100 signatures reached
To: All home/holiday home owners and every person who loves the West Coast
SOUTH AFRICA: STOP Mining Companies from killing the West Coast's unique biosphere
Dear West Coast Lovers and Home Owners
PLEASE support the campaign to STOP Mining Companies from raping the pristine West Coast in "experimental' phosphate mining projects. Please read the background and join WCEPA to fight them in the Supreme Court before it is too late? https://www.facebook.com/WCEPA/ and https://www.facebook.com/weskus123/
Why is this important?
The West Coast has a unique and ecologically critical ecosystem and the following is under immediate threat if the mining company EEM is not stopped immediately in the Supreme Court. The Langebaan Lagoon (which is a RAMSAR site and a marine protected area) is an 'aquifer dependant lagoon' and the Elandsfontein aquifer which feeds the Lagoon has been described by experts as 'highly vulnerable and susceptible to anthropogenic pollutants and disturbance' and 'potentially extremely environmentally sensitive' due to its intergranular sandy structure.
The Department of Water Affairs have outlined in their research that:
• the Langebaan Road aquifer and the Elandsfontein aquifer are connected with one another as different influences have the same impact on the monitoring holes of both aquifers,
• water flows from the Elandsfontein aquifer to the Langebaan Lagoon through Geelbek,
• water also flows from Elandsfontein to the Langebaan Road aquifer,
• if the aquifer should be dried up for whatever reason, the sand formations, will lose its capability to store water permanently,
• if pollution of any nature should occur the Langebaan Road aquifer, Elandsfontein aquifer and the Langebaan Lagoon will be affected.
EEM is proposing to mine within:
• a 10-million-year old aquifer, which is a critical groundwater source within a 30 km radius,
• a Core 1 area of a UNESCO Biosphere,
• an internationally significant heritage area, described as an “Origin of Man” site,
• a Critical Biodiversity Area,
• a Buffer zone of the West Coast National Park and
• a climate adaptive corridor,
• an area that is signed into an international Convention on Biological Diversity treaty (South Africa is a signed partner) as part of the Park Expansion Plan Program,
• a priority climate change adaptation corridor where they will be mining on endangered vegetation with 16 Red Data species,
• a most vulnerable municipality with regards to climate change,
• a planned protected area,
• a groundwater catchment area, and
• an inter-regional biodiversity corridor.