Faulty garbage holding station can operate again

Days after it was suspended for adding to the pollution on Manila Bay, the company running a garbage holding facility in Tondo, Manila, was given provisional authority to resume operations after paying a P150,000 fine and applying initial remedies.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it had temporarily lifted the suspension of Philippine Ecology System Corp. (PhilEco), the operator of the Vitas Marine Loading Station at Pier 18, where trash collected in the city is temporarily stored before being hauled in barges to a landfill in Navotas City.

The suspension was imposed on Oct. 8 by the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) after the facility was found discharging leachate and spilling garbage on the bay, among other violations of the conditions set in its environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

The bureau said it lifted the suspension on Oct. 10 following a motion for reconsideration filed by PhilEco, its payment of a P150,000 fine for the ECC violations, and after the firm performed short-term “corrective measures” in “substantial compliance” with DENR directives.

These measures include the backfilling of its pond area, the installation of liners, drainage pipes and runoff storage tanks, water cleanup using two newly purchased trash-collecting boats; initial repair works on the facility’s seawall, installation of nets at the docking area to prevent spillage during loading; and installation of pumps that suck leachate from the waste collection area into containers bound for the landfill.