The San Carlos City government has allowed the distillery of San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. to operate starting Monday, March 8, Mayor Renato Gustilo confirmed.
The mayor stressed that only the distillery has resumed operations and not the molasses production.
“It has huge discharges of spent wash. Spent wash appears dirty, but it is organic. But the problem is, if it is in large volume, then it becomes pollution,” he pointed out.
The city government had temporarily shut down the operations of SCBI on February 19 due to several environmental violations, including the water discoloration along the coastal waters of So. Maloloy-on, Brgy. Punao, due to its wastewater discharges.
Gustilo said that the city has yet to receive the result of the investigation of the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (EMB-DENR) in Western Visayas on the wastewater holding ponds that have been the subject of pollution complaints.
The EMB-DENR personnel earlier examined the holding ponds, creeks, coastline, Tañon Strait, including the wastewater coming from the bioethanol plant.*