Rationale statistics, problem, needs, objectives, concept, chain

The Statistics

Two recent large-scale mine tailings dam failures in Europe, Los Frailes, Spain, 1998, and Baia Mare, Romania & Danube River, 2000, resulted in:
- Contamination of fisheries & shellfish and resultant loss in production & markets.
- Contamination of grazing land and resultant loss in meat and milk production & markets.
- Contamination of agricultural land and resultant loss in food produce & markets.
- Contamination of surface, ground, and aquifer waters and resultant loss in water quality and threat to the health & safety of communities directly affected by the spills.

Other recent spills in Europe have occurred in Sweden, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Estonia, & the UK.
In the past decade alone, major spills have been reported in Central & Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa,and North & South America.

Uncontrolled large-scale discharge of toxic effluent from industrial facilities, such as chemical plants, oil and slurry pipelines, and mine tailings dams pose a serious hazard to the natural environment and to public health and safety.
Mine tailings pond dams constitute the greatest threat, because of their high concentration of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, As, Cd, Hg) and toxic chemicals, large number, environmentally sensitive locations, unstable nature, and often poor to non-existent maintenance.
Thousands of mine tailings dams situated in Europe and tens of thousands world-wide, with numerous large-scale spills having occurred in the past several decades.
Many sensitive wetland areas in Europe and elsewhere are under threat from large-scale mine tailings dam spills (e.g., RAMSAR, NATURA 2000, Bird and Habitats conservation sites).

Heavy metals can persist in the soil and groundwater over a long period and are bio-accumulative. This can result in long-term damage to flora and fauna and give rise to detrimental effects in humans, through introduction into the food chain & drinking water system.
Environmental and societal impact of mine tailings dam spills, therefore, can be enormous, especially from a socio-economic aspect.
However, little is known of the potential harmful impact of a mine tailings dam spill on an environment and society, except in a few well-publicised and documented cases.
In both the Los Frailes and Baia Mare spills, there was a lack of any preventative measures and emergency planning and co-ordination by the authorities prior to and in response after the disasters.

Stakeholders & Actors
- Local, regional, and national environmental and civil protection and emergency response agencies and regulatory bodies. Public sector environmental and civil protection agencies from these countries.
- Pan-national authorities, such as European Environment Agency, United Nations Environment Programme.
- Non-governmental environmental organisations, such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, World Wildlife Fund for Nature.
- General public.
Stakeholders and actors require comprehensive, timely, up-to-date, and readily accessible information on the threat and risk posed by large-scale industrial spills to the environment and society for effective preventive and emergency contingency planning purposes and crisis for better informed decision-making in risk and disaster assessment and management.
Stakeholders and actors want to be able to choose a risk prevention or reduction strategy from a set of options on the type and manner of a response to a risk or crisis prior to, during, and after a spill event.

To be effective, risk characterisation, assessment, and management need to begin prior to a spill occurring, and be undertaken in a consistent, efficient, and cost-effective manner, with periodic updating, re-assessment, and review of the risks.
Information requirements:
- What is the nature of the spill hazard?
- How big a risk does a spill pose to the environment and society?
- What are the ecological and societal values at risk from a spill event?
- What are the environmental and socio-economic costs related to a spill event?
- What options are available and which actions should be taken to lower the likelihood or severity of a spill occurring by instituting preventive, mitigation, control, or other measures aimed at eliminating the cause or reducing the severity of its consequences?
- What are the social, economic, legal, and political implications and consequences of taking, or not taking, action to reduce the threat or impact of a spill event to the environment and society?

To provide information and insight on the potential and actual risks and impact to an environment and society of large-scale industrial spills, thereby permitting more effective prevention, mitigation, contingency planning, and emergency response prior to and after a spill by:
- Providing comprehensive and timely environmental and societal information on the threat and risk of a spill.
- Providing the means for rapid and convenient updating of the information.
- Providing ready and easy access to the information from the office or field.
Permit better informed decision-making related to pre-disaster preparedness (risk assessment, prevention, & mitigation) and post-disaster response (co-ordination, control, & recovery) activities.

Allow authorities to choose the most appropriate risk prevention, reduction, and management approaches from a set of options, based on site characterisation and risk analysis studies, including social, economic, legal, and political aspects.
Create a regional enterprise network information management and decision-support system to provide information on the potential and actual risks of large-scale industrial spills to the environment and society by:
- Integrating and analysing thematic and risk information on potential impact areas of a spill.
- Identifying, characterising, quantifying, and assessing the environmental and societal threat, risk, and potential and actual impact of a spill.