2 plants face off over emissions

ORMOC CITY — Two big plants inside the Leyte Industrial Development Estate are in the middle of a dispute over toxic emissions.

The Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Co. (Philphos) is complaining about excessive sulfur dioxide emissions from the neighboring plant of Philippine Associated Smelter and Refining Corp. (Pasar).

Philphos operates the country’s biggest fertilizer plant, while Pasar has the country’s only copper smelter and refinery.

Philphos said that since June 2, it had been receiving reports of its workers getting dizzy and even fainting near the plant’s gate 3. The reports prompted Philphos to start monitoring emissions from the Pasar plant.

Sulfur dioxide is a strong and pungent gas. Prolonged exposure to it can cause skin and eye irritation, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, corneal burns and conjunctivitis. It can also worsen chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma.

The Clean Air Act sets the allowable level of sulfur dioxide discharge at .07 ppm (parts per million).

Philphos said ambient air readings taken at gate 3 recorded sulfur dioxide emissions from the Pasar plant at 6.7 ppm.

The highest reading was 7.3 ppm, recorded last July 27 at 2:58 p.m., Philphos said.

Concerned over the environmental hazard posed by sulfur dioxide to nearby residents and its employees, Philphos brought the issue to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).

EMB OIC Regional Director Maribel Munsayac called the two companies to a technical conference last August 15. Pasar’s pollution control officers committed to install ambient air quality monitoring equipment at their plant, but Philphos did not accept the offer.

Manila Bulletin sought Pasar’s side but company officials said they were preparing an official reply and will release it once it is ready.

Pasar is 78 percent owned by commodities trader Glencore which acquired the company from the Philippine government in 1999.