The Korean company that operates the new power plant in Naga City yesterday got a break from the environment court, which allowed the firm to sell its coal ash waste to two Cebu-based firms.
In her order, Regional Trial Court Judge Marilyn Ligura Yap of Branch 28, Mandaue City, granted the motion filed by lawyers of the Korean Electric Power Corp.-Salcon Power Plant (Kepco-SPC) to modify a previous order restricting the disposal of their coal ash waste.
“There is an immediate need for disposal sites for the fly ash generated by Kepco,” Yap said.
But the judge didn’t specify that Kepco can dispose of its ash waste in a new landfill within the controversial Balili property owned by the provincial government in Naga.
Judge Yap modified her previous March 15 order that prohibited all coal-fired power plants in Naga and Toledo Cities to stop dumping their ash waste outside their premises because it poses “health risks to residents.”
A petition for the issuance of an environment protection order (EPO) is pending in court, after local ecology groups complained that coal-fired power plants in the cities of Naga and Toledo were “indiscriminately dumping” toxic coal ash waste.
Kepco-SPC, in a motion, argued that its own ash waste facility and a separate ash pond of SPC could only accommodate their ash waste until the end of this month and that another storage area was needed.
In her order, the judge said Kepco-SPC is allowed to deliver its coal ash to cement company Geo-Transport and Construction Inc. and the Integrated Resource Recovery Management Inc. (FDRCON), which will use the coal ash waste to produce bio fertilizer.
Both companies could use 40 metric tons each of coal ash waste every day.
However, Kepco-SPC lawyer Guillermo Dabay Jr. said the power company produces 120 tons of coal ash daily, so still needs to use the Balili property to dump the remaining coal ash waste.
Judge Yap required officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Provincial Planning and Development Office to submit a report on the readiness of the Balili landfill in Naga.
Yap required the DENR to inform the court about its review of the Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC) of the province of Cebu on the development of the ash pond.
The PPDO was also ordered to submit a plan for restoring the habitat of mangrove trees, which no longer existed based on the court’s ocular inspection last July 29 and last November 2010.
The court is set to convene with both parties on Sept. 16.
In an interview, ecology lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos of the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) said Kepco should not use any excuse that would justify dumping coal ash in the Balili property.
“They were sufficiently forewarned that we would resort to the courts if they dump coal ash in Balili,” Ramos told Cebu Daily News.
Ecology lawyers objected to the coal-fired power plant as a a source of air pollution and coal ash waste that endangered the health of surrounding communities.
Coal-fired plants are also the target of environmental advocates in other countries for using coal, which is a cheap source of energy but considered the “dirtiest” because of emissions of sulfur dioxide in the air and ash waste that contains heavy metals and other toxic elements.
Among the defendants in the environmental court case are the Cebu provincial government, DENR, Cebu Energy Development Corp. and the local government of Naga and Toledo Cities.
The Kepco-SPC coal-fired power plant was inaugurated by President Benigno Aquino III early this year, bringing a total of 200 megawatts to Cebu’s power grid, which was suffering frequent brownouts.
The Capitol’s 2008 purchase of the Balili property is under investigation by the Ombudsman’s Office as a “grossly disadvantageous contract.”
The province bought the property for P98.9 million despite a DENR survey that said most of the area is underwater and classified as public domain.