City’s private garbage hauler violates ECC

Regional Environmental Management Bureau official says Evo Enviro Solutions violates four out of the 15 conditions stipulated under the environmental compliance certificate
Another problem is bothering Cebu City Hall’s private garbage hauler.

The Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) has cited several violations being committed by Evo Enviro Solutions Inc., which operates the private transfer station in Barangay Inayawan where the city and the barangays dump their garbage which will then be hauled by Pasajero Motors Corp. (Pamocor).

Engr. Luis Antonio Monisit of EMB-7, said that four out of the 15 conditions under Evo’s approved Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) were found to have been violated.

“It was estimated that the garbage dumped in the area is already eight meters high. It was observed that the dumping and unloading operations is now using the back entrance because the front entrance is already full,” Monisit said following an inspection he did last June 19.

Among the violations cited by EMB is Evo’s failure to implement mitigation measures as far as the activities in its project site are concerned.
They also failed to regularly submit the required semi-annual compliance monitoring report and that they also operated without securing the

necessary permits including a permit to operate-APSE (Air Pollution Source Equipment), discharge permit, and hazardous wastes generator’s ID.

The EMB also said that Evo violated condition number 14 which states that they are “restricted to undertake activities other than what was stipulated in the submitted IEE (Initial Environmental Examination) report document.”

Monisit said that the ECC granted for Evo was for them to operate a “waste management project” and not a transfer station.

He pointed out that under Department Administrative Order (DAO) 2001-34, there are several requirements to operate a transfer station.

These include having a leachate and drainage control system; provision of vector, odor, litter and dust control; inclusion of the transfer station in the land use plan; having records of daily weights of waste, daily reports of incidents in the facility; and that waste inside the transfer station should be removed within 24 hours after being dumped.

“However, these requirements cannot be established by the undersigned to have been complied with by the proponent,” the report read.

A notice of violation will soon be issued against Evo. At the same time, a technical conference will also be called by the EMB together with Evo for them to be apprised of their violations and also for them to issue commitments in addressing the violations.

Possible fines will also be imposed against Evo.

The EMB conducted the inspection after Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera earlier requested for it. Garganera said he has been receiving complaints about the foul odor coming from the transfer station.

Sought for comment about the violation, Allan Rodriguez, the managing head of Evo, told Cebu Daily News they will be referring the inspection report to their higher management.

He said though that they have pertinent papers for their operation and that they are willing to present these during the technical conference.

For now, Rodriguez assured that they are continuously operating and receiving the city’s wastes regularly.

“Our hauling and accepting of the garbage is continuous. There are no problems now,” he said.

He added that there was just a time when there was so much garbage in the transfer station due to City Hall’s transition from one private hauler to another.

Jomara Konstruct Corp., the former hauler, ended its contract with the city last May 30. But the new hauler Pamocor was only able to get their notice to proceed on June 6 which means that for around six days, the garbage of the city was piled in the transfer station.

The city generates roughly 600 tons of garbage daily.

For their part, Department of Public Services (DPS) head Roberto Cabarrubias said that the violations of the transfer station is the problem of Pamocor.

It is Pamocor that has a contract with Evo as their transfer station since it won in the city’s bidding for the garbage hauling contract, they have already required the hauler to have their own transfer station.

“Technically, that’s not our problem anymore. But we will still meet with them in order to discuss the problem. This has to be addressed because if this gets worse, it will be the city that will have problems on where we can use a transfer station,” said Cabarrubias.

He said they will be meeting Pamocor and Evo this coming Tuesday.