Environment Secretary Gina Lopez INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
LIMAY—Environment Secretary Gina Lopez has given San Miguel Consolidated Power Corp. (SMCPC) a day to clean up ash residue allegedly released from its coal-fired power plant at the Petron Bataan Refinery here.
Lopez’s instruction was relayed by Environment Undersecretary Arturo Valdez to SMCPC representatives during a technical conference here on Monday.
Valdez ordered SMCPC to install closed-circuit television cameras to monitor measures that the company would implement to contain the alleged ash spill. SMCPC is a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) that has a controlling stake in Petron Corp.
Petron and SMCPC operate the 150-megawatt (MW) plant near the refinery that was slapped with notices of violation on Dec. 28 and Jan. 6 by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) for ash that had allegedly polluted a waterway.
In an interview, San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang said the company would “gladly” move the deposits of what he said was lime powder—not ash—to another site within the sprawling refinery complex.
Petron had originally planned to store the lime powder at another site on its property, but was denied a key permit by the local government, forcing the firm to store the byproduct of its oil refining operations at a temporary site.
This company-owned site is closer to a community of informal settlers who are also occupying Petron’s property, company officials said.
“It’s good if we relocate this,” Ang said. “This lime powder is made into gypsum, which we need for our cement manufacturing plants. We cannot throw tins away because this costs $100 per ton.”
Petron’s refinery produces a total of two tons of lime powder per day which are collected into silos, then transferred into truck-mounted cylinders, then transported to the temporary holding facility which the informal settlers are complaining about.
Ang is set to meet with Lopez on Jan. 11 to discuss the issue.
Regarding the informal settlers’ earlier complaints about skin rashes allegedly being caused by the lime powder being blown in the direction of their community, Petron officials said they conducted a meeting with the Multipartite Monitoring Team composed of representatives of the company, the local government and residents last Friday and determined that the rashes on some residents were, in fact, scabies (an infectious disease caused by tick bites) and itch caused by exposure to caterpillars.
The company deployed doctors to examine and help residents while the Department of Health conducted a health audit in the area.
Following a Jan. 6 meeting with the plant’s owners, Lormelyn Claudio, EMB Central Luzon director, said SMCPC and Petron “decided to stop dumping bottom ash in any of their ash ponds.”
“Petron also committed to extend assistance to the rural health unit to monitor the impact of the ash spill,” Claudio said.
Jaime Santos, SMCPC spokesperson, said they would treat the newly generated bottom ash (or residue at the bottom of a furnace) to pass safety standards before this would be taken to an SMC facility in Pangasinan province.
“It will take only a day to take the 20 tons of bottom ash to a qualified facility outside Bataan. A part of it will be taken to cement factories,” Santos told the Inquirer.
Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia said the local government is developing a housing project, financed by SMCPC and Petron, for the relocation of communities near the buffer zone of the refinery.