The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is currently crafting a stringent policy that will require all establishments on Boracay Island, whether connected or not to the sewer line, to secure discharge permits from the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
This came about after the DENR-led interagency Task Force Boracay (TFB) reported that 21 of the 28 illegal pipes discovered and subsequently unearthed in Boracay’s beaches tested positive of coliform bacteria.
DENR Undersecretary Jonas R. Leones, the designated spokesman of Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, told the BusinessMirror they have conducted laboratory tests of effluents coming from all the unearthed pipes, proving their theory that some establishments and residents living near the shores of Boracay are directly discharging untreated wastewater that polluted the beach.
Leones, the DENR’s undersecretary for policy, planning, international affairs and foreign-assisted projects, said the TFB will examine the remaining hidden pipes that were discovered by the DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) using ground-penetrating radar.
“We discovered more than 40 pipes, and so far, we have unearthed and dismantled 28 of these pipes. Out of these 28, at least 21 pipes were discharging water that tested positive of coliform bacteria,” Leones said.
New policy needed
Leones said this development affirmed his suspicion that there is a need to require all business establishments on the island to secure discharge permits from the DENR’s EMB.
Under the current implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act (RA) 7925, or the Clean Water Act of 2004, those connected to sewer lines in Boracay are exempted from securing discharge permits.
“During our meeting, there were discussions, and I said the discharge permit should be a requirement even to those already connected to sewer lines because we need to know the volume of water an establishment uses and what kind of wastewater are being discharged,” he said.
“We need to make discharge permit a requirement because some businesses and residential establishments are maintaining hidden pipes to discharge untreated wastewater illegally,” Leones added.
The undersecretary said other officials, particularly those from the DENR-EMB, agreed to craft revised guidelines amending the implementing rules and regulation of RA 9275 canceling the discharge permit exemption granted to establishments that are already connected to the sewer networks.
He added the volume of water being used and discharged by an establishment should also mean the same volume of water must be treated before being released to the environment. That way, the quality of the water being discharged will not contaminate other water bodies, especially Boracay’s beaches.
“Wastewater treatment should be 1-to-1. This means that the volume of wastewater discharged should be equal to the volume of wastewater being treated,” he said.
Without discharge permits from the DENR, he said there is no way of knowing the volume of water consumed or being discharged by an establishment or individual household.
“Some establishments and residents are really keeping their pipes secret. When they learned that we are unearthing the hidden pipes, we learned that some of the residents have cut their connection pipes to avoid being traced,” he said.
Leones added the DENR will not hesitate to file appropriate charges against those illegally discharging untreated wastewater.
The department is now requiring all establishments along the beaches of Boracay to have their own sewage- treatment plants (STPs).
All hotels, resorts, dormitories that maintain at least 50 rooms should also construct their own STPs.
Cimatu earlier said all pipes along the beaches will be condemned and dismantled, saying sewer lines should not be allowed within 50 meters of the mean shoreline. This way, in case of a leak, contamination of the water in Boracay’s beaches will be avoided.
The DENR has a list of 195 business establishments not connected to Boracay Water’s sewer lines. These establishments were issued notices of violation and are now facing stiffer penalty and fines for violation of the Clean Water Act.
In an e-mailed response to the BusinessMirror’s inquiry, Boracay Water said it started its aggressive campaign to encourage connection to the company’s sewer network in March.
Boracay Water’s capacity
Since then, including the time of closure, around 50 establishments and residences have been connected to the network, it said.
“To date, there are more than 1,200 establishments and residences directly connected to Boracay Water’s sewer network. For unsewered areas, regular desludging services are being done through the company’s desludging trucks to collect wastewater from establishments and bring it to the company’s sewage-treatment plants in Manocmanoc and Balabag,” the company said, through its Communication Planning and Tactical Development Manager Faye Alexis D. Marcelino.
Marcelino said there are 56 other establishments currently applying for connection to the company’s sewer network.
“In areas already covered by Boracay Water’s sewer network, we are expecting 529 establishments or commercial customers to connect,” Marcelino said.
She added that the company is also prepared to offer its services to non-Boracay Water customers, noting that it can accommodate more customers because of the company’s huge capacity to treat wastewater.
With a network spanning over 22 kilometers of sewer lines serving more than 1,000 commercial and residential establishments and a fleet of seven desludging trucks to haul wastewater from unsewered areas, Boracay Water ensures that wastewater discharges are treated in its two STPs that are compliant with the DENR-mandated Class SB water quality, or water that is fit for recreational activities.
Boracay Water operates and manages the Balabag Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), with an expanded wastewater-treatment capacity of 6.5 million liters per day (MLD).
This is more than double the original capacity of 2.5 MLD when it was still under the operation of then Boracay Waterworks and Sewerage System back in 2008, the statement said.
The Balabag STP was completed in March 2011, four years ahead of the regulatory completion target and fully environmentally compliant.
A second STP, at Barangay Manocmanoc, was also constructed by Boracay Water to cater to the increasing demand for wastewater treatment, with a capacity of 5 MLD.