Complexity and Megastructures, Interviews in Talvivaara December 2014 and February 2016
In these excursions to Talvivaara
students witnessed power structures of immense scale rolling over human and
other lived experiences (be it geologic or organic).
Talvivaara is a Finnish mining company in Kainuu, Finland, using bioleaching to extract nickel and zinc from an open pit mine in the vicinity of Talvivaara hills. In addition, concentration of uranium ore is one of the byproducts. Talvivaara is one of the largest open pit mines in the world, and its short history is dominated by massive leaks of toxic water and sludge from the mine, contaminating the lakes and ground water in as large an area as several hundred kilometers in radius. After this outdrawn environmental disaster, the scale of which is unprecedented in Finland, the Finnish government took over the mine and renamed it Terrafame. The controversy around Terrafame continues. The leading organization protesting the mine is Stop.Talvivaara.
Unto Ritvanen, local
official in the Kainuu ELY –keskus (the state authority for the environment and
livelihoods) in conversation with
students and Hyökyaalto activist Jason Marshal at the former Rumo Elementary School. Ritvanen spoke from the
perspective of a state organ, the task of which is supervision of any action
impacting the environment.
Some key elements in this supervision:
Initial Criteria
Environmental Impact Assessment must include all available
data, i.e., company protocols of action, existing conditions, plans of action.
It is now clear that Talvivaara did not and has not disclosed all information
to bring the impact assessment to a correct state. According to Ritvanen, ELY
could not operate accurately due to this lack of information.
Data collection
Sampling and testing of environmental impact is outsourced
to private professional laboratories, rather than conducted by the state
officials themselves. The protocol defining how and where samples are taken has
great impact on what the findings will be. This has proven dramatic in the case
of Talvivaara. Water contaminated by sulphuric acid is heavier than sweet water
(together with some uranium and other heavy metals, sulphuric acid is the main
ingredient in the dumped toxic water from Talvivaara). Water samples from 30 cm
below surface (according to the ELY protocol) will not show the levels of
contamination in the lower levels of water. Molecular biologists Jari Natunen turned
environmental activist predicted that the bottom levels of the contaminated
lakes will die due to high concentration of sulphur. Atte Korhola, professor at
Helsinki University has recently, fall 2017, published official findings that confirms
Natunen’s claim. The bottoms of the lakes have now died.
Above: Video snippet above from first discovery of toxic sludge from Talvivaara mine, 2013
In the discussion with Ritvanen, questions whether these
laboratories are politically neutral emerged. Ritvanen responded that he trusts
these laboratories and questioned the citizen-activists (Natunen and his citizen-scientists) that have been sampling
the water and soil in Talvivaara for years. Important to note: had these activists not raised their voices the leaks would
not have been discovered.
Watch video starting at 4min 37s: Dead sea birds
The tension and distrust between local inhabitants
now-become activists and citizen scientists and official authorities is a prime
example of how situated knowledges can play themselves out, act, and have
impact. Yet at the same time, we see how
indeed, situated knowledges remain a minor knowledge and continues to be in a
state of struggle. Both Ritvanen at ELY and the citizens are in their own
situated and minor positions in regards to the bio-power of the Finnish state
and corporations too large to fail. The pain was viscerally felt.
Student Sanna Ritvanen writes:
Once I had all the facts and the chronology somewhat
collected in my mind, I realized how many different parties
parties are
involved and how people’s private lives, work, money, politics, and personal
values are attached to these events. The intensity of my process was increased
by the fact that my own father, Unto Ritvanen, was involved as a state
official, and that these events took place in my home municipality Sotkamo. To
me, Talvivaara was and is an emotionally charged situation, perhaps even more
than for someone coming from outside the municipality. One question remains
above all: how to separate emotions from facts, reason from sentiment when
dealing with situations such as Talvivaara. Is it even necessary, and to what
degree?
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