PUTRAJAYA: A food factory in Beranang, Selangor, has been issued a two-week stop work order from yesterday as it is believed to be the cause of the odour pollution in Sungai Semenyih that led to water disruptions in the state.
The environment and water ministry (Kasa), in a statement today, said the Selangor Department of Environment (DOE) had opened an investigation paper to charge the factory owner on suspicion of having been responsible for the shutdown of the Semenyih water treatment plant (LRA) on Aug 31 and later on Sept 3.
“Investigations by the Selangor DOE last Thursday and Friday (Sept 2 and 3) found that the plant was operational.
“Several industrial effluent discharge and river water samples at the inlet were taken and sent to the Chemistry Department for chemical composition analysis.
“Further investigations were conducted at midnight on Friday (Sept 3).
“Air quality surveillance carried out at the factory’s final discharge point (prior to public drains) had detected several substances, namely volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the air, which released an odour similar to the substances detected in the water samples taken during the Semenyih LRA shutdown on Aug 31,“ the statement read.
According to Kasa, following these findings, the DOE issued a notice to the factory under Section 38 (1) (a) of the Environmental Quality Act, 1974 to stop pollution immediately and the factory production process had been suspended until further notice.
The case is being investigated under Section 25 (1) Environmental Quality Act, 1974 and the Environmental Quality (Industrial Effluent) Regulations 2009.
Kasa said the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) had also taken the waste water samples as well as other evidence and an investigation paper had been opened under Section 121 (1) (C) of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (Act 655), over contamination of water.
If convicted, this provides for a maximum imprisonment of 10 years or a fine not exceeding RM500,000, or both.
The Sungai Semenyih LRA was shut down following the detection of odour-causing substances by Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) after 2 TON (threshold odour number) level reading was recorded at the Jenderam Hilir inlet at 5.15pm on Friday.
The shutdown caused unscheduled water supply disruptions in 463 areas in five Air Selangor regions, namely Petaling (172 areas), Hulu Langat (54 areas), Sepang (194 areas), Putrajaya (23 areas) and Kuala Langat (20 areas). - FMT
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