Environment agency pledges intensified monitoring of Bosai

Tailings discharge into the Kara Kara Creek, January 29th at 18:00 hrs (Ministry of Natural Resources photo)

The Environmental Protec-tion Agency (EPA) will intensify the monitoring of Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc’s (BMGGI) tailings discharge into the Kara Kara Creek after the Chinese company’s tailings pond overflowed last month and caused pollution of the waterway.

The pollution has since been dealt with, according to a statement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. It recounted that in relation to turbid tailings discharge entering the Kara Kara Creek at Kara Kara Bridge it was observed downstream that the discharge revealed dilution. Water quality assessment of turbidity levels at the discharge point was found to be 288 NTU while downstream of the discharge point it was 13.9 NTU and upstream of the discharge point turbidity was 2.44 NTU.

Turbidity refers to a measure of the amount of light that passes through water. Heavy suspended and dissolved sediments present in water often result in a murky  appearance. Therefore, the more sediment particles present in a water body, the murkier the water will appear. Guyana’s Mining (Amend-ment) Regulations 2005 stipulate that