A Ho Chi Minh City Park has been caught using toxic waste to “fertilize” trees in a neighboring park.
Environmental police last month discovered Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park was dumping toxic mud and untreated wastewater in the park.
Police estimate 1,600 tons of toxic mud and 2 million cubic meters of untreated wastewater has been pumped around the park since 2001.
Phan Huu Vinh, deputy head of the environment police department, said tests showed the mud, a byproduct of the industrial park’s wastewater treatment process, contained 1.3 to 3.5 times the allowable levels of toxic substances.
During an inspection of the site, about 18 kilometers west of HCMC’s central business district, police found stunted, yellowing plants and bare patches devoid of any life.
Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park Director Mai Huu Tai said the HCMC Department of Sciences, Technology and Environment gave approval for the trees to be fertilized with the mud several years ago.
However, police chief Vinh said the only mud approved for use in the park was from reservoirs that stored treated wastewater, not the mud created during the treatment process.
And only 1.2 tons a month of the non-toxic mud was authorized to be used in the park, he said. The company had exceeded the volume by 13 times, he said.
The inspection of the industrial park also uncovered its waste treatment plant was not keeping up with demand, with a capacity of 4,000 cubic meters a day but a total of 4,500 cubic meters a day discharged by the factories at the industrial park.
The environment police are preparing a full report on the industrial park’s environmental infringements so an appropriate punishment can be decided.
