Dong Nai polluter still discharging wastewater

Police examinine the wastewater dumping system of Vedan Vietnam in Dong Nai Province. Vedan Vietnam, the Taiwanese company caught polluting a Dong Nai Province river, has not stopped discharging wastewater into the river, local inspectors said.

The monosodium glutamate (MSG)-maker’s illegal drainage system had not yet been removed despite being threatened with the loss of its wastewater discharge license, according to inspectors from the southern province. In mid-September, the company was found using the illegal drainage system to discharge large amounts of untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River. Vedan Vietnam had paid VND265 million (US$15,993) in fines as dictated by a Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) decision, Dong Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment Director Le Viet Hung said Wednesday. The company had closed two plants that produced lysine and starch and cut the volume of water used in production to 15,000 cubic meters from 28,000 cubic meters a day, Hung said. Hung said inspections of Vedan Vietnam’s facilities had confirmed the company was still pumping wastewater into the river. MNRE has issued a decision to revoke the firm’s wastewater discharge license for six months. However, it is not clear who has the authority to order a complete suspension of the firm’s operations. Provincial inspection agencies have submitted their reports on Vedan Vietnam to local police. The reports said that after Vedan Vietnam’s illegal drainage system was discovered, the company signed contracts to export around 130,000 tons of wastewater to Taiwan by sea. This year, the firm planned to use 638,180 tons of cassava from more than 20,000 Vietnamese farmers, the inspectors said. The inspectors recommended the provincial government and MNRE find a way to ensure the incomes of cassava farmers and Vedan Vietnam’s 2,000 workers are not harmed. Investigations will continue investigating into the Taiwanese company’s failure to pay wastewater discharge fees of VND127 billion ($7.7 million) over the 14 years it was dumping untreated waste into the river. The provincial environmental police department has received around 2,600 petitions from farmers from the nearby districts of Long Thanh and Nhon Trach demanding compensation from Vedan Vietnam for the pollution that affected their production. Reported by Hoang Tuan