PUTRAJAYA – A food factory in Beranang, Selangor, has been issued a two-week stop work order from yesterday as the plant is believed to be the cause of the odour pollution detected in Sg Semenyih recently, the Environment and Water Ministry said in a statement today.
It said the Selangor Department of Environment (DoE) has opened an investigation paper to charge the factory owner on suspicion of having been responsible for pollution, which led to the shutdown of the Sg Semenyih Water Treatment Plant (LRA) on August 31 and again on September 3.
“Investigations by the Selangor DoE last Thursday and Friday found that the plant was operational and 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 last Friday and 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 VOC substances detected in the water samples taken during the Semenyih LRA shutdown on August 31,” the statement read.
According to the ministry, following these findings, the DoE issued a notice to the factory under Section 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Quality Act, 1974 to stop the pollution immediately, with the factory production process suspended until further notice.
The case is being investigated under Section 25(1) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and the Environmental Quality (Industrial Effluent) Regulations 2009.
The ministry added that the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) had also taken waste water samples as well as other evidence, and an investigation paper has been opened under Section 121(1)(C) of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (Act 655), which covers contamination of water offences for which, if convicted, provides for a maximum imprisonment of 10 years or a fine not exceeding RM500,000 or both.
The Sg Semenyih LRA was shut down following the detection of odour causing substances by Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) after a two 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). – Bernama, September 5, 2021
