Lawyer: Power firm may not need Capitol landfill

By Bernadette A. Parco and Rizel S. Adlawan

Saturday, September 10, 2011

A POWER generating firm that operates a coal-fired power plant in the City of Naga said it may no longer need the coal ash landfill developed by the Cebu Provincial Government.

Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC) was recently allowed by the environmental court to transport coal ash to a contractor’s construction yard and to a recycling company’s facility.

“If ash recycling is sufficient, why do we look at (the use of the) landfill?” asked KSPC legal counsel Guillermo Dabbay Jr.

But Capitol spokesperson Rory Jon Sepulveda said the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Province and KSPC on the use of the former Balili property as the power generator firm’s coal ash disposal facility stays.

Sepulveda said KSPC’s latest statement is “part of the original plan.”

“The Balili facility is the site of last resort,” he said, adding that Capitol encourages KSPC to tap other uses of the coal ash generated by its plant in Barangay Tinaan, Naga.

The court has deferred its decision on whether or not KSPC will be allowed to dump coal ash into the proposed coal ash landfill of the Capitol on the former Balili property, pending the result of the investigation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau on the facility.

Sepulveda said earlier that if DENR does not allow KSPC to use the Balili landfill, Capitol will return the $500,000 that the private firm gave as advance payment.

Under the MOA, KSPC will pay the Province $1 per ton of coal ash disposed at the landfill. The price is meant to increase in 25 years.

Sepulveda said the MOA gives Cebu the “best deal.”

Dabbay told Sun.Star Cebu that KSPC needed the court’s approval of alternative ways to dispose of coal ash from its 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Naga.

Transport

The court allowed KSPC to transport 40 tons of coal ash a day to the facilities of Geo-Transport and Construction, and another 40 tons to FDR Resource and Recovery
Management Inc., which has a recycling facility in Naga.

KSPC asked the Regional Trial Court Branch 28 to modify a temporary environmental protection order (Tepo) as it feared it would not have a place to dispose of its coal ash by the end of the month, when its agreement with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) expires.

Since the Tepo barred KSPC from transporting and disposing of its coal ash outside of its premises, it entered into an agreement with Psalm for the use of the Naga Power Complex’s ash pond. The Naga Power Complex is across the KSPC plant.

In its motion submitted to the court on Sept. 5, KSPC, through Dabbay, said its coal ash disposal agreement and the amended ash disposal landfill facility services agreement with Capitol give the Provincial Government exclusive rights to its coal ash.

KSPC and Capitol, though, agreed to implement alternative disposal arrangements.

But environmental lawyer Benjamin Cabrido said environmentalists will continue to oppose the use of the former Balili property, part of which is submerged, as disposal facility for coal ash.

“Our objection on Balili is non-negotiable. They can’t use it even on a temporary basis,” he said.

But other than that, Cabrido said, it is up to the court to determine which coal ash disposal facility and strategy is environmentally acceptable.

FDRCON vice president for operations Ervin Estandarte said his company is still in the process of securing an environmental compliance certificate from EMB 7 and a permit from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FDA).

“We plan to establish an ash pond in accordance with the specifications of the government to appease the environmentalists. We will use a liner,” Estandarte said in a phone interview.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on September 10, 2011.