DENR expects more complete MICC review

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is hoping that the review by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) on mines it ordered closed, suspended or cancelled will be more comprehensive than the mining audit that took place a few months ago.

Environment Undersecretary Maria Paz Luna said in an interview that there are certain aspects about the mining operations — such as the standards for drinking water near and within mine areas — that the DENR was not able to cover during the controversial audit.

“So there is value added to a separate review that is multiagency highlevel because the DOH (Department of Health) for example (require) the drinking water standards, whether they are met,” Luna told reporters.

“And if they are not met,” she added, “whether they are caused by the mine or not. If they are not caused by the mine, the DENR and DOH will have to figure out what caused it to solve it. So there is value added to the MICC review in terms of the interdisciplinary nature.”

When asked why the audit didn’t cover such standards, Luna said, “there wasn’t an opportunity to actually do independent testing”.

“Now it will be done (by the MICC technical review team),” Luna said, adding that the mining audit was only able to check legal compliance.

The MICC decided to implement the technical review in order to clear the issue surrounding the result of the mining audit that