Eco-shock: Incinerator

Sin Aumjaiboon, one of the 25 fish farmers affected by the spill, shows the brown-spotted grouper killed by the toxic spill.

At 8 am June 22, fish farmers south of Saphan Hin smelled a foul odor in the air. By that evening all of their fish – worth more than 6.6 million baht – were dead.

The source of the stench and death has been traced to the Phuket landfill and incinerator, where overflowing trash heaps and heavy rain caused a release of wastewater that, through the help of drainage pipes, flowed directly into the river.

Gazette reporters Pathomporn Kaenkra- chang and Sompratch Saowakhon investigate.

This huge pile of garbage is kept to one side of the overburdened incinerator, where the trash stays until it is dry enough to burn – even in the rainy season. Not surprisingly, a combination of heavy rains and high tides resulted in the release of deadly toxins into the local klong.

Along the banks of the canals located about 500 meters behind the incinerator at Saphan Hin grows what looks like a healthy mangrove forest. Birds fly through the trees, mudskippers spar on the banks and tiny fish swim in the river.

However, there are only tiny fish… none larger than a toothpick, in fact, since all of the fish, both native and farmed, were killed off by a pollution spill on June 22.

Klong Koh Phee flows behind the incinerator, which can burn off up to 250 tonnes of garbage a day. Phuket, however, produces up to 520 tonnes a day, according to Chief of Phuket Provincial Office of Natural Resources and Environment Aongart Chanachanmongkol.

The remainder of the waste is piled behind the incinerator in landfills and, more recently, alongside the retention ponds that are used to treat wastewater from the incinerator.

However, on June 22, following heavy rains and a high tide, the black, bubbling wastewater from the garbage dump flowed directly into the mangrove forests and the klong – through the drainage pipes leading there.

The toxic plume traveled more than a kilometer downstream, killing marine life as it went.

“I noticed a bad smell in the air while I was on my fishing boat on the morning of June 22. At that time I didn’t know where the smell was coming from, but it was not like anything I had smelled before,” said Supat Luenpan, leader of a collective of fish farmers along Klong Koh Phee.

“By 9 pm all my fish were dead and floating in the water.”

The fishermen reported that their fish spasmed and splashed about before they died.

The fish farmers also raise green mussels and crabs. A week after the fish died, the mussels were still alive, but very weak, and the fishermen said they expected all their stock to die soon.

Twenty-five fish farms were affected, with 396 fish pens covering 3,564 square meters poisoned.

The precise number of fish killed is unkown since each fish farmer buried his stock by the riverbank. However, each pen contained between 100 and 400 fish, which leaves the toll anywhere between about 40,000 and 160,000 fish.

However, fishermen kept samples of their dead fish and the polluted water to give to the provincial authorities.

Scientists from the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) found that the water in Klong Koh Kui and Klong Koh Phee had low dissolved oxygen levels and high concentrations of ammonium and phosphate.

They speculated that the initial pollution did part of the damage, while the rotting fish killed by the runoff further contributed to the low quality of the water.

Among the species in the pens were brown-spotted grouper, sea bass, red snapper, surgeon fish, striped sea catfish, crabs and green mussels, along with other local species.

Praman Hormvong, leader of the Klong Koh Kui fishermen, told the Gazette, “I lost my food and my income all in one day. I have children who must go to school. What can I do now? I don’t know what to do.”

Phuket City Municipality and the Phuket Provincial Fisheries Department were quick to respond to the fisherman’s problems. On June 25, Phuket City Municipality Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana met the fisherman and the Fisheries Department.

It was decided that each fisherman could submit a bill for compensation and any person claiming up to 400,000 baht would be able to receive the payment almost immediately from the city.

Any larger payments would first have to be approved by the Ministry of the Interior, which K. Somjai said should not be a problem.

The total compensation is estimated to reach 6.6 million baht.

Of the 25 farmers affected, 21 are owed 400,000 baht or less, so only four will have to await Ministry approval. K. Praman lost the most, according to records, with 1.43 million baht in stock destroyed.

K. Somjai visited the spill site. She said that it was “an accident that nobody wanted to happen” and that she wanted the city to support the fishermen as much as possible.

Nearly a week after the toxic spill on June 22, water from one of the landfill reservoirs still flowed into the klong.

The poisoning also warranted a visit from Kasem Sanitwong na Ayuthaya, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, who toured the area on June 30.

“I was told about the overflow of garbage, and I am concerned about it. Phuket has only one incinerator to deal with all of its garbage, but it appears that the low capacity of the incinerator is what caused the poisoned water to flow into Klong Koh Kui.

“I have made recommendations to Phuket City Municipality about how to reduce garbage, such as by separating the trash into different types and upgrading the incinerator to be more efficient. To do this, Phuket needs a larger budget. We will help the city by lending budget from the environment funds of the Ministry,” he said.

However, as many islanders know, Phuket has requested the funds for a second incinerator for some time. Most recently, Phuket Vice-Governor Worapoj Ratthasima, Pollution Control Department (PCD) Deputy Director General Wichian Jungrung-reung and K. Aongart met May 29 to request 2.9 billion baht for waste management in Phuket, including 1.3 billion baht to build a new incinerator.

In the meantime, the outflow from the retention pond nearest the klong now has a make-shift earthen berm, a barrier created after the spill to prevent more overflow from reaching the river. Overflow from the other retention ponds can still flow freely into the klong, however.

In addition to the Municipality’s payout, the Fisheries Department has also announced they will help the fish farmers restock their pens. The fish will not be ready to sell for about one year, but the support from the Department was greatly appreciated by the farmers.

“The Fisheries Department and the city have taken very good care of us; we are happy with the results,” said K. Supat.
This isn’t the first time the fishermen on Klong Koh Phee have received government assistance. The tsunami of 2004 wiped out nearly all of their houses and fishing equipment, leading the government and other organizations to assist them in the rebuilding.

Fishing boats donated by the Rotary International can be seen on the klong.

The provincial governor’s budget at the time was also used to pay each family 500,000 baht and wood was donated to help the fish farmers rebuild their farms.

K. Supat said, “My family, leading back through my grandfather and my father, has been rearing fish, crabs and green mussels here for more than 20 years. We live and work here, and we’re very happy with the natural environment.

“I lost a lot to the tsunami two years ago, and this feels like another tsunami just hit. This is almost worse than the tsunami because it was quiet and nobody thought it could happen.”

So as the farmers await their compensation and new stocks of fish, they dangle their fishing lines in the water hoping to catch some food for dinner.