The molasses spill that affected four barangays in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, is now contained, Mayor Alejandro Mirasol said on Tuesday, April 22.
The Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Company’s (BISCOM) molasses spill in the Binalbagan River on Saturday, April 19, affected barangays Canmoros, Progreso, Marina and San Juan, he said.
The spill has not affected the livelihood of fishermen because they fish in the sea and not in the river, Mirasol said.
But there were reported fish kills from the spill in Canmoros, Forester Lucia Salazar, Supervising Environment Specialist of CENRO Kabankalan, said.
Mirasol said it will be up to the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) to recommend sanctions to be imposed on BISCOM.
Salazar said they investigated the molasses spill along with representatives of other agencies and the Binalbagan local government on Monday.
BISCOM admitted that their pond type stockpile for molasses became moist because of the high heat index and exploded on Saturday, April 19, she said.
The mill report said there were 4,980 tons of molasses in its pond and only 2,400 tons were left after the explosion, she said.
That means more than 50 percent of the molasses spilled, she said.
The mill recovered the molasses that spilled and put up sandbags to prevent its spread, Salazar said.
BISCOM personnel, Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Bantay Dagat members, and residents were cleaning up the molasses spill.
There was minimal spillage left on Tuesday, Salazar said.
They took water samples on Monday, which they sent to the EMB regional office in Iloilo for laboratory testing, Salazar said. The results could be out in a week, she said.
There is a possibility that water sources in the area could have been affected, Salazar said.
But they have not received reports of residents becoming ill because of the spill, she assured.
It is up to the EMB to determine if BISCOM should be held liable for the incident, she said.
BISCOM will pay the salaries to those assisting in the clearing operations, a press release from the Binalbagan Public Information Office said on Tuesday.
The Binalbagan municipal government distributed food packs to families affected by incident, especially those who extract sand in the area for a living, it said.
The National Irrigation Administration will open its irrigation system to release water to push the remaining molasses out of the Binalbagan River, it added.
“BISCOM, together with the Binalbagan local government , is working hard to expedite the resolution of the incident”, the press release said.*