SHAH ALAM, Dec 17 — Swift action taken in response to a diesel odour pollution incident at the Sungai Semenyih (Jenderam Hilir) Water Treatment Plant (WTP) inlet enabled the WTP to resume operations at 12.30 pm yesterday, less than four hours after it was shut down.
Selangor Tourism and Environment Committee chairman Hee Loy Sian said after receiving information from Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) regarding odour pollution at the WTP inlet at 8.45 am, Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (Luas) conducted investigation near a factory doing maintenance work on heavy machinery.
Hee said the Luas investigation found that there was a discharge of effluent containing washing water including liquid like oil which was suspected to have flowed into the culvert before entering Sungai Semenyih, where the estimated distance of the pollution location was 1.5 km from the upstream inlet of the WTP.
“Therefore, Luas activated the yellow code based on the Water Resources Pollution Emergency Manual for a thorough investigation. The prevention initiative was enhanced by Luas placing four bags of activated carbon powder and an oil boom to prevent waste oil from entering Semenyih River,” he said in a statement today.
Hee said Luas had also conducted static monitoring starting at 2 pm, where an hourly odour test sampling showed that the river water condition looked normal and the odour level reading was ‘zero ton’ (threshold odour number).
According to him, the Sepang Municipal Council said the factory doing heavy machinery maintenance would be sealed and Luas had lodged a police report at the Section 15 police station in Shah Alam regarding the incident.
“If convicted of an offence under Section 79 (1) of the Luas Enactment 1999, a minimum fine of RM200,000 and a maximum of RM1 million and imprisonment of not less than three years can be imposed,” he said.
Hee said today’s diesel odour pollution was a different incident from yesterday’s, which involved foamy water (river) pollution in Kampung Rinching Tengah in Semenyih and was successfully addressed by Luas before it affected WTP operations.
— Bernama
