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IN filing a notice to sue against environment and health officials along with a power firm in Naga City, n Cebu, ecology lawyers said they want tougher laws and enforcement of policies on coal ash disposal.
In their notice to sue, lawyers Gloria Estenzo-Ramos and Benjamin Cabrido cited violations committed by these officials and the firm. They cited the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999, Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
?The open and indiscriminate dumping of fly ash by Salcon Power Corp./KEPCO SPC Power Corp. (Kepco) (was done) with the approval, tolerance, inaction or indifference of the officials of the DENR, Cebu province and Naga City,? said the two lawyers.
Cabrido and Estenzo-Ramos, both members of the Global Legal Action on Climate Change or GLACC, said the indiscriminate coal ash disposal caused contamination of water from artesian wells and inflicted residents with respiratory illness.
Included in the notice are: Salcon Power Corp. president Dennis Villareal, DENR secretary Horacio Ramos, regional DENR-7 director Leonardo Sibbaluca, Environmental Management Bureau Central Visayas director Alan Arranguez and Naga city health officials.
Arranguez told CEBU DAILY NEWS he had yet to receive a copy of the notice to sue.
GLACC lawyers said the Naga city government didn't bother to monitor the ill effects of the coal ash disposal on their residents.
Estenzo-Ramos, in a press conference held last Friday, said reports reached them that the practice of indiscriminate dumping of coal ash continues in Naga City.
?We are seeking for an administrative regulation, for the guidance of coal operators, where to dispose coal ash. There is still coal ash being dumped. It is already summer, wherein exposure to fly ash is more hazardous to the people,? she said.
The lawyers said the DENR has not passed any regulation on the disposal of coal ash, adding that neither the Cebu province nor Naga City passed an ordinance to regulate such activity.
Cabrido said the problem of coal ash dumping will worsen at the time the new coal-fired power plants of Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. will operate next year.
?The Kepco-SPC is expected to generate more than six times the volume of coal ash that SPC is presently producing. Asa na nila ilabay (Where will they throw that)?? he asked.
Estenzo-Ramos, her husband Dante and Cabrido have opposed the agreement between the Capitol and Kepco-SPC for a coal ash dumping facility in Naga City, citing the toxicity of coal ash on the environment and to people's health.
In the original memorandum of agreement, KSPC would pay the province $1 per metric ton of coal ash in exchange for processing the same and constructing a landfill facility.
This was later amended with Capitol opting to sell coal ash from KSPC to cement factories. Editorial Assistant Ma. Bernadette A. Parco
