Company fined $26,700 for sludge incident

By Gia Chinh December 12, 2023 | 05:30 pm PT

An excavator cleans up a road in Ta Phoi Commune, Lao Cai Province, following a sludge leakage on Aug. 8, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Lao Cai People's Committee

The Lao Cai People’s Committee in northern Vietnam has fined a company VND650 million ($26,776) following a sludge leakage incident that affected over 100 families.

The Ta Phoi Copper company was fined VND400 million for causing a drainage breakage of a tailings pond, and VND250 million for not truthfully providing reports about its structures and measures to protect the environment, the committee said Monday.

A representative of the company said it had abided by the committee’s decision.

The firm has paid 104 affected families over VND5.6 billion and organized the relocation of 11 families in Phoi 3 Village, Ta Phoi Commune, which is located within areas with erosion risks. By Sept. 27, water and mud samples in certain areas were already meeting regulatory standards, the representative said.

The company has not been allowed to operate again.

At around 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 8, sludge at the tailings pond of Ta Phoi flowed down a residential area. 46 families, with over 200 people, saw sludge invading their homes. The sludge could be over a meter deep in certain houses.

The incident also buried 49 ha of rice, crops and aquaculture in neighboring areas under the sludge. Seventy six families in Thoi 3 village experienced water shortages due to pipe damages. Around 50 wells were also buried by the sludge.

Lao Cai authorities said the sludge leakage was caused by heavy rains that caused structural changes of the sludge inside the pond.