December 8 to 16, 2012

SCBI announces 
Jan 2013 deadline

Hottest seats. From Left to Right: Jaymay Relota- environmental management department head of San Carlos Bioenergy Inc., Judito Salvador- community relations officer, Engr. Noli Segovia- processing division manager, Nanette Liberal-Abuan-administration manager, and General Manager Arnell Amparo face the questions of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Environment and Natural Resources as the uninvited public observe at the SP Session Hall on December  11, 2012.                 

During a controversial committee meeting at the Sangguniang Panlungsod Session Hall on December 11, the management of San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. (SCBI) set a deadline and apologized again for the "obnoxious smell" that emanates from their plant and which people are blaming for respiratory infections. 

Apologies and promises
SCBI General Manager Arnell Amparo, reading the company's commitment to the people of San Carlos, said that, "We are doing everything to address the issues which have caused some discomfort in the city of San Carlos." Amparo added that SCBI apologizes for the damage the smell and the spent wash from the distillation process is creating in the environment.
Amparo capped his statement with a promise that by January 31, 2013 SCBI is to reduce, if not totally eliminate, the smell.  
The SCBI team of Engr. Noli Segovia- processing division manager, Nanette Liberal-Abuan- administration manager, and Engr. Jaymar Relota- environmental management department head, were invited to attend the committee meeting of the SP Committee on Environment and Natural Resources that SP Member Rommel Debulago leads. 
Solutions
During their presentation, SCBI enumerated what has been done to reduce the pollution to a minimum including the installation of 
P 114M spent wash evaporator last August. In a separate interview, Judito Salavdor, community relations officer of SCBI, told NRWP that this newly-commissioned facility is not yet working with 100 percent efficiency because of technical errors. 

Not working. The spent wash evaporator installed in August this year is not yet 100 percent efficient. It is supposed to reduce the amount of liquid waste by 33 to 40 percent.

SCBI's engineers also added that a spent wash clarifier was also installed to remove solid solvents from waste water and to correct its pH so that the waste is turned into water for irrigation in cane fields. SCBI presently irrigates the fields of Hacienda Vascuña and Socorro in Barangay Palampas. 
The permanent solution they presented is to reduce the volume of waste water or spent wash produced during distillation and installing a boiler that will burn liquid waste-investments that SCBI management said are going to cost millions. 
'Not toxic'
But for all the technicalities which had been presented, SCBI refused to concede that the foul odor from their plant is toxic or a health hazard. Moreover, they refused to admit that it is the waste water from their lagoon that is causing fish kill on Tañon Strait and that is destroying the livelihood of fisher folks in the coastal barangays of the city. Segovia admitted that the plant's line lagoons that store liquid waste emits a form of hydrogen sulfide which is the same obnoxious gas that emanates from garbage dumps and canals. 
"It's not at the level where it's toxic." The SCBI team claims although no testing or study has been done on the plant, the waste by-products it produces, and the effects on human health and environment. 
'Painful'
Dr. Arniel Lawrence Portuguez, City Health Office head, refuted SCBI's unscientific claim and insisted that anything "obnoxious is harmful." 
Portuguez also strongly stated that, "This progress is very painful." 
He noted that several of his patients who complain of respiratory illnesses attribute their ailment to the foul smell from SCBI that others also say is causing them headache and nausea. The CHO head however said he has not yet formally conducted a research to verify his patient's claims. 
Amparo promised to commission a research on the matter but Portuguez and the members of the audience opposed and asked that the LGU request an independent body to conduct it instead. 
The meeting concluded with SCBI promising two things: to control the smell by end of January next year, and to commission a research on the toxicity of its waste materials. But some members of the audience walked out dissatisfied and incredulous that a study commissioned by SCBI is going to be unbiased. 
'Uninvited guests'
The meeting was supposed to be just between SCBI and the SP committee, said SP Member Fleur de lis Mascuñana but private individuals were already in the session hall ahead of the set schedule and were expecting to be able to throw questions and comments to the SCBI team. 
"We're (SP committee and SCBI) supposed to thresh out the problem and inform the public about the solutions," Mascuñana said amid the murmurs of the audience that they be given the floor to speak.
The issue arose after Debulgado, in his introduction, called the audience "uninvited guests" and the audience were not allowed to give comments and ask questions until SP Member Jonie Uy moved that house rules be suspended to accommodate the public.