DENR to intensify air quality monitoring

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will step up its air quality monitoring following the recent petition it received on the impacts of coal-fired power plants.

While DENR has welcomed the petition filed by environmental groups, the department said it would beef up its enforcement to improve air quality nationwide.

“Coal-fired power plants are allowed, but we need to tell them the limit of their emissions. If they emit more than what we prescribe them, then we will close their operations. But if they do pass, they shall be allowed to operate because that is within the law,” Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said.

The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) recently petitioned the Supreme Court to compel the DENR and the Department of Energy to stop issuing new permits for the construction and operation of coal-fired power plants.

The group also asked the DENR to “immediately review or revise” ambient air quality guideline values, emission standards for stationary sources, and effluent standards; disclose the coal plant companies operating without continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) and continuous emission opacity systems (COMS) as required by the Clean Air Act.

Currently, all 17 operating coal-fired power plants have CEMS, which is one of the conditions under the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for power plants.

“Large power plants are required to install continuous ambient air monitoring within their vicinity. The EMB has also completed several installations of automatic continuous ambient air monitoring sites at different categories in general ambient and roadside ambient monitoring,” Cimatu said.

He said part of the DENR’s mandate is to ensure that environmental laws, particularly the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 or Republic Act No. 8749, are fully implemented.

“Intensive enforcement will continue to be a tool used by the DENR to carry out its mandate from the people to improve the quality of air we breathe,” he said.

Just last year, a new National Ambient Air Quality Guideline Value for particulate matter (PM) 2.5 or particle pollution less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter took effect.

PM2.5 is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets that get into the air. Once inhaled, these particles can cause serious health problems.

Cimatu said the establishment of air quality value is one of the safeguards put in place pursuant to the country’s clean air law in to protect the public against air pollution, including those coming from coal-fired power plants. – Louise Maureen Simeon, Rhodina Villanueva