An official from Kepco Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC) on Friday said they beat the Capitol deadline for the firm to implement measures to prevent the coal dust from spreading and escaping the facility.
Reinerio Lastimoso, KSPC general manager for Community Relations and Environment Management told Cebu Daily News yesterday said that Lastimoso said they had installed GI sheets of about 10 meters high and a wind net as coal yard covering as well as sprinklers to prevent the spread of coal dust in the area.
They also lowered the drop height for the coal from 10 to 13 meters to two to three meters.
“Nahuman na ang tanan gahapon (April 30) at 6 p.m.,” Lastimoso said in a phone interview.
Lastimoso said the Capitol may inspect and check KSPC anytime.
Makita ra man gyud ang resulta,” Lastimoso added.
No complaints about coal dust coming out of their delivery trucks have been reported.
He said Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia visited the plant last April 28 to check on the progress of the plant’s mitigating measures.
He said the sealing process then was 90 percent complete.
Governor Garcia earlier ordered a cease and desist of the operations of the firm after she received complaints of the spread of coal dust in the facility.
She lifted the order on March 28 to give the firm time to implement measures until April 30.
Lastimoso reiterated that ever since the lifting of the cease-and-desist order, no one had called or have come to them complaining about coal dusts.
“Nahurot na lang ang kadtong delivery nga 45, 000 metric tons, wala man nireklamo,” he said.
But yesterday a group of residents in barangay Colon, Naga complained that there were still coal dusts from the plant.
Rodien Paca, representative of Naganian Awareness Against Pollution from Barangay Colon, said that at 5 p.m. Saturday, he saw coal dust from the conveyor of the power plant.
“I was in the house when I noticed the dust,” said Paca, who lives a few meters across the power plant.
However, Paca admitted that the dust is not as thick as they had experienced last month.
Paca said they notified Kepco officials regarding the incident and the management told them that they would investigate their conveyor and fix the problem.
On the meantime, Paca said that Kepco has halted the transportation of their coal to the stockyard to fix the conveyor.
Arnel Alforun, barangay councilor of barangay Tangke, said he had not noticed any coal dusts since the mitigating measures were in place.
“Hopefully, when they start with their full operation there woudn’t be any coal dusts,” Alforun said in Cebuano.
KSPC announced that they had already completed the installation of the mitigating measures in their stockyard on April 30.
Meanwhile, Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong said that he had not yet received any complaints from the residents regarding the coal dust.
“They should not directly complain to the public, they should inform me first,” Chiong said on a phone interview. With a report from reporter Candeze R. Mongaya