Alcohol plant faces fines for fish kill

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—An alcohol fermenting plant faces penalties following the spill of 46,000 liters of molasses that was initially ruled as the cause of the fish kill downstream of the Pampanga River on Sept. 20.

Lormelyn Claudio, director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in Central Luzon, said the Far East Alcohol Corp. (Feaco), based in Apalit town in Pampanga province, violated Republic Act No. 9275, or the Clean Water Act of 2004.

An EMB team found that one of the company’s storage tanks was damaged, “causing the raw molasses to leak/spill into the Pampanga River.”

Molasses is used for producing alcoholic beverages.

The EMB also said Feaco violated the conditions in its environmental compliance certificate, pertaining to the installation of mitigating measures, and for not addressing the complaint of affected communities.

Anthony Co, Feaco vice president, told the Inquirer that the company had started building containment walls around its tanks and re-enforcing these. —TONETTE OREJAS