DOE probe landfill to find source of smelly water

NST: The Bukit Tagar landfill in Rawang, Hulu Selangor, which has been dogged by controversy, is in the news again.
This time, the Federal Government-owned landfill, which opened last April despite reservations by the Selangor State Government, is under investigation by the Department of Environment for contaminating Sungai Selangor and causing smelly tap water in the Klang Valley last week.
DOE director-general Datuk Rosnani Ibarahim said the landfill, operated by KUB-Berjaya Environ Sdn Bhd, would be checked for violations of its environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditions.
She said when the DOE approved the EIA report about two years ago, it had imposed conditions to ensure that leachate would not contaminate the surrounding rivers as the landfill lies in a water catchment area.
"We did not approve the actual project site, as that was up to the land authorities.
"We are investigating to see to what extent the landfill management did or did not comply with the EIA conditions," she told the New Straits Times today.
"If there is a violation, it can be a basis for legal action."
The penalty for EIA violations under the Environmental Quality Act is a maximum fine of RM100,000 or five years’ jail, or both.
Yesterday, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the cause of the smelly tap water was water seeping or overflowing from the landfill’s storage pond into Sungai Selangor following heavy rain on Feb 26.
The river supplies 60 per cent of the drinking water consumed in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
The DOE and State Government in 2004 had warned that leachate could leak into the surrounding peat swamps and rivers.
While the State did not oppose the project, it raised concerns over the suitability of its location near important rivers.
The debate ceased once the Housing and Local Government Ministry acquired the land and placed the landfill under federal jurisdiction.
The ministry said the Bukit Tagar facility was needed as other landfills serving the Klang Valley had reached maximum capacity.
In its EIA report in 2004, the landfill management said it wanted to channel treated waste-water from the site into the Raja Musa peat swamp forest, which feeds some of Selangor’s rivers.