SUNGAI PETANI: The Department of Environment (DoE) has suspended the operations of a factory in the Sungai Petani Industrial Area on suspicion of illegal scheduled waste recovery.
Its state director, Sharifah Zakiah Syed Sahab, said the factory was releasing effluent that exceeded prescribed limits yesterday.
"Inspections at the premises found that it was involved in chemical packaging activities and conducted the collection of used chemical containers for cleaning and refilling with new chemicals before shipping them to buyers.
"Used chemical containers are categorised as scheduled waste with code SW 409 under the first schedule of the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.
"Any off-site storage or recovery of scheduled waste, such as the cleaning of used chemical containers, mandated the Environmental Impact Assessment report approval and a licence under Section 18 of the Environmental Quality Act 1974," she said today.
She added that the cleaning of used chemical containers can result in chemical or heavy metal contamination of water sources.
"The operation suspension order was slapped under Section 38 (1)(a) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974."
The case is being investigated under Sections 18(1), 34A (6) and 34A(6) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Act 127).
"The DoE will continue to boost monitoring efforts to identify any illegal scheduled waste recovery activity that may lead to environmental pollution issues and health hazards," she added.