Ban on incinerators not absolute – EMB

The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said the ban on incinerators is not absolute, giving the city government a leeway to update the idle incinerator at the Inayawan dumpsite.

EMB's opinion is in parallel to a Supreme Court ruling, which said that "the use of incinerator is not absolutely prohibited as a mode of waste disposal, rather only those burning processes which emit poisonous and toxic fumes are banned."

In a letter to Engr. Paul Villarete of the city government, EMB regional director Alan Arranguez recommended that if the city intends to utilize the incinerator at the Inayawan landfill, the same should be subjected to environmental technology verification protocol and certified safe by the Department of Science and Technology "for all legal intends and purposes."

EMB believes that the operation of the incinerator at the Inayawan landfill is "absolutely prohibited" because it lacks the required state-of-the-art facilities; it cannot attain the 3T requirements per specification, condition, capability and designs per report of the Special Assistance for Project Sustainability Mission; and considering that it cannot attain the 3T requirement, it reportedly presupposes that the generation of dioxins and other toxic fumes is inevitable.

The SAPS Field Survey Report also stated that the incinerator will not operate properly, therefore, safety operations and clean gas emission cannot be ensured and that it is not properly equipped to deal with medical wastes.

"Unless the aforementioned circumstances will be overcome and will be properly shown in a comprehensive environmental study that it can comply with out existing rules and regulations, then it can operate," Arranguez said.

Villarete admitted it is very difficult to operate the incinerator under the very stringent rules. Nevertheless, the city government will not close its doors for a possibility to upgrade the incinerator, but this would also depend on the cost of the upgrading.

Copies of the EMB opinion will be furnished to the City Council and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation with whom the city entered into a partnership in 1990 for the construction of a public market, bus terminal and the sanitary landfill.

JBIC intends to partner with the city government in the utilization of the incinerator at the landfill that has been left idle in view of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which prohibits the use of incinerators.

A draft memorandum with the city government stipulates that JBIC would continue to monitor the operations of the Inayawan landfill to ensure optimum utilization of the projects that it financed. - Joeberth M. Ocao