Imaginary fish kill

Bencyrus Ellorin

IT is amazing how politics can make people imagine things just so they can put one up against an enemy.

This is the case of the alleged fish kill in San Simon which they blamed on the newly established sanitary landfill in Barangay Pagalungan. The landfill which started operation in July is compliant to RA 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.

It can be recalled that the city government was one of the several local governments nationwide threatened by the ombudsman with a lawsuit for violation of the provision of RA 9003 requiring the closure of garbage dumps and the establishment of sanitary landfills.

Cagayan de Oro City staved off the lawsuit by putting up the facility in Barangay Pagalungan. Actually, the deadline for the compliance of the requirement of RA 9003 for the closure of garbage dumps dated back to Feb. 16, 2006 or five years after the enactment of the law — meaning, from that date onwards, the city government and other local governments that operate garbage dumps like the one in Upper Dagong, Barangay Carmen had been in continuous violation of the law.

Poor compliance to the law resulted in the moving of the deadline for another five years. It meant that by February 2011, facilities like the Upper Dagong landfill should have been closed.

Who was the mayor of Cagayan de Oro City in 2006? Why did he not lift a finger for five years or since 2001? With the new deadline? Who was mayor from 2006 to 2011? The fact that the Upper Dagong landfill continued operating until this year means that city was violating the law. Then last year, the ombudsman breathed down the necks of the local governments.

Since Mayor Oscar Moreno took the helm, compliance to the solid waste management law was on top of the agenda. The problem however was that the previous city council did not provide enough funds for the systematic closure of the Upper Dagong garbage dump and the development of a new one.

Prior to the Moreno administration, all that the local government did was buy a lot in Pagatpat for the RA 9003 compliant landfill. But experts found the area not ideal for such. This drove the city government to look for another place and found a viable site in Barangay Pagalungan.

The completion of the Pagalunan facility was all but “fastbreak.” A supplemental budget by the Vice Mayor Kikang Uy-led city council enabled city hall to complete the closure of the Upper Dagong garbage dump and open the legally compliant Pagalungan facility.

The city spent around P70 million for the facility, not P600 million as peddled by some people through erroneous reports.

City hall worked hand-in-hand with the Environmental Management Bureau for the construction of the Pagalungan facility and the closure of the Upper Dagong dump. Eventually, the EMB issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for the Pagalungan facility.

The ECC provides conditions to ensure that the operations of the facility are not destroying the environment. It requires the management of the sanitary landfill to conduct regular environmental testing to see if the facility is causing pollution or not.

On Sept. 27, 2017, the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office conducted a water quality test to see if leachate of juices from the garbage have contaminated or not nearby bodies of water. Results showed that the facility is compliant to environmental standards.

Then suddenly on Oct. 18, 2017, the barangay council of San Simon came up with a resolution claiming that pollution from the sanitary landfill has resulted in fish kills and a decrease in the fish stock in the Iponan River.

On paper, a report like this is alarming. Clenro sent its staff to check if indeed there were fish kills, but found none. As to decrease in fish population, it would entail more studies. But relentless campaign against illegal mining which had turned the water of the Iponan River muddy or highly turbid has shown that the Iponan River is on its way to recovery.

According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, turbidity at the Iponan River has become compliant to environmental standards in 2016 at 50 mg/L, from a high of  556 mg/L in 2012. Since the Clenro cracked down on illegal mining, the Iponan River has become less turbid in 2013 at 404 mg/L; 2014 at 2523 mg/L; and in 2015 216 mg/L. Less turbid or in vernacular, “tin-aw,” water is good for fishes and other aquatic life forms.

The San Simon resolution did not offer any evidence of fish kill and/or fish population decrease. What they did was disseminate to the media and some politicians copies of the resolution.

The claim unfortunately is an ammunition in the relentless propaganda against the Moreno administration. It is however a dud.

As part of the then environmental watchdog Task Force Macajalar and having worked in fishery projects for over seven years, I have worked for investigations into fish kills like in Umalag River and in Barangay Bugo. Fish kills are hard to hide. Pollution leaves evidence. And in our experience, we have traced fish kills to pollution, for example, from the Del Monte plant in the 1990s, the Nestle plant, and the Cagayan de Oro Corn Products. But first, there has to be dead fish and foul waters.

As a result of our affirmative engagement with DENR and industry, these plants were eventually required to put up multi-million peso waste treatment facilities and monitored closely.

As for the Pagalungan sanitary landfill, records would show due diligence and pro-active environment monitoring and protection.

Having said this, the burden of proof about negative environmental impact is on the San Simon barangay council. And in case they do not know, the media is not the primary forum to address this issue, but the Environmental Management Bureau.

Fish kills and other foul environmental events are facts based and cannot be imagined, worse legislated.

E-mail: bency.ellorin@gmail.com