Quarry operator: No illegal rock blasting
Published on: Tuesday, February 10, 2015
KOTA KINABALU: The quarry operator near Bandar Sierra in Menggatal denied carrying out illegal rock blasting as alleged by some residents.Sierra Stone Sdn Bhd Director, Chai Fatt said the company had all the necessary approvals and permits from the authorities."All the blasting activities were carried out by the licensed shotfirer," he said here Monday in response to the Daily Express' Feb 1 report entitled "Agony For Bandar Sierra Folks."
ADVERTISEMENT
Chai said the company was granted permission to do rock blasting from Monday to Friday beginning at 8am until 5pm."But we have not carried out the blasting (which is a controlled blasting) fully from Monday to Friday as approved under our permit."All the blasting were carried out and recorded in the presence of the police officer on duty. Thus, there is no reason or necessity why we have to carry out blasting in the wee hours or on weekends as alleged as we have sufficient approved blasting permit," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Chai said the accompanying photo in the article pertaining to the 'dust' was actually steam coming out from the company's asphalt plant."We had ceased operation of the plant in December 2014 immediately after receiving complaint from a resident even though the plant was set up in accordance to the duly approved permit from the relevant authorities and Department of Environment requirements.
ADVERTISEMENT
"This is our goodwill gesture to the residents," he said.Chai said they believed the impact of the controlled blasting was nominal and not as severe as alleged by the residents.He said that environment monitoring was done in compliance with the EIA requirement at all times."The only disturbance is the sound from the air blast but it is nominal and lasts for a few seconds, it is much less disturbing compared to those houses near an airport," he said.According to Chai, the occurrence of rocks flying between 10 metres and 40 metres is much lesser than the company's consultant's proposal that is 40 metres.As for the ground vibration during rock blasting activities, he said results of the test showed it was within the approved limit which is below 5mm/s (ppv)."The nearest reinforcement concrete structure is our laboratory located about 100 metres away from the blasting site (but) there has been no sign of crack or defect resulting from the blasting activities over the past years. This is a good proof," he said.Chai said that the company also had a dialogue with the residents on Dec 14, 2013 where the company assured to remedy or repair the residents' houses they were damaged due to the blasting activities.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
