TOXIC EMISSIONS FOUND IN QUEZON POWER PLANT
 October 21, 2005
By Blanche S. Rivera
Inquirer News Service

TOXIC SUBSTANCES HAVE BEEN FOUND IN the emissions of a 10-year-old coal power plant in Pagbilao, Quezon, threatening the communities on the island and the bodies of water surrounding it.

Ash samples taken from the 735-megawatt Mirant power plant in Pagbilao has yielded .02 ug/g of mercury, 13 ug/g of arsenic, 14 ug/g of chromium and 5.60 ug/g of lead, laboratory tests done by the Institute for Pure and Applied Chemistry last month showed. Mirant's Quezon plant was the last major coal power plant whose emissions were tested and found to contain hazardous substances that could be detrimental to people's health when they contaminate the air and water.

The tests were initiated by Greenpeace, which has been trying to get the government's attention on the health hazards posed by coal power plants.

"There is no accountability and there has been no transparency. That plant has been operating here for years, and yet nobody has told the people that (it is) emitting deadly substances," Fr. Raul Enriquez of Agdangan, Quezon, said in an interview yesterday.

Enriquez and members of Greenpeace, Tanggol Kalikasan and Kaakbay would lead a protest and a Mass to Mirant's gates today, the first major protest against the power company which has been supported by both national and provincial governments.

Studies have shown that .002 lbs. or 1/70 of a teaspoon of mercury is enough to contaminate a 10-hectare lake to the point where the fish would be deemed unfit for human consumption.

A typical 100-MW coal plant emits about 25 pounds of mercury a year, US-based experts said. Using this standard, Mirant's Pagbilao plant is estimated to emit at least 175 lbs. of mercury a year.

"This is just the toxic tip of the iceberg," Greenpeace's Red Constantino, energy campaigner for Southeast Asia, said.

He said the samples taken by Greenpeace from the major coal power plants in the country were just very small amounts from the ash field. The emissions that come out of the smokestack and which reach greater distances could be more toxic.

Constantino and Enriquez urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to conduct an independent evaluation of the samples taken from the coal power plants to see for themselves the toxicity of the plants' emissions.

Constantino said the DENR relied too much on the reports on emissions submitted by the power plant operators, which always claim that their operations do not create health hazards to the surrounding communities.

"The reason we're exposing this is so the government can act. The government has always had the power to permit but not the power to protect," Constantino said.

"When it comes to injustices like this, all the papers and certificates it has issued cannot protect the people," he said.

Mercury has been known to cause severe brain damage in developing fetuses and mild tremors, mental disorders, motor and emotional disturbances, even death, in adults exposed to it.

Long-term low level human exposures to arsenic, a known carcinogen, can damage the vascular system and injure the nervous system. Chromium is also carcinogenic.

Lead can cause damage to the kidneys, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Relatively low exposure to lead can affect the cognitive and behavioral development in children, studies have shown.

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