Sual power plant ‘has nothing to hide’

SUAL, Pangasinan — Mirant Phils. Corp., the country’s largest independent power producer, said it is willing to "open the doors" of its 1,200-megawatt, coal-fired power plant here to Greenpeace, an international environmental group, for sampling of its emissions.

"The plant has nothing to hide," said Robert Walker, station manager of the power plant. "Our doors are open (to Greenpeace) as long as it’s in controlled fashion with three parties involved like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, us and Greenpeace."

Walker, however, said samples should be taken at the same time and at the same place, tested in different laboratories and counter-checked by all parties concerned.

Greenpeace’s allegations that the coal-fired power plant is polluting the environment, he said, only appeared in newspaper reports and that they never received "any special documents" from the environmental group.

Walker said he believes the plant, which began operation in October 1999, has a very effective environmental system with the necessary monitors to ensure compliance with environmental standards.

In fact, Mirant said the power plant recently got an ISO 14001 certification from the Geneva-based SGS Group for its environmental management system.

Passing the ISO 14001 certification, the company said, puts the Sual plant beyond the compliance required under the Clean Air Act.

This, Mirant said, also demonstrates their commitment to meet and even exceed the country’s environmental regulations, noting that the Clean Air Act does not even require the plant to be certified by ISO, a worldwide federation of national standards bodies.

Last July, Greenpeace activists staged a protest action here and took samples that allegedly showed significant levels of mercury.

But Walker doubted the validity of Greenpeace’s claims, saying the activists never really got close to the plant because their vessel, M/V Arctic Sunrise, were not allowed within the plant’s vicinity.

"(Greenpeace) should just let us know (about their visit), what they want to do and why because what they did in the past was not the right thing to do," Walker said.

The provincial board is conducting its own inquiry into Greenpeace’s claims. Five board members visited the plant the other day for an ocular inspection.

Sual Vice Mayor Alexander Rigonan said they are also forming an independent system to monitor the plant’s operation, adding that the allegations should be thoroughly validated.

Sual has risen from a fifth-class to second-class municipality, thanks to the multimillion-peso taxes Mirant is paying.

Mirant is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. It owns more than 2,000 MW of installed generating capacity nationwide. It has a stake in the natural gas-fired, 1,200-MW Ilijan power plant. — Eva de Leon, Donnabelle Gatdula