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Friday, January 24, 2003
Greepeace: Stop pollution early
By Liberty A. Pinili
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CAN the government fully enforce the Clean Air Act of 1999?
“That remains an open question,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia coordinator Von Hernandez.
He said that while the act focuses on air emission standards, there are doubts on the technical capabilities of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to carry out the provisions of the law.
Congress has not approved the P750-million budget intended for the implementation of the Clean Air Act.
The sum is supposed to finance the purchase of monitoring equipment, hiring of personnel, fund research on clean technology and air pollution prevention measures.
EMB 7 Director Bienvenido Lipayon admitted that while they recently acquired monitoring equipment, they lack personnel to carry out the provisions of the law.
The EMB 7 air quality monitoring section only has three people. The same group monitors the state of rivers in Central Visayas.
The EMB 7 environmental quality division, comprising four people, monitors the compliance of industries with environmental laws.
But it is responsible for 1,148 industrial companies in the region.
Often, the group checks on industrial companies only when there are complaints.
The act provides standards on air emission of industrial firms, motor vehicles, fuel and its additives.
It also bans smoking in public areas and incineration, the process of burning that emits toxic and hazardous gases like dioxins and furans.
The EMB 7 recently acquired an P8.5-million telemetric air quality monitoring equipment but this can only detect suspended particulates—sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxides, benzene, xylene, toluene and ozone.
Lipayon said the EMB 7 does not have an equipment that can detect dioxin and furans—toxic gases emitted when chlorine-containing materials (like plastics) are burned.
How can the DENR regulate something that it cannot monitor?
Aside from those that are detectable by the telemetric monitoring system, the law seeks to
regulate greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons) and persistent organic pollutants (like polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs).
Among the air pollutants from industries that are regulated: ammonia, chlorine and its compounds, cadmium, formaldehyde, arsenic, antimonia and cadmium.
Hernandez yesterday said cleaning the air cannot be achieved through end-of-the-pipe solutions, like standard compliance.
“Even if emissions fall within standards, they will accumulate in the air,” he said.
He said pollution prevention is more important and this is done by finding alternatives: clean technology for industries, stopping the burning of fossil fuel through renewable energy sources, and waste recycling instead of incineration.
As concerned government agencies lack the resources to enforce the law, the stiff penalties provided in the act may perhaps deter violators.
The act imposes a fine of P10,000 or imprisonment of six months to one year on anyone smoking in public places.
Anyone caught burning municipal wastes—except for leaves and twigs from the backyard garden—will be meted the penalty of four years to six years imprisonment.
Fines provided in the law range from P10,000 to P100,000 and a maximum penalty of imprisonment up to six years.
(January 24, 2003 issue)
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