The Binalbagan River*
The Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) has issued a regular Cease and Desist Order that prohibits the Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company (BISCOM) from discharging water or molasses into any water bodies, Environment Management Bureau-6 chief legal officer Wilma Lagance said on Monday, May 19.
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The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environment Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) in Western Visayas had earlier issued an interim CDO on BISCOM following the mill’s April 19 molasses spill in the Binalbagan River.
The PAB on April 25 affirmed the interim CDO making it a regular CDO, Lagance said. BISCOM has been directed to clean up its perimeter canal and affected areas along the Binalbagan River, she said.
The BISCOM commitment was only up to May 2 and the monitoring division of the EMB is scheduled to conduct validation to ensure that it complied with the clean-up order, Lagance said.
Any penalty to be imposed on BISCOM is within the jurisdiction of the PAB, she added.
The lifting of the CDO will be based on BISCOM’s compliance with the clean-up order, Lagance said.*