Las Piñas residents warned against drinking groundwater

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday cautioned the public against drinking groundwater in Las Piñas after a manufacturing company confirmed traces of cancerous trichloroethylene (TCE) around its former plant in the city.

In a press conference, DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes announced the possible contamination of the water extracted from the ground in Las Piñas City, and consequently issued a ban on the importation, sale, and use of TCE.

"I urge residents of Las Piñas City to stop drinking water extracted from the ground due to possible contamination from the hazardous chemical," Reyes said.

The DENR chief especially asked residents living near or around the former factory of Philips Corp. in Pamplona to discontinue drinking water extracted from the ground.

"But the public should not panic because the DENR, local government, and Philips Corp. and other government agencies are working together to undertake the necessary measures," Reyes said.

"The Maynilad Water Services Inc. servicing the Las Piñas area will provide sufficient water supply to fill in the needs of residents in the affected areas. It assured of efficient and enough water through rationing," he added. "The Department of Health, meanwhile, will continue to monitor the health situation in the affected areas even if there is yet any report of persons getting sick because of the possible contamination."

Donough Foley, vice president for commercial affairs of Philips Asia Pacific, said the company conducted a recent random sampling on some 102 wells in the surrounding area of their former plant in Las Pinas City and found that 19 of the wells have traces of TCE.

The random sampling being undertaken by the company is part of its remediation measures, as it has already closed its plant in the city and transferred to Laguna.

Las Piñas Mayor Imelda Aguilar said the areas within Pamplona, Greenview Village and Manuela Subdivision are likely to be affected by the possible contamination.

However, Foley claimed that Philips Corp. might not have caused the TCE contamination, as they believed that its former plant might not be the only source of the TCE in the area.

He noted that the company had stopped the use of TCE in 1994, or a year before the transfer of its plant to Laguna.

Nevertheless, the DENR’s Environment Management Bureau (EMB) has taken 15 water samples from three different locations in the vicinity of the former Philips Corp. plant in Pamplona to determine the presence of the toxic substance.  The samples were subsequently taken to the United States for laboratory tests, and results of the tests are expected to arrive by next week.

DENR-EMB director Ely Anthony Ouano said government agencies have yet to begin clean up efforts, pending the result of the laboratory tests.

According to Ouano, the TCE is a chemical widely used as industrial solvent to remove grease and oil in metal parts and textile, and as ingredient in adhesives, paint remover, typewriter correction fluid, pepper sprays, pharmaceuticals, and insecticides.

And even while the TCE is degraded slowly if mixed with groundwater due to the absence of micro-organisms and sunlight, Ouano said that exposure to TCE could cause headache, dizziness, increased risk of liver cancer, and increased possibility of miscarriage.  He further said that TCE has been classified as "probable to produce human carcinogen."

Ouano said the country’s importation of TCE is estimated at two tons per year.

Meanwhile, the DENR-EMB director said they are in the process of determining which company is responsible for the possible TCE contamination of groundwater, noting that it is a violation under the Clean Water Act.