PT Pupuk Sriwijaya denies dumping of ammonia into Musi

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)