Daphne Eviatar had a very interesting op-ed piece in yesterday’s Washington Post that covered the very same issues discussed in a post on this blog back on July 18.

One month later–at least some of us are on top of the news!

Evitar discusses the sections in NAFTA and CAFTA that give multinational businesses rights to challange national laws that they believe to be in restraint of trade.

Just like the post here (suspiciously like it one might say), Eviatar uses the example of Glamis Gold, discussing its mining operations in Guatemala and its challange to a California law requiring the backfilling of open pit mines.

It’s a good piece; it does go into more detail than the quick post here. I’ll (grudgingly) grant her that.

But I do have to make one correction. Eviatar cites as the major environmental danger of Glamis’s gold mines the cyanide used to leach the gold from the ore.

The former gold mining executive that I talked to assured me that this was not the problem; that cyanide breaks down very quickly and is no hazard (unless tons of it are deliberately dumped into the water.)

There are two major problems with the gold mine. The environmental hazard comes from the ore left over once the process is completed. These “tailings” are piled on the ground as waste and can easily wash into nearby water supplies. The tailings contain numerous other heavy metals–including arsenic–that will kill off any wildlife in the streams and lakes that they pollute, and pose a serious health hazard to local residents.

But the problem that most worries the local village leaders that I listened to, is the enormous use of water by the mine. A Glamis mine in Honduras has exhausted the water supply of the region it is located in–destoying the indigenous peoples’ ability to farm–and is now applying for water rights in neighboring provinces. The Guatemalan leaders fear that this will happen to them. They also complain that the company did not conduct the local consultations it was requried to under international law.

So, just in case Daphne stumbles across this post; now you know (as Paul Harvey would say)…the rest of the story.