Complete Bangkal cleanup ensured

First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) welcomes the help of the Inter-Agency Committee on Environmental Health (IACEH), the government task force formed to help ensure that the cleanup and restoration of petroleum-leak affected areas in Barangay Bangkal in Makati City adheres to international standards and procedures.

“We are glad to have the IACEH Task Force and we are confident they will continue to recognize and approve of our restoration activities. We are doing our very best to tap both local and international experts to achieve our goal of complete restoration of Barangay Bangkal,” said FPIC president Tony Mabasa in a statement.

Significant efforts

“FPIC to date has made significant efforts to ensure that the requirements for restoration set forth by the government are complied with and that they meet international standards,” Mabasa added.

Mabasa stressed that because the country has no existing regulations and guidelines in the remediation of contaminated sites, FPIC has been following international remediation standards.

“The support and direction that the government task force has been extending to us has been invaluable to our commitment to meet these strictest of remediation standards. They will help us deliver our promise of complete restoration to the petroleum-leak affected areas,” Mabasa said.

The IACEH is a government body created by virtue of Executive Order No. 489.  It was formed in February 2011 by Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona who also chairs the IACEH.

The Technical Working Group is now headed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with the Department of Health (DOH) serving as its secretariat.

Restoration focus

Other members of the group include representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE), the UP-National Poison Management and Control Center and the Makati City government.

The restoration activities are focused on rehabilitating the West Tower Condominium and the retrieval of the remaining petroleum spillage that has settled mostly underground in the area of the South Super Highway and the adjacent service road near the Magallanes Flyover.

The task force plans to reconcile its studies with those of the Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), which were done by a team of Makati City consultants headed by Dr. Carlo Arcilla, as well as with the data from FPIC experts.

Standards reviewed

Initially, the standards set by the US Environmental Protection Agency, World Health Organization and the Dutch government are being reviewed and considered for the health and environmental guidelines. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has previously approved the environmental remediation efforts of pipeline operator FPIC in Barangay Bangkal.

DOST Industrial Technology Development Institute director Dr. Nuna E. Almanzor approved the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) of the Multi-Phase Extraction (MPE) Technology that the FPIC has been using for its remediation efforts in the affected area.

“The performance of the (proposed remediation) technology has been proven already and verified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA). The technology has been applied for remediation of various contaminated sites in US for many years with satisfactory results,” Almanzor said.

The review by the DOST of the proposed MPE technology was also requested by IACEH. The MPE technology was provided by FPIC’s multinational environmental services contractor CH2MHill Philippines Inc. whose team of experts bring the knowledge gained from a wide range of projects around the world to create innovative solutions that are also models for the industry.

FPIC had also installed 10 more submersible pumps at the oil spill-hit areas in Barangay Bangkal to speed up the recovery of millions of liters of fuel that leaked from the ruptured portion of its pipeline.