LEC fined $10,000 for possessing banned chemicals
The Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia has fined the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) $10,000 for possessing a banned chemical in transformer oil.
Liberia: The Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA), the country’s sole environmental regulatory agency, has fined the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) $10,000 for possessing a banned chemical in transformer oil, which poses threats to human health in violation of the Environmental Protection and Management Law of Liberia (EPML).
EPA Executive Director and CEO, Dr. Nathaniel T. Blama, said in 2019, LEC requested the intervention of the EPA regarding the overwhelming nature of waste at its facility on Bushrod Island.
He said, responding to the request, a technical team consisting relevant staff of the EPA conducted a thorough inspection of the facility and identified various waste stream including faulty transformers, used HFO and LFO, asbestos, metal scraps and other general wastes.
According to him, a communication was sent to LEC last January detailing appropriate disposal procedure, which included the hiring of a waste service provider to dispose the waste stream.
The LEC was also asked to develop and provide an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the safe disposal of the identified waste stream.
A team of technicians from the EPA was dispatched to LEC office on Bushrod Island to quantify the faulty transformers and collect random oil samples from different brands of faulty transformers to test for a banned substance called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
“The team arrived at LEC premises and, in the presence of LEC and EDGAIL representatives, collected oil samples from five brands of transformers. The oil samples were transported to the Environmental Research and Standards Laboratory in Sinkor for Qualitative Analysis consistent with standard analytical protocols. The results of the analyses showed that two of the five transformer brands tested positive for PCBs,” Dr. Blama disclosed.
Source: Front Page Africa