Violations of environmental law 'rife'

Violations of environmental law 'rife'

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Disposing of unprocessed hazardous waste in the environment and
the absence of waste management licenses are examples of the
violations committed by companies, an official said on Tuesday.

The Deputy State Minister for the Environment for
Environmental Impact from Institutional Sources, Isa Karmisa
Ardiputra, said there were many companies disposing of their
(toxic) waste without processing it, despite having facilities
that are capable of making them safe.

"These companies, mostly textile and fabric firms, say that
using or operating the processing equipment is too expensive
because they have to spend more on energy, maintenance costs and
other items. It's really bad," Isa told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday.

He was commenting on the results of an environmental
management audit (PROPER) conducted on 251 companies here. The
outcome will be made public next week.

Forty-three firms were given a "black" mark and 87 a "red"
label, showing that they either had not made efforts to conserve
their surrounding environment or had not met the minimum
standards for environmental conservation.

Another 112 firms received a "blue" label, which means they
had just met the minimum standard, and nine were categorized as
"green", for making substantial efforts, as stipulated in
environmental laws, to preserve the environment.

No firm won the "gold" label, which praises a firm's efforts
in preserving the environment and containing the industrial
impacts that affect the environment.

Isa also said many companies had not obtained the required
licenses allowing them to dispose of hazardous wastes, which have
specific regulations about doing it safely.

"They claimed they didn't know they had to obtain such
licenses ... I don't know if they really didn't know or pretended
to not know," he said.

The office's assessment team, comprising environmental
experts, legal experts, activists and representatives from the
World Bank, has given the firms a week to challenge the audit
result.

"We might revise the result if they can provide valid data
that shows our data was wrong, although the possibility is slim
because we collected some of our data using theirs," said Isa.

The 251 firms surveyed, far more than last year's survey of
only 85 firms, are mostly located on Java and include
manufacturing, mining, agriculture and oil companies.

Isa said the audit result, as always, would not have any legal
consequences, so the black-labeled companies will not be punished
by a court of law for environmental crimes.

"Even so, the punishment will mostly come from the public and
shareholders. There was one firm whose shares at the stock
exchange fell when we announced it was not friendly to the
environment. Or one firm in East Java, which lost a big contract
after their client found out about our survey," he asserted.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar has said
that the audit team was still considering the possibility of
taking the black-listed firms to court if no improvements were
made within six months.