Hazardous waste poses headache to Pertamina
Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu, West Java
State oil and gas company PT Pertamina is facing serious problems about how it deals with hazardous waste materials produced by its main Balongan oil refinery.
Balongan refinery general manager Edi Setianto said over the weekend the company was forced to terminate a contract with waste processing company PT Persada Pemusnah Limbah Industry (PPLI) in 1998 amid allegations of corruption and nepotism as the company was owned by the family of the country's former president Soeharto.
Edi said since then, 16,000 tons of hazardous waste materials unable to be processed have piled up.
"The reform movement was at its peak at that time. So we stopped the shipment of hazardous waste to PPLI," Edi said.
Ending the contract to process hazardous waste created a headache because PPLI was the only company that could process industrial waste in large quantities, he said.
The Balongan plant produces around 4,000 tons of waste from its Residue Catalyst Cracking (RCC) unit and sludge or oil residue from oil processing.
Shrimp farmers in West Java's Indramayu, where the Balongan refinery is located, have repeatedly complained about the stockpiling of hazardous waste, which they said was threatening the local environment.
On April 26, hundreds of the farmers picketed the refinery and demanded Pertamina treat the waste, which they said had contaminated some 10,000 hectares of shrimp ponds and killed the shrimp.
Pertamina has repeatedly insisted the waste was being stored in a save place, far away from the shrimp ponds.
The waste was kept inside the plant in a wall-less warehouse, in a pit lined with sandbags, it said.
Edi said Pertamina was trying to work out a solution to the waste problem. One option was to resume the processing contract with PPLI.
"To avoid accusations of collusive practices we would make a binding contract and make the process transparent," Edi said.
Pertamina has also offered the waste to cement producers such as PT Semen Gresik, PT Semen Cibinong and PT Semen Palimanan.