Two laundry workshops at Kwai Hei Street in Kwai Chung, which ignored the statuary notice requirements and failed to install properly designed chimneys for their exhausts, were fined a total of $10,000 by Fanling Magistrates' Courts today (September 26) for contravening the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (APCO).

     During the investigation of an air pollution complaint at Kingsford Industrial Building on Kwai Hei Street in September 2016, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) enforcement officers found that the exhaust outlets of the boilers of the two laundry workshops at the building's light-well were making emissions which were not properly dispersed and causing air pollution. The EPD subsequently issued statuary notices under the APCO to the two workshops requiring them to extend the exhaust outlets to a proper location with good dispersive capacity above the building's rooftop. As the two workshops failed to comply with the requirements by the specified deadline, the EPD prosecuted the two laundry workshops.

     An EPD spokesman reminded operators of laundry business and other trades using furnaces, ovens and chimneys in their operation that they should install proper air pollution control equipment and ensure proper dispersion of emission from their premises to avoid causing air pollution. They should also comply with the statuary notice requirements under the APCO to carry out relevant improvement works within the specified time. Failing to do so is an offence. First-time offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $100,000. A maximum fine of $200,000 and six months' imprisonment may be imposed on second or subsequent convictions.

Ends/Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Issued at HKT 15:15

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