secondary containment; but the valve connecting the secondary containment to the discharge pipe, was removed some time in the past, causing the secondary containment to overflow the 5000 liters of fuel directly onto and into the ground.”
Lax
The agency expressed concern over the incident and pointed to a fatality at the site last year.
“On account of the above summary description of the incident, along with the telephone conversations with Mr Mitchell, and considering the safety track record of the operations resulting in a recent fatality at this particular site, the agency is highly troubled that there seems to still exist, a conduct of operations culture at the site, that is neglectful of the safety and health of the workers, and protection of the environment, as evidenced by the following: By the company’s own admission this incident was highly avoidable and the incident posed adverse effects on human health, safety, and the environment and had the potential to be significantly worse by causing a fire, explosion, risk of personal injury or death,” the EPA wrote.
“Unbelievably, the company does not appear to have learnt from its recent fatality incident as reflected by Mr Mitchell who seems to be much more concerned about production than safety of the workers; The company’s laxity of fundamental maintenance rigor resulting in unknowingly having two independent pieces of mechanical equipment being out of service at the same time, leading to this discharge into the environment; The company’s heedlessness to the standard requirement and common practice of providing the requisite training to the new employee, before performing his/her duties, especially hazardous activities; The company’s slackness in not monitoring such a high hazard fuel transfer operation which must have been in process for several hours,” it added.
The EPA said that Mitchell told them that workers did not know when the valve was removed “and even suggested that it may have been removed during the recent fatality shutdown of the operations.”
This was in reference to the death of geologist Ryan Taylor. Operations at the company came to a halt after it was issued with a cease order on October 10th 2019, by Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott, following the death of Taylor.
Taylor died on October 8th while working on the construction of a “bench” in a mining pit. A slippage occurred, which led to him falling and being covered by the rubble. On October 15th, Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally rescinded the order but Troy suspended operations after what it said was the knee-jerk reaction by Scott.
And if the company, according to the report, went through the same safety orientation for the restart following the shutdown for the fatality, as the EPA is now requesting, the agency said it poses serious questions about their overall modus operandi at the site.
Worried
“How could the company have so inattentively not notice that such a critical safety component valve was missing and what other unknown hazards continue to exist that may have also been missed and that should be worried about,” the EPA said.
It was why the agency instructed that the company take a safety pause and implement the stated recommendations.
“As a result of the foregoing, Troy Resources Guyana Inc is required to effect a Safety Pause, effective immediately, to conduct formal environmental, health and safety (EH&S) re-orientation and resensitisation of all of its employees, and comply with the following directives: While routine operations are allowed to continue during the safety pause, the company is required to expedite its completion in an urgent manner; thus the company is required to submit its re-orientation plan including a completion schedule to the agency by March 30th 2020,” the agency stated.
Further, it added, “Prepare and submit to the agency, a comprehensive report on the incident, including the impacts to both surface and ground water, depth and extent of soil contamination, progress to date and plan with a schedule for all clean-up activities, and measures designed and implemented to prevent the recurrence of this and any other EH&S incidents at the site by March 30th 2020; Submit copies of all written procedures employed in carrying out work activities at the site; Prepare a roster of all employees with their designations, and their respective requisite training required schedules and re-schedules of training and identified deficiencies/gaps in the currency of their training as of the day of the incident on March 23rd 2020; Prepare a plan with a schedule to fill in the deficiencies/gaps identified…and immediately commence implementation of that plan; Prepare and submit to the agency, a comprehensive report with documented evidence to support completion of the above items…on or before April 3, 2020.”
The company was told of its fine and warned of failure to comply with the instructions and penalties laid out.
“Failure to comply with the fixed penalty herein, will result in legal action against you without further notice. You are strongly advised to comply with the directive outlined in this enforcement notice; failing which, you may be liable for additional penalties in the sum of six hundred thousand dollars (600,000) and imprisonment for six months, pursuant to section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act,” the EPA said.
