VietNamNet Bridge – Local people in Quang Ngai province have complained that gas from the Dung Quat Oil Refinery is polluting their air. But the refinery’s managers deny this.

Locals living next to the Dung Quat Oil Refinery claim that they have been smelling a bad odor emanating from the refinery for the past week.

Nguyen Van Vien, a resident in the Phuoc Hoa Hamlet of Binh Tri commune in Binh Son District, said the odor is pungent, which can cause headaches for people in bad health.

In a recent meeting with reporters, Vien said this was not for the first time local residents had suffered from the noxious odor. Some months ago, some women began complaining of feeling a tightness across their chests.

“The bad odor sometimes occurs two or three times a month,” says Vinh.

Nguyen Cong Trinh, also from Phuoc Hoa hamlet, affirmed that the odor has been brought by the wind coming from the Dung Quat oil refinery. Trinh said the bad odor comes either in the morning or evening.

Furthermore, waste water discharged from Dung Quat’s sewers and into the fields is making people itch.

Phu Trung Dung, Deputy Chair of the Binh Tri Commune People’s Committee, said he received a formal complaint lodged by the locals. Shortly thereafter, on Monday, local authorities sent a dispatch to Binh Son Petrochemical Refinery Company Ltd (BSR), requesting an explanation of the problem. BSR manages  the Dung Quat refinery.

A representative of Dung Quat denied discharging of any gas which may pollute the environment.

Khuong Le Thanh, Head of BSR’s Health Safety and the Environment Division, affirmed that the company has been strictly following the procedures on monitoring and examining the environment that were established for Dung Quat.

BSR has an environment division of its own, which is in charge of ensuring that water and gas waste discharged from the oil refinery meets all requirements. In addition, BSR has signed a contract for environmental services with the Dung Quat Economic Zone Board of Management’s Center for Technique and Environment Monitoring.

All the experiments carried out by the center so far show the indicators at the “safe” level.

Dung Quat Oil Refinery does not have a spotless record when it comes to environmental safeguards. An accident took place in 2010, during which sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas leaked from the plant, causing serious environmental pollution and adversely affecting people’s health. It took the refinery’s workers several days to resolve the problem.

However, Thanh has affirmed that no similar case has happened since then.

Nguyen Hoai Giang, Chair of Binh Son Company, asserted that he has sent technical workers to the site where local people said they smelled the bad odor. Nothing has been discovered so far.

When asked if the polluting gas might be emanating from the sulphur recovery workshop of the refinery, Giang said it is impossible.

CA TPHCM