Inside E-LAW: Comings and Goings

Glenn Miller

E-LAW U.S. board member Glenn Miller

New E-LAW U.S. board member and mining expert Dr. Glenn Miller has helped E-LAW advocates around the world challenge environmental damage caused by mines.

Glenn is the Director of the Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences and Health at the University of Nevada at Reno. His research interests include the effects of mine waste on aquatic systems. He holds a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry from the University of California at Davis.

In 1997, Glenn helped E-LAW Advocate Hector Huertas of Centro de Asistencia Legal Popular (CEALP) convince the Panamanian government to suspend plans by a Canadian company to mine gold from hillsides occupied by rural peasant communities in Los Santos. Glenn identified a serious flaw in the company’s plans — inadequate measures to prevent acid mine drainage from its waste rock dumps. Waste rock often contains sulfide, which converts to sulfuric acid when exposed to air or water. The acid leaches heavy metals from the waste rock into surrounding surface and ground water. Once started, the leaching can continue for decades and is nearly impossible to stop or clean up.

Glenn submitted a letter to Panama’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry with an analysis of the company’s plan to use a cheap and unproven method to control acid mine drainage. As a result, government authorities indefinitely suspended preparatory work at the mine and formed an independent committee to re-examine the project proposal.

Glenn is currently working with E-LAW advocates in South Africa to challenge abusive mining practices.

Sidney Jones

E-LAW U.S. board member Sidney Jones

E-LAW U.S. welcomes Sidney Jones of Human Rights Watch to the Board of Directors. Sidney has been the Executive Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch since 1989. An Indonesia specialist for 20 years, she took an eight-month leave of absence from Human Rights Watch in December 1999 to serve as director of the Human Rights Office of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Sidney was the Indonesia and Philippines researcher at Amnesty International in London and a program officer at the Ford Foundation, first in Jakarta, then New York.

Sidney holds degrees in Oriental Studies and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and spent a year at Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran. Sidney has written extensively on human rights in Asia with a particular focus on Indonesia and East Timor. She appears frequently as a television and radio commentator on Asian issues.

Derek Snelling

E-LAW U.S. Brightwood Law Fellow Derek Snelling

Many thanks to Derek Snelling for doing an extraordinary job, under tight deadlines, to advance environmental law and protect the global environment. Derek served as E-LAW U.S. Brightwood Law Fellow from 1998 to 2000.

Derek graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Solomon Islands before joining E-LAW U.S. As Brightwood Law Fellow, Derek responded to hundreds of requests for assistance from E-LAW advocates seeking information on: wildlife policy, rice patents, access to information, pesticide laws, enhanced risk and dioxin exposure, retroactive application of environmental laws, factory farms, EIA law, and more.

Derek is now in private practice and working to protect the environment in the Pacific Northwest. You can reach him at snelling@efn.org.