Published on: Thursday, November 12, 2009 |
Kota Kinabalu: Although coal-fired plants are everywhere in the West, no power companies in America, Europe, Australia and Japan are allowed to site coal-fired plants on the seaside and discharge chlorinated cooling waste water straight into the sea on a continuous basis, said Sepa President Wong Tack.
He said this in response to Umno Sepanggar Chief Jumat Idris' comments Wednesday in support of a coal-fired plant in Felda Sahabat.
"Some of the big coal power plants in the US, for instance, are located in the Nevada Desert where they must recycle their cooling water to avoid contaminating natural water bodies and retain all the ash waste and sludge at their own backyard," Wong noted.
"That's why their big worry is centred around green house gas emissions and global warming, little else," he added.
"But without exception, the major coal-fired plants in Manjun, Perak, Kapar, Klang and Tanjung Pin in Johor simply do the easiest thing - draw water straight from the sea, treat it with chlorine before pumping it into condenser pipes to cool the super-heated turbines and discharge back to sea millions of litres daily of hot chlorinated water that also contains other chemical residues scrubbed from the flue gas," Wong noted.
"This is why the practice is a matter of very grave concern to us and it should be to Jumat Idris, too. TNB and SESB's proposed coal-fired plant at Kg Sinabut will follow the same practice in Peninsular Malaysia and pour huge volumes of toxic waste water into Darval Bay which has been identified by dozens of international and Malaysian marine scientists since 2001 as a Rank One Priority Conservation Area, meaning the best of the richest marine ecosystem within the million sq km Sulu Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion," he said.
"The Darval Bay and Semporna Priority Conservation Area is Ranked One in terms of marine biodiversity in the SSME and we are certainly not blind to the fact that this is the Apex of a much larger Coral Triangle with more than 650 coral species compared to only 50 in the Caribbean and 3,500 reef fish species," he added.
"Resort operators in Semporna talk about the 'Nemo' Current between Lahad Datu, the Sulu Sea and beyond which transports this rich diversity of marine animals to and fro, including the tuna highway and they are worried about the consequences should this famous current get contaminated by aggressive toxic wastes," Wong said.
"From the words of seaweed experts, the Darval Bay and Semporna Bay will be worth billions of ringgit per year from Seaweed cultivation because there are no excessive waves yet good flow of water and especially if the seaweed are processed locally into high value products for export but they stress seaweed needs clean water and no thermal pollution which invites the ice-ice disease," Wong said.
"This is the rich real economy which is a seafood bowl to millions of Sabahans and part of a larger real economy of the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion which supports the livelihood of 35 million people across three different countries and all we want to do is to come out to protect that real economy from harm and Jumat should support us instead of hitting us," Wong said.
"Even if the issue is not coal-fired power plants, the area is not for any heavy industries that have the potential to destroy the pristine water quality," he said.
"We don't play short term politics over a real environmental concern. This is not a decision for today but for tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow in order to safeguard the food security of people who are not yet even born and we are doing this at our own expense," he said.
"We are very aware of the suffering of households, businesses and manufacturers from power outages but power shortage, especially in the East Coast, in not new," Wong asserted.
"It dates back 30 years to the days when nearly every shop in Tawau, for instance, had to buy their own gen sets to produce electricity in the 80's and early 90's, well before coal came into the picture two years ago," Wong said.
"All the five-foot ways were practically roaring with small gen sets and maybe the Sepanggar Umno chief never saw that and doesn't understand this is an old institutional failure," Wong said.
"The problem is planning and implementation," said SM Muthu, former Sepa Secretary General.
"The best win-win fast track solution to the present power problem is to connect the grid between Kimanis and Tawau and transmit electricity to the East Coast by hooking the 300MW Kimanis gas power plant and the 180MW Ulu Tomani hydro plant which are both in the process of being built," Muthu said.
"After all, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui, has already told Parliament just two weeks ago in answer to a question raised by Datuk Chua Soon Bui that the Kimanis Gas Power Plant can supply electricity to meet the East Coast needs.
We would like this alternative pursued as a first priority because this is like a blue ocean strategy where we can actually generate the same electricity need in a totally different way and spare the Darval Bay and Semporna Priority Conservation Area from being wrecked by waste water discharge," Muthu said.
