SAN PABLO CITY—Hundreds of tons of toxic industrial wastes stocked inside the closed steel gate of Clean Earth Solutions International Inc. (CESII) in Barangay San Antonio I here are making villagers uneasy.

“We’ve been requesting the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) to allow the company to open for a limited period [so that they could] dispose of and treat the remaining stocks of industrial wastes, but our request remained unheeded,” Javier Icaro, San Antonio I village chair, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday.

CESII is a government-licensed company engaged in the recycling and disposal of hazardous wastes.

Environment officials estimate that hazardous factory wastes placed in numerous steel and plastic drums inside the plant premises could reach up to 900 tons, Icaro said.

Icaro said steel and plastic drums containing the wastes had brought obnoxious stench and threatened the groundwater sources of more than 50 families living around the company premises, including the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus Convent.

According to Teresita Cacao, barangay health worker, at least 10 families suffered diarrhea and abdominal pains, which they suspected were the result of drinking contaminated water after several days of heavy rain in January.

The residents rely on the groundwater for drinking needs.

“We’re afraid that the seepage from the piles of toxic waste has already reached the groundwater level,” Icaro said. However, he admitted that he had yet to confirm the suspicion in the absence of water tests.

The affected residents now get their drinking water from the village hall, which in turn, gets its supply from government water pipes.

On Feb. 14, Mayor Vicente Amante wrote CESII to immediately remove all hazardous and toxic materials inside the company premises. But despite the company’s intention to clean up the mess, the DENR’s Pollution Adjudication Board prevented it from reopening the plant.

In his reply to Amante’s letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, Jung Soo-kim, a South Korean and CESII executive vice president/chief operating officer, said the DENR-PAB could not lift the cease-and-desist order for the company to reopen the plant and finish the job because of a pending case in the Court of Appeals.

The woes of CESII started in September 2006, when government environment officials and the environment group Tanggol Kalikasan discovered unauthorized dump sites of toxic wastes in Candelaria and Sariaya towns in Quezon province.

The drums of hazardous factory wastes found in the dumps were traced to have originated from the CESII compound.

Violation

In October 2006, the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau in Southern Tagalog, slapped CESII with a cease-and-desist order and subsequently closed the plant.

The company was charged with violations of the Clean Water Act (Republic Act No. 9275) and the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990 (RA 6969).

Delio Calabia, former village chair, said the CESII started its operations in the village in 2003.

“We didn’t have any problem with them. They even helped in our health programs, aside from providing jobs to more than 80 villagers. With the plant’s closure, these villagers are now jobless,” he said.