'Damning evidence' against Iscor

2001-11-30 09:28

Elise Tempelhoff

Vanderbijlpark - For 40 years Iscor has been aware that it is polluting the environment, but has ignored all suggestions on how to rectify the matter.

This is according to Dr Pieter van Eeden, pollution technologist of the industrial giant, who was suspended last week because he leaked "damning evidence" to a group of smallholders.

The smallholding owners living next to the Iscor plant in Vanderbijlpark are involved in a legal battle with Iscor. They are seeking damages for pollution to, among other things, their borehole water.

Van Eeden has accused Iscor of appointing a "master team of consultants" to take charge of "environmental management".

"They manipulated the results of the pollution tests in order to satisfy the Department of Water Affairs," Van Eeden claimed.

Reports handed to international scientists

Iscor said on Thursday that Van Eeden was suspended after a disciplinary hearing because he "stole" the report. Van Eeden admits handing over one of his own reports as well as a report by a colleague to the legal representative of the smallholding group.

According to Iscor, these were "preliminary reports" that have since been handed over for scrutiny by "international scientists".

Van Eeden said he was appointed as senior scientist at Iscor 17 months ago to look at environmental pollution matters and specifically to monitor the water quality.

He claimed he personally tested the toxicity of wastewater from the plant as well as that of boreholes on the smallholdings in a one kilometre radius from the Iscor plant.

Van Eeden said it was found that the underground and surface water running from the plant into the Rietkuil flows into the Rietspruit and eventually into the Vaal River at the Barrage. He said his findings show that the water is polluted with excessive inorganic substances that attack living organisms.

'People exposed could develop cancer'

Van Eeden said people exposed to this water over a long period of time could develop cancer.

He said he handed his findings to Iscor and told them that he was concerned about the pollution and the welfare of the people. "Iscor's answer was: 'We manufacture steel.'"

"Shortly afterwards, I was barred from continuing with my research."

"I have deep rooted sense of justice. I place God first, then my family and then my work. As a scientist, I wanted to make a contribution to set things straight. My research ran into a wall and I decided that I had to make a contribution somehow and had to expose the way Iscor's management works."

Van Eeden admits to "taking" a report on the quality of the underground water done by a colleague from the head of department's table.

'I was caught out by lie detector'

"I was caught out after Iscor made everybody in the section undergo a lie detector test."

According to Van Eeden, Iscor has been making written promises to the Department of Water Affairs since 1981 to adapt its processes so that they won't damage the environment.

"Nothing has come of it," says Van Eeden.

"Iscor's management have loads of reports on its own pollution, but they ignore it or postpone addressing the true problem."

A spokesperson for Iscor said in August that the industry had set aside R700 million to make the plant more environmentally friendly. The company insists that by the year 2005, no wastewater will be flowing from the plant.

- Beeld