Clean up Mactan Channel, DENR tells seaweed firm

The Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP) hailed the decision of the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) ordering US-based FMC Marine Colloids Inc. (FMC) to clean up wastes at the Mactan Channel allegedly discharged by its wastewater treatment facility.

"We are extremely gratified with the quick decision and action of DENR Secretary Elisea G. Gozun. We believe their May 7, 2003 decision may be the win-win conclusion to the long-drawn pollution case," said Benson Dakay, president of SIAP.

SIAP and FMC, at odds over the former’s filing of pollution charges before the PAB last year, moved closer toward settling their dispute after being urged by no less than President Arroyo to resolve their differences.

Mrs. Arroyo said during the recent launch of National Integrated Seaweed Development Program in Cebu that a compromise between the feuding parties will finally pave the way for the inclusion of the Philippine carrageenan into the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

Industry insiders as well as trade officials privy to negotiations on the US GSP, confirmed earlier talks that there has been pressure on SIAP to drop the pollution charges it filed against FMC in exchange for the entry of carrageenan into the US GSP.

The inclusion of carageenan in the US GSP list this year is critical. Semi-refined carrageenan is one of the major dollar earners in the agriculture sector.

Gozun allowed FMC to operate its wastwewater treatment facility if it complies with the stringent water pollution standards imposed by the department.

In a recent statement, Gozun said: "It was agreed that FMC’s discharge point should be in an area that can be seen by anybody and should be accessible to the multi-partite team that we have formed to monitor FMC’s wastewater discharge."

Last Dec. 12, the PAB ordered FMC to clean up Mactan Channel and pay a fine of P1,000 for every day of delay due to black mounds found near the company’s discharge pipe as revealed in its sonar and underwater investigation.

The PAB said FMC’s wastewater treatment facility will operate one primary sedimentation tank; two units preseparation tank; three units diffused aeration tank; one unit secondary sedimentation tank, and one unit chlorination tank.

At the same time, Gozun ordered FMC and SIAP to jointly commission an independent body to continue investigating the presence of the black mounds to be able to prevent a similar occurrence of the incident.

Gozun said the results of the investigation will determine the final ruling on the case. FMC has earlier asked the PAB to reconsider its clean-up order, insisting there is no conclusive evidence to pinpoint the company as the sole source of the pollutive black mounds that accumulated in the Mactan Channel.

SIAP said it will abide by the results of the study.