PT Pupuk Sriwijaya denies dumping of ammonia into Musi

PALEMBANG, South Sumatra: Palembang-based fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Sriwijaya denied on Wednesday that it had dumped waste containing ammonia into the Musi River and that it resulted in the death of hundreds of fish.

PT Pusri spokesman Bambang Subyanto told The Jakarta Post that the company had a special waste treatment plant.

"We process the waste before releasing it into the river. We received the ISO 14001 and ISO 9003 (for environment management and quality control) in 1998. How could we have just dumped the waste into the river?"

Hundreds of fish were found dead in the section of the Musi River which flows near PT Pusri on March 24.

Local residents, in some 50 boats, flocked to the area to collect the dead fish.

Taufik Anwar, a local, said, he managed to collect some four kilograms of fish.

He said incidents such as this had happened many times before.

Fendy, a resident of 1 Ilir, said the fish in the Musi River had been dying en masse every two weeks lately. He assumed the fish were being poisoned each time PT Pusri released its waste into the river.

In 1997, Tiras magazine had reported the deaths of hundreds of fish in the same river.

Effendi Sagala, a fishery expert from Sriwijaya University said water containing high levels of ammonia could kill fish. "The fish die because high concentrations of ammonia reduces the oxygen content and increases the alkalinity of the water."

Bambang said on Wednesday a team had been formed to ascertain if the allegations of poisoned fish in the Musi River near the factory was true. (33)