Business groups have asked for the extension for three years the grace period for the compliance to new water quality and effluent standards.
In a joint statement, local and foreign business groups said the extension from June 18, 2021 will serve as a regulatory relief from the pandemic which
This extension is also requested in view of the challenges of civil works and retrofitting wastewater management systems brought about by the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) which is one of the signatories of the joint statement said the group has been working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on the group’s concerns over Department Administrative Order (DAO) No. 2016-08, also known as the Water Quality Guidelines and General Effluent Standards of 2016.
“The biggest concern for our industry is the tightened copper standard from one ppm or one milligram per liter of total copper tp .04 ppm of dissolved copper.
“In SEIPI’s research, covering developed countries, this overly tight standard is only comparable to Thailand’s drinking water, and not on industrial effluents,” Lachica said at the group’s general membership meeting last week.
Lachica said SEIPI submitted an updated position paper requesting for a cost-benefit analysis and setting 2021 as the reference for the five-year review,” Lachica said in his presentation at the GMM.
General effluent standards set the legal restrictions on the quantities, rates and concentration of physical, chemical or biological parameters of effluent which an establishment can discharge into the environment.
The business groups meanwhile urged Congress to legislate through Bayanihan 3 a moratorium on the lifting of the grace period contained in DAO.
The business groups assured they fully support the objective of sustaining the quality of water bodies and waterways.
“However, there is a need to strike a balance with the realities we face during this pandemic,” the statement said.
The groups said they assumed the grace period was to end December 2022 as contained in Environment Management Bureau Memorandum Circular No. 2019-001 that stated the same so long as a Compliance Action Plan was approved by the concerned EMB Regional Office not later than by Dec.31, 2019.
Many companies have prepared for their compliance to the higher DAO No. 2016-08 on a timeline that assumed a Jan. 1, 2023 lifting of the grace period.
“Five months (February to June) to adjust and meet the new lifting of the grace period is too short a time to comply. The COVID-19 pandemic has in fact made it extremely difficult to stick to the timelines in the original Compliance Action Plans submitted to and approved by EMB due to movement restrictions and imposition of minimum public health standards in workplaces,” the groups said.
They said the need for faster retrofitting of wastewater infrastructure adds financial burden to a business sector while the prospect of notices of violations, fines and penalties due to non-compliance adds even more salt to the economic injury to business.
“We fully support the objectives of DAO No. 2016-08 to ensure the sustainability and quality of our water bodies and waterways, but this needs to be balanced with the realities we face during the COVID pandemic,” the groups said. – Irma Isip
