Zambrana Municipal District, Sánchez Ramírez – Since 2012, the Barrick Pueblo Viejo mining company has carried out Participatory Environmental Monitoring every three months, in the company of leaders and representatives of community organizations close to its operation to observe, rectify and verify the controls that they are applied to guarantee the good state of the environment inside and outside the mine.
The company has successfully carried out 45 monitoring days in which participants can evaluate the quality of water, air and noise in the surroundings of Pueblo Viejo operations.
As part of the efforts to strengthen the process and make it more transparent, from day 38 the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC) became involved, as an independent third party, who accompanied the process together with the communities and took samples that were subsequently were analyzed in their laboratories.
On this occasion, the conference received around 46 people, including community members and representatives of organizations: the Technological University of Cibao Oriental (UTECO), the Provincial Directorate of the Environment, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and the representatives of the El Mango, White Stone, Maimón, Cotuí, Sabana del Rey, Hatillo, Tocoa, La Piñita, La Cerca and Guardianon.
Through the monitoring, compliance with Dominican regulations and the environmental objectives of Pueblo Viejo are also evaluated, and the effectiveness of the management system of the industrial and domestic wastewater treatment plants is determined.
During the full day, the participants were received by a team of technicians from the company’s Environment department, who, together with a team from INTEC, carried out a brief training on the entire process before going out into the field to carry out the sampling of the effluents that come out of the water treatment plant, water from the rivers that pass near the mine, air and noise.
At the end, the community members deliver the samples, duly identified, to an independent laboratory that is in charge of carrying out the analyzes and delivering the results, which are then shared on the following day and sent to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources in the compliance reports. .
Participatory Environmental Monitoring is a voluntary and transparency effort carried out by Pueblo Viejo as part of its responsibility to the communities and to the country.
