Analyzing Annual Newsletters of Local Association for Protection of Waga River: Water Quality Monitoring for Closed Mines and Long-term Changes in Related Topics in Newsletters

Abstract

A local association, “Wagagawa no seiryu wo mamoru kai” (The Association for Protection of Clean Water of the Waga River), was established by diverse stakeholders to protect the “clean” Waga River in 1972. As a major activity, the association has been monitoring the water quality (pH and concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, and As) of discharges from closed mines and downstream river sites, and reporting the results in their annual newsletter. To understand how information should be disclosed, it is worth noting that all the monitoring results, including the exceedance of mine discharge standards of the above-mentioned metals, have been made public and discussed in the newsletters. The analysis of the text of the annual newsletters published in 1972-2019 showed long-term primary changes in topics, that is, from (1) initial concern about general environmental pollution to (2) water quality monitoring and measures for preventing environmental pollution by closed mines to (3) the protection of natural environments including aquatic organisms. Our results would contribute to further analysis and discussion of the activities of this association to consider purpose-driven flexible environmental management in abandoned and closed mines in Japan.