Oil pipe leakage cleanup starts in Makati barangay
The owner of a petroleum pipeline that leaked two years ago, affecting residents of West Tower Condominium in Makati City announced that it started with the long-term remediation of Barangay Bangkal, where the building is located, using Multi Phase Extraction (MPE), a method assailed by residents of the condominium, invoking safety concerns.
In a statement, the First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) said the remediation effort began Saturday last week. The process was expected to recover liters of processed petroleum products that leaked into the ground from the 117-km oil pipeline stretching from Batangas province to Pandacan in Manila.
“The MPE technology is the more permanent solution to the cleanup of Barangay Bangkal to address any long-term health risks for residents in the area,” said FPIC president Tony Mabasa.
Mabasa said the government, through an interagency committee that approved the use of MPE in the remediation, vouched for the system’s safety, quoting an opinion by the Department of Science and Technology which assessed the procedure.
Tried and true
Citing a report of the Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI), an attached agency of the science department, the FPIC president claimed the MPE’s performance “has been proven and verified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.”
“The technology has been applied for remediation of various contaminated sites in the US for many years with satisfactory results. On the basis of the performance of the technology, their track record has been established,” Mabasa quoted ITDI director Nuna Almanzor as saying.
Almanzor wrote an assessment of the MPE which she submitted to the Department of Health in April last year.
But Manuel Chuaunsu Jr., a unit owner at West Tower, said the FPIC intentionally omitted Almanzor’s statement expressing her apprehension about using the MPE in Barangay Bangkal.
“However, the technology is typically applied for remediation of abandoned sites,” Almanzor added in her report, a copy of which Chuaunsu provided to the Inquirer. “Considering the location of the site where the technology will be applied, other factors may need to be evaluated.”
The ITDI director said any party who intended to use the MPE must consider other factors like “the impact of the remediation process on residents living within the vicinity such as fumes and noise.”
“Precautions may need to be taken during the application of the technology to minimize or eliminate these potential hazards,” Almanzor said.
