The Pollution Control Department (PCD) is facing increased pressure to prove to villagers around Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi that it is serious about cleaning up the lead-contaminated environment.
The Administrative Court on Jan 10 gave the PCD 90 days to propose a plan for screening water quality in Thong Pha Phum district to ensure there is no lead contamination in the environment.
More than 120 days have passed with little progress, said Surapong Kongchantuk, chairman of the human rights subcommittee on Ethnic Minorities, the Stateless, Migrant Workers and Displaced Persons with the Lawyers Council of Thailand.
Local residents have spent more than two decades fighting for a comprehensive cleanup of the area, where lead smelting that began in the 1980s has been linked to severe health problems in humans as well as livestock deaths.
The court on Jan 10 ruled that the PCD must outline its plan for the area within 90 days. It must check samples of water, soil, vegetable matter and aquatic animals once each season until it is certain that lead levels are below maximum allowable standards for at least a year.
The department must also publicly inform local residents in the lower Klity community through the headman of Klity village, the Chalae Tambon Administration Organisation and Thong Pha Phum district.
"Now it is already over 100 days after the ruling but there is still no movement from the Pollution Control Department," said Mr Surapong.
"The department has also ignored the request of the Klity community to take out the lead sediment from the creek and remove the lead-contaminated substances within three years.
"If there is no movement over the next 30 days, the community will seek another court order."
He said villagers now were worried about the Mineral Resources Department, which has commissioned an environmental impact assessment of lead and zinc mining around the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Conservation Area in Thong Pha Phum district.
The goal, he said, was to approve concessions for private companies such as Kanchanaburi Exploration and Mining Co Ltd (Kemco) and Bo Yai Mining Co Ltd.
The mines have been closed since 2002 after new reports of lead contamination in Klity Creek surfaced in 2001.
"We have solid information indicating that the Kemco and Bo Yai mines released pollution into Din So creek which flows into the Khwae Noi River," said Mr Surapong.
"As well, pollution from the Klity and Bo Ngam mines is released into the Khwae Yai River, which is the origin of Mae Klong River which provides the raw water for waterworks in the Thon Buri area [of Bangkok]."
The PCD in early April began removing lead-contaminated sediment from Klity village, but said at the time that it only had the budget to complete half the task.
The sediment, which came from a lead processing plant located upstream from Klity Creek, had been stored in eight pits for several years amid debate over who was responsible for its removal.
After initially saying it would leave the creek to recover through "natural rehabilitation" following the court order in January, the PCD began an active cleanup operation on April 3.
PCD chief Wichien Jungrungruang said there were about 1,355 cubic metres of lead-contaminated sediment being kept in the eight pits. Only about 570 cu m could be removed from four pits due to budget restraints, he added.
The department hired the waste management company Better World Green for 7 million baht to remove the sediment, which was being transported to a treatment plant in Saraburi province.
But the most challenging task would be the cleanup of Klity Creek itself, said Mr Wichien.
A PCD source said there are about 10,000 tonnes of lead-contaminated sediment in the creek and officials were still designing measures to remove the sediment without spreading it further.
The entire cleanup operation would take up to three years, Mr Wichien said.