Victorias to probe molasses spill

BACOLOD CITY: The Victorias City Council in Negros Occidental will conduct an investigation into the foul smell caused by the molasses spill incident at the Victorias Milling Co. (VMC) — the country’s largest refined sugar producer.

The investigation comes after Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez called for an emergency meeting on Monday, following concerns raised by residents regarding the stench spreading in the northern Negros city, which gets worse at night.

On May 5, a spill occurred when a molasses tank leaked, affecting the Malihaw River and some 200 families in at least three villages.

“Since Tuesday last week, we have felt the foul odor that has spread to the entire población (city proper),” Benitez said.

“This is due to the increased heat that eventually led to the explosion of one of the tanks of VMC. It was 6 million liters or 10,000 metric tons at full capacity. I feel that our ecological sustainability and preservation, and the welfare of our people should be our top priority. When that happened, we deployed our Bantay Dagat personnel and made sure that no other humans, biodiversity, fish, or others were damaged because of this,” Benitez said in a statement on Tuesday.

Benitez said the VMC management assured the city government they will extend assistance to the affected families in Barangay 6A, 8 and 9.

“They will provide 25 kilos of rice every two weeks, and they also committed to clean up our rivers and deploy enzymes for liming so that the decomposition of the molasses will not affect the people,” the mayor added.

Councilor Dino Acuña, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, Environmental Protection and Ecology, said they invited to the investigation representatives of the VMC, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environment Management Bu- reau, City Legal Office, City Health Office, City Environment and Natural Resources Office, and the village officials.

The VMC management, in a statement, said that they have “immediately set in motion [the] standard operating measures to contain the foul odor.”

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused,” it said, adding that the procedures they have undertaken are “expected to address the issue in the next few days.”

The VMC management also assured the people of Victorias of its “continuing commitment to protect the environment and our community.”

“We will remain in close coordination with the city government and its environment officers until this matter is fully resolved,” it added.

Lara Ann Garcia, officer in charge of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, said her team found out that the sugar mill’s wastewater treatment pond was full of molasses spillage during a site assessment on Monday.

“The pond was overwhelmed. Aside from the regular wastewater, the volume recovered from the molasses spill was added to the pond,” she said.

Garcia said they met with the technical, legal and management teams of VMC, who committed to finding ways to address the molasses spillage and eliminate the foul odor.

“Our office will continue to monitor and make sure the issues will be addressed by VMC, and the problem will be put under control,” she said.