Toxic water could linger at gold mine for a century. SC has seen this before.
Heavy metals that can sicken people and wildlife could remain for a century in the water at a gold mine whose owners have pledged to take extra care in protecting the environment while digging for gold in South Carolina.
It’s among an array of problems that could result if the Haile Gold Mine gains permission to expand the already sprawling operation north of Camden, according to government agencies and conservation groups that have weighed in on the proposed expansion.
In recent letters assessing mine expansion plans, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Southern Environmental Law Center say multiple issues should be addressed before final decisions are made.
Their concerns range from the loss of wetlands that control flooding to threats that mining waste will drain off the site during floods. Rare mussels that inhabit creeks are potentially at risk, as are people who live below a towering dam built to hold back toxic mining waste, they say. Questions also include whether enough money has been set aside to manage the site after it closes.
“What’s most concerning is the threat that really significant pollution problems will last for a very long time,’’ environmental law center attorney Chris DeScherer said.
Lingering waste from mining isn’t a concern unique to the Haile Gold Mine site. Mines across the country, including in South Carolina, have remained contaminated decades after they closed. Two gold mines in South Carolina — in Chesterfield and McCormick counties — are federal Superfund cleanup sites because of contamination.
In Haile’s case, the strip-mine has a series of open pits, some hundreds of feet deep, that are driving many concerns.
Pits that fill up with water after gold excavation ends could contain high levels of more than a half-dozen poisonous metals for 100 years, the DNR and the law center say. They cited an environmental study of the expansion proposal for OceanaGold, the international corporation that owns the Haile Gold Mine.
Contaminated pit lakes are a particular problem at many gold and copper mine sites, said Bonnie Gestring, who tracks mining for the environmental group Earthworks.
Some lakes are treated to control pollution, but that doesn’t always work. In the most extreme cases of tainted pit lakes, the water is so toxic it can kill birds that land on the surface. The contamination can last for years, saddling taxpayers with monitoring and cleanup costs, Gestring said.
“Typically, it is highly contaminated water that must be managed in perpetuity,’’ she said, calling pit lakes “lasting liabilities.’’
OceanaGold declined to answer questions but has insisted it would take necessary steps to protect the environment.
The threat of toxins remaining in old mining pits at the Haile site is notable because floods could send the polluted water into creeks that flow away from the mining site near Kershaw, a small town about halfway between Columbia and Charlotte.
Creeks of concern include the Little Lynches River, a nearby waterway.
“The SCDNR has concerns that chronic exposure to heavy metal contaminants may negatively impact mussel species in the Little Lynches River, as these species can be particularly sensitive to heavy metals,” according to an April 23 letter from the DNR to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must decide whether to issue wetlands destruction permits for the expansion.
Contaminants also could leak through the bottom of one abandoned mining pit, which will become a lake after mining ends, and pollute groundwater, according to the DNR letter.. Some people in the area rely on wells for drinking water.
Toxic metals of concern include arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.
Long-term exposure to arsenic from drinking-water and food can cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. Cadmium, if ingested by people over time, can cause kidney and bone damage, and it can cause deformities in fish living in polluted water, studies show.
Lead can cause brain damage in children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Mercury can build up in fish and sicken people who eat certain species, causing nerve damage, according to state agencies that track the issue.
Saying an environmental study of the project needs more work, the DNR wants a plan on how to deal with tainted water if it escapes into groundwater or creeks. The agency’s letter said there are nearly a dozen increasingly rare species that live near the mine.
Lorianne Riggin, who heads the DNR’s permit review team, said the environmental study uses out-dated data to assess how flooding might impact the area. The department’s recent letter said some data is from 1978, even though South Carolina has been pounded with heavy rains from a series of hurricanes in recent years. The letter was unclear about how the new data might impact flooding projections.
“We want them to use more updated information,’’ she said.
The law center has urged that a federal wetlands permit and state water quality approval be denied, in part because Haile has a recent history of breaking environmental laws. The DNR says no decision should be made on the permits until multiple questions are resolved.
“The largest gold mine east of the Mississippi River, Haile has repeatedly failed to comply with — and in some cases openly flouted — clean air, clean water and hazardous waste management laws,’’ the law center’s April 23 letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. “Haile now seeks to expand even further, but its history of violations dispels any prediction that an expanded footprint would comply with environmental protections.’’
Since opening more than four years ago, the mining operation has been fined nearly $128,000 by state regulators for violating environmental laws. The violations include releases of toxins into air and water, as well as the company’s failure to disclose some of the problems.
OceanaGold’s mine, already a large operation that rivals the size of some western United States mines, would dig larger pits and an underground mine, while adding more mining waste areas at the site three miles from Kershaw.
The mining operation would grow from 4,552 acres to 5,384 acres if state and federal regulators approve wetlands and water permits that would allow 75 percent more ore to be recovered. A mine expansion permit also is pending.
Some 86 acres of wetlands and more than 2 miles of creeks would be filled, drained, smothered or degraded by the work. The mine now uses toxic chemicals to process gold, discharging some of the material to a sprawling man-made waste pond known as a tailings storage facility. The company plans to increase the amount of waste the tailings pond can hold. It plans to increase the size of the pond dam by about 40 feet.
Photos recently taken by drone for The State reveal a denuded landscape with deep mining pits, piles of rock and the extensive, water-filled tailings waste pond.
More than $250 million in gold and silver would be produced annually from the mine expansion, meaning the company likely will bring in billions of dollars over the life of the project, records show. The company already has produced hundreds of jobs and expects several hundred more will be created if the mine expands. Mining is expected to end in the early 2030s.
Officials with OceanaGold, the international company that acquired the mine from Romarco Minerals, had little to say when asked about the expansion concerns and whether an environmental study was thorough enough.
The study, known as a supplemental environmental impact statement, or SEIS, is being done before decisions are made on wetlands filling permits..
“We understand and respect the federal permitting process,’’ according to an email from Jim Whittaker, executive general manager at OceanaGold-Haile Gold Mine. “Since the SEIS process is now underway, it would not be appropriate for us to comment.’’
OceanaGold’s mine cranked up operations in 2017 after the site’s previous owner, Romarco Minerals, had explored the area for years.
Once environmental permits were secured, OceanaGold guided the start of the mine. With offices in Australia, OceanaGold is an experienced mining corporation that runs gold and copper digging operations across the world, including in the Philippines and New Zealand.
The company has faced some criticism over mining practices in other countries, but officials have said for years that they are committed to running a modern, state-of-the-art mine that protects the environment.
“We’ve got a sharp focus on environmental management and community relations, not because we have to but because we want to,’’ then-OceanaGold chief executive Mick Wilkes told The State in a 2015 interview. “We want to be a community partner.’’
The company, as part of its latest plan to expand, has increased a financial package to pay for restoration and cleanup of the site from $67 million to $81 million. Environmentalists, the DNR and the EPA question whether the financial package is adequate. The EPA says plans to manage the site over the long-term need improving.
Corps officials, who must finalize the environmental study and approve wetlands permits for the expansion to begin, are reviewing the permit application, spokeswoman Glenn Jeffries said.
The OceanaGold mine is at the site of the historic Haile Gold Mine. The mine has a legacy of gold digging, but had been closed for years until mining restarted in 2017. The rising price of gold — about $1,800 per ounce — has made digging deeper for small bits of the precious metal more attractive. Today, the Haile Gold Mine is larger and more complex than it has ever been.
This story was originally published May 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
