THE Roxol Bioenergy Corp., the bio-ethanol subsidiary firm of the Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI), is appealing to lift the cease and desist order (CDO) issued against them by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for violation of the Clean Water Act.
“Roxol immediately appealed for the lifting of the CDO with the Pollution Adjudication Board and complied with all the required documentation of the DENR,” said Florencio Mamauag Jr., Roxas Holdings Inc.'s vice president of legal and administration.
Mamauag said the cease and desist order dated January 22 was only served the other week.
Mamauag added that “while working for the lifting of the CDO, Roxol will conduct its annual repairs and maintenance program and accelerate its ongoing integrated project for upgrading and expanding its waste water treatment facility.”
This is to “prepare its factory for the second half” of 2015, he said.
Last January 4, Roxol temporarily stopped its operation after about 800 residents, mostly fishermen from Barangays 1, 2, 3, Canroma, San Juan and Don Salvador Benedicto in Pontevedra, said that Roxol's waste polluted the Marayo River and caused a fish kill.
Roxol Bioenergy, which started operations in July 2014, has the capacity to produce 30 million liters of ethanol a year or around 100,000 liters a day.