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Urgent actions have been taken by the contractor of the North East New Territories (NENT) Landfill to deal with a leachate leak incident that occurred recently, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said today (August 28).
The spokesman said that a leak in one of the leachate lagoons of the NENT Landfill had resulted in an overflow of leachate into the Kong Yiu River. The EPD is considering legal action against the contractor under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance, based on the water sample analysis results.
To contain the problem, the NENT Landfill contractor is taking urgent actions to repair the damaged lagoon and to deploy more tankers to transport leachate to the Shek Wu Hui Sewage Treatment Works. The lagoon is expected to resume normal operation around the end of this week. The Drainage Services Department is also operating the pumping facility at full capacity to help alleviate the situation.
The spokesman pointed out that the Kong Yiu River is a man-made concrete-lined channel flowing into the Shenzhen River. No village houses extract water from the river for potable use. Follow-up inspections in adjacent areas have found that the overflow has not resulted in significant environmental impacts along the Kong Yiu River and downstream.
The EPD's enforcement team received a report on July 28 that one of the leachate lagoons of the NENT Landfill leaked on July 27. Water samples collected on July 29 showed that the pollution levels of the water samples, though higher than normal, were still within the legal limits.
Since then, the EPD has been monitoring the situation, including the urgent actions being taken by the contractor. On August 23, the EPD received analysis results from the Government Laboratory indicating that the sample collected on August 7 exceeded legal standards. As a result, the EPD is considering taking legal action under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance.
Records show that this is the first landfill leachate leak incident in Hong Kong. The other leachate lagoons of the NENT Landfill and those at the other two landfills that have leachate lagoons (i.e. the West New Territories Landfill and the South East New Territories Landfill) have been checked and are operating well.
To help reduce the risks of similar incidents in the long term, the Government will enhance the sewerage capacity of the area through advancing public works projects to reduce the leachate storage volume required at the NENT Landfill.
Ends/Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:13
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