DOE PROBES LINK BETWEEN SAND DREDGING AND SUNGAI SLIM DIESEL SPILL

IPOH, Sept 22 (Bernama) -- The Perak Department of Environment (DOE) will probe further into allegations that sand dredging activities caused the diesel spill incident in Sungai Slim and Sungai Bernam.

State Science, Environment and Green Technology Committee chairman Teh Kok Lim said the sand dredging activity was believed to have occurred some three kilometres upstream of the Sungai Geliting Water Treatment Plant in Slim, Muallim district.

"The Perak DOE will conduct further investigations related to the information of sand dredgers' involvement by referring the matter to the Muallim District and Land Office.

"In addition, monitoring and patrols will be carried out in this area to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again," he said when contacted here today.

According to the Perak DOE report, the oil spill was noticed by the water treatment plant supervisor, who was on duty at 2 pm yesterday.

He said in a follow-up, a Perak DOE investigation team went to the scene to check and found a thin layer of diesel oil on the water's surface at the treatment plant's intake point. 

"Based on the preliminary investigation, it is believed that in while moving the sand dredging machinery to another location, an accident occurred causing the diesel oil in the machinery to spill into the river and flow into the plant area," he said.

He also said as a result, the treatment plant had to be closed temporarily to prevent any oil from entering it. The operator had also installed an oil boom around the water intake point to prevent oil from entering the plant area.

Teh added that the plant resumed operations at 8.10 pm when no traces of diesel oil pollution were found on the river's water surface and the intake point was found.

Earlier, the Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) received information on the diesel oil spill at the headwaters of Sungai Slim, Perak, at around 8 pm yesterday.

The agency stated that the Slim River catchment area is part of the Sungai Bernam basin in Perak. Therefore, its water flow also enters Sungai Bernam, Selangor.

The LUAS team and Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) have checked the location in question and activated static monitoring in Sungai Slim, and the situation is under control.

-- BERNAMA