Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster

The Ok Tedi environmental disaster caused severe harm to the environment along 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) of the Ok Tedi River and the Fly River in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea between about 1984 and 2013. The lives of 50,000 people have been disrupted. One of the worst environmental disasters caused by humans, it is a consequence of the discharge of about two billion tons of untreated mining waste into the Ok Tedi from the Ok Tedi Mine, an open pit mine in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

This mining pollution, due to the collapse of the Ok Tedi tailings dam system in 1984 and the lack of a proper waste retention facility, was the subject of class action litigation, naming Ok Tedi Mining Limited and BHP Billiton and brought by local landowners. Villagers downstream from Ok Tedi in the Fly River system in the Middle Fly District and the southern and central areas of the North Fly District, in particular, believe that the effect on their livelihood from this disaster far outweighs the benefits they have received from the mine's presence in their area.

In 1999, BHP reported that 90 million tons of mine waste was annually discharged into the river for more than ten years and destroyed downstream villages, agriculture and fisheries. Mine wastes were deposited along 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) of the Ok Tedi and the Fly River below its confluence with the Ok Tedi, and over an area of 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi). BHP's CEO, Paul Anderson, said that the Ok Tedi Mine was "not compatible with our environmental values and the company should never have become involved." As of 2006^[update], mine operators continued to discharge 80 million tons of tailings, overburden and mine-induced erosion into the river system each year. About 1,588 square kilometres (613 sq mi) of forest has died or is under stress. As many as 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) may eventually be harmed, an area equal to the U.S. state of Rhode Island or the Danish island of Funen.

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