‘Convert Calaca coal-fired plant’

CALACA, Batangas — Concerned citizens here have urged the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to convert the Calaca coal-fired power plant into a gas-fired facility to stop alleged mercury pollution in the community.

The local folk issued the call following reports that the Senate environment committee chaired by Sen. Robert Jaworski will conduct public hearings on the health hazards posed by alleged toxic emissions from coal-fired plants.

The 600-megawatt Calaca power plant has long been denounced by many environmental groups for allegedly "poisoning the community without the residents knowing it."

In previous interviews, Napocor president Jesus Alcordo reportedly admitted that the power firm has been encountering problems with the power plant’s emission system but that it has been working on immediate solutions.

The plant has been operating in the past 18 years and still has seven more years of operating life ending in 2009, Napocor said.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia, an environmental group, said it recently discovered that the power plant has been spewing smoke heavily laden with deadly neurotoxin mercury and other heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead.

Metal pollution in the area was discovered when ash samples from the plant were examined by the Philippine Institute for Pure and Applied Chemistry at the Ateneo de Manila University and were found to contain the deadly neurotoxin mercury.

Neurotoxin mercury, laboratory findings show, is so deadly that even one-seventh of a teaspoon of it is enough to contaminate a 62-hectare lake and render the fish there not safe for human consumption.

The Calaca power plant is located in a coastal area facing Balayan Bay to where the alleged toxic liquid from the plant’s ash pond is being drained out.