By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) plans to create its own team that will monitor compliance with environmental laws among establishments.
The plan came in light of yesterday’s committee on environment hearing, which found that some sugar mills and distilleries in Negros Occidental have not been complying with various environmental regulations.
SP member Patrick Lacson, committee chair, said the monitoring team shall comprise officials or representatives of provincial government departments and local governments.
He said he does not understand why some companies invest millions of pesos to comply with environmental laws while others get away with their violations.
Noncompliant companies “will just pay the fine of P10,000 a day or P3.6 million a year for their violations, when their average income is P800 million annually,” he said.
“It is unfair to the public, unfair to the localities where they are located and unfair to the environment,” Lacson stressed.
Lacson and SP member Alain Gatuslao proposed the creation of the monitoring team. Lacson said they will call for another committee hearing on their proposal.
ODOR CONTROLLED
Meanwhile, San Carlos Bioenergy, Inc. manager Arnel Amparo said the foul odor emanating from their wastewater has already been controlled.
“We have also managed to control the wastewater we are producing,” said Amparo, who was present in yesterday’s SP hearing.
San Carlos Bioenergy, Inc. plans to barge its wastewater to the Environment department-designated area at Siaton Point, 20 nautical miles off Siaton town, Negros Oriental.
Amparo said they have an alternative dumping procedure: through fertigation, or by irrigating sugarcane farmlands using their wastewater.
“As long as it does not rain, our wastewater storage lagoon will not overflow,” he said. But with the onset of the rainy season, “we should resort to barging,” he said.
Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. is against the barging.
Amparo said they hope the governor changes his mind. “Our wastewater fully complies with the conditions under the London Protocol, as it is natural and organic,” he said./PN
