McSlurry
Jan
30
Written by:
30/01/2012 16:51
McDonalds restaurant closed over polluted lake
A McDonalds in the Philippines has been shut down by authorities for dumping waste in a local lake.
The company has been discharging polluted water into Laguna Lake violating the Clean Water Act, prompting local officials to padlock the establishments’ water pipes.
“This is just the beginning of a crackdown on lake pollutants,” Nereus Acosta of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, after he served cease-and-desist orders on McDonalds in Pasig City.
The paper reports that Acosta, who is also the Presidential Adviser on Environmental Protection, said water analysis conducted by an LLDA team showed the firm's Biological Oxygen Demands (BOD), the measure of organic pollutant in the water, were between 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams per liter, way beyond the ceiling prescribed by the law which is 50.
Carlo Relegioso, officer in charge of LLDA’s enforcement division, told the paper, “When the BOD is high, so much oxygen is taken from the water so the fish and other organisms living in it die. This is normally the cause of a massive fish kill. The water they were releasing is like irrigation water which is not suited for the fish and even for other uses.”
He added “We cannot allow untreated water from these industries to keep going into the lake and cause its degradation.”
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