SHAH ALAM, Jan 14 — No water supply disruptions were reported despite river pollution due to a plastics factory fire in Semenyih and diesel oil pollution in Slim River, Perak yesterday.
State executive councillor for the environment Hee Loy Sian said the quick action by the Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) and relevant agencies managed to control the pollution without affecting the operation of two water treatment plants (WTP), namely Semenyih LRA and Bernam River Headworks (BRH) WTP — which meant no water cuts for consumers.
In the first incident, LUAS activated Code Yellow based on the Water Resources Pollution Emergency Manual to conduct a thorough investigation at a plastic factory in Jalan Perindustrian Mahkota Utama, Beranang, at 3.30pm yesterday, following the fire that went viral on social media.
Hee said LUAS also took immediate action by controlling and containing the pollution using three oil booms in the main drain up to 200 metres from the location until the fire brigade had extinguished the blaze.
“The contained fluids were also treated using 13 bags of activated carbon (AC) to remove unpleasant odour before they entered Sungai Kabul.
“Monitoring and sampling were also conducted at 30-minute intervals at several points in Sungai Kabul and found the odour in the river to be normal and there was no fire residue visible,” he said in a statement today.
As for the second incident, Hee said LUAS activated the same manual after receiving information from the Perak Department of Environment regarding diesel oil pollution in Sungai Slim, Slim River.
He said based on the review, the river flow could potentially affect the operation of the BRH LRA as the river downstream leads to Selangor at a distance of 21 kilometres from the incident location.
Monitoring and sampling were carried out every hour using Portable UV Analyser equipment to ensure there was no residual diesel oil or odour in the river.
“Continuous monitoring was carried out until 4.30 am today and found no impact or foul smell in Sungai Bernam, which is the main source of water supply to the BRH WTP.
“Monitoring that started at 7pm yesterday was ended at 4.30am after it was confirmed that there was no risk to disrupt LRA operations,” he said.
— Bernama
