TRANSFER STATION CLOSED. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 7 installs a notice shutting down a garbage transfer station in Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City on Wednesday (July 7, 2021). The DENR-7 also slapped the transfer station operator, Docast Construction, for violation of the environmental compliance certificate in storing wastes for more than 24 hours which made the area an open dumpsite. (Photo courtesy of EMB-7)
CEBU CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Region 7 (Central Visayas) (DENR-7) on Wednesday shut down a garbage transfer station in the former sanitary landfill in Barangay Inayawan here for failure to dispose waste within 24 hours, and slapped the operator with PHP105,000 fine.
Paquito Melicor Jr., officer in charge regional director of DENR-7, sent a notice of violation coupled with cease and desist order to John Javier, owner of Docast Construction, a private garbage hauler hired by the Cebu City government to transport waste materials from the transfer station in Inayawan to the sanitary landfill in Barangay Binaliw, still in this city.
“On July 5, 2021, an inspection was conducted by our field personnel on your transfer station located in White Road, Inayawan, Cebu City. Based on the inspection report, it was found out that the wastes therein were stored beyond 24-hours already, in violation of section 25 of Republic Act 9003,” the notice read.
The provision of the law set the guidelines for transfer stations which required their operators to comply with the environment standards and guidelines and prohibited the storage of garbage beyond 24 hours.
The inspection team, according to the notice, observed that the wastes have already reached 10.8-meter high and essentially makes it an “open dumpsite”
Melicor said the stockpile of garbage “pose a danger to the lives and limbs of the employees and the waste pickers.”
He reminded Javier that open dumping is prohibited under the law.
The DENR-7 official directed Javier to immediately dispose of all the wastes remaining at the Inayawan transfer station by transporting them to the sanitary landfill.
The company was also ordered to stop accepting waste from the city.
In a resolution attached to the notice, Melicor also informed the company of its violation of the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for failure to submit compliance monitoring reports and for operating a dumpsite by storing wastes beyond 24 hours.
There was no waste-water treatment facility installed in the transfer station, the resolution also read.
The agency also directed the company to install roofing to prevent direct exposure of wastes to rain and natural elements, as well as a wastewater treatment facility.
The decision to penalize Docast was recommended by DENR-Environmental Management Bureau-Region 7 chief Lormelyn Claudio.
Docast’s attention was called by the DENR-7 after a private landfill in Binaliw, ARN Central Waste Management Inc. refused to accept the garbage hauled by the former for allegedly failing to pay more than PHP18 million tipping fees.
In a media report, Javier denied that his firm has unpaid dues to ARN, saying he was even ready to settle things with the landfill operator.
ARN’s legal counsel, lawyer Elias Espinoza, said the firm has not settled its obligations of PHP18.67 million. (PNA)
