NDRRMC monitoring wastewater spill

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Sunday, Nov. 2, that it was closely monitoring a massive environmental threat in Negros Oriental after a wastewater spill from a collapsed containment lagoon in Bais City stained the local marine environment.

- By MARTIN SADONGDONG

Undersecretary Harold Cabreros, NDRRMC executive director and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) administrator, said he mobilized the NDRRM Operations Center (NDRRRMOC) when a 20-hectare lagoon wall belonging to Universal Robina Corp.'s (URC) Bais Distillery failed and released ethanol wastewater into the coastal waters of Bais Bay, threatening marine life within the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape, on Oct. 26.

URC is one of the largest branded consumer food and beverage product companies in the country.