At first I could not believe my eyes. We were driving along a rugged dirt road in a protected forest in Kanchanaburi. Then, all of a sudden, a vast barren landscape covered with a thick white mass sprang up in the midst of green tropical forest.
What on earth could this bizarre sight possibly be?
Welcome to the Kemco mine. Welcome to its sea of lead residue that stretches as far as the eye can see, glistening in the sun and killing all the plants along its destructive path.
I still remember vividly how I felt when I saw this massive swathe of environmental destruction some years back. First disbelief. Then anger.
How could the mining and forest authorities allow this to happen?
How could the forest authorities be so ruthless with forest dwellers and poor, landless farmers, yet so impotent with the mining industry?
How could the mineral resources authorities allow this environmentally destructive mine to continue doing its business as if nothing happened?
Why didn't they close it down, punish the polluters and force them to pay for the clean-up.
Why?
I guess you and I already know the maddening answer.
The last I heard from the locals, the deadly sea of lead residue is still there in Lam Klong Ngoo National Park, adjacent to Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, also a Unesco World Heritage Site.
As of yesterday, the Google Earth satellite image of the forested area still shows massive white scars from the sky. It's clear the wounds inflicted by decades of irresponsible mining have not yet healed. No rehabilitation efforts have been carried out. No polluters have been punished. Yet the mining authorities are contemplating reopening the destructive Kemco mine.
We cannot blame the locals if they are angry, can we?
Kemco, or the Song Tor mine as it is called by the locals, is among a string of lead mines in Kanchanaburi forest. The same powerful family ran these mines, including the lead factory which, for decades, released toxic waste water into Klity Creek and ruined the lives of ethnic Karen forest dwellers there.
Located deep in Lam Klong Ngoo National Park, about 20km from the Klity lead factory, the operations at Kemco were far more extensive. Like at Klity, toxic waste was released into the natural environment.
Since Kemco and other lead mines sat on limestone mountains, no one knows how much toxic wastewater escaped through the webs of underground caves and waterways before it flowed into the tributaries of Kanchanaburi's Kwai Noi and Kwai Yai rivers.
For your information, both Kwai Noi and Kwai Yai flow into the Meklong River, which feed our tapwater plants.
The Kemco disaster was a well-kept secret until the Klity Karen started their legal battle to close the lead factory in their village and demanded a clean-up of their only waterway.
When it was revealed that Kemco was also operating illegally because it had not obtained formal permission from the Forest Department for its land use, nothing happened. When the sea of lead residue was exposed, nothing happened either. Kemco and other lead mines in the area continued to operate until their mining licences expired. The polluters were not punished. Nor were the authorities concerned.
Some might think the locals are overreacting to the Mineral Resources Department hiring Chulalongkorn University to conduct a feasibility study on old lead mines, which include Kemco, Bor Yai and Krerng Kravia. But why spend money on the study if there is no plan to reopen them?
Interestingly, this feasibility study coincides with the Mineral Resources Department's push for a new mining bill. If given the green light, it will allow mining in all areas that the department sees fit, including environmentally sensitive rain-catchment forests.
Land use permission from forest authorities will no longer be required, nor environmental impact assessments by mine operators.
The bill will also give the department boss the authority to issue mining licences himself.
Thanks to the outcry from environmentalists, the cabinet has ordered mining authorities to "conduct more studies". We see what's coming, however.
If people let down their guard, the mining bill will make a comeback, and mining's assault on the environment will return to haunt us again.
Sanitsuda Ekachai is Editorial Pages Editor, Bangkok Post.