ALOR STAR: The Department of Environment has taken action against a stone quarry operator near Kampung Padang in Bandar Baharu yesterday for breaching several Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval terms.
Kedah DoE director Sharifah Zakiah Syed Shahab said the department has issued a Field Citation to the quarry operator after checks at the site showed that the company had breached several EIA approval terms.
"A Field Citation has been issued to the operator during the inspection at the site and will be followed up with a Notice of Order under Section 31 of the Environmental Quality Act 1974.
"Should it fail to comply with the notice within the stipulated time, the operator is subjected to further action including a stop work order and legal action under Section 34A(7) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 which carries a penalty between RM100,000 and RM1 million and mandatory imprisonment up to five years," she said in a statement today.
Sharifah Zakiah said checks showed that the EIA report for the stone quarry located at Sungai Kechil sub-district in Bandar Baharu was approved on Aug 7, 2017.
She said the quarry operator had complied with the minimum buffer zone of at least 500 metres away from sensitive receptors such as residential areas.
Since the approval of the site's EIA report seven years ago, she said the department has been carrying out periodical enforcement on the quarry site.
"Checks showed that the quarry had fully complied with the EIA terms during the last inspection carried out in January 2024.
"Following the complaint raised by Sahabat Alam Malaysia on Wednesday, the department carried out a follow-up inspection at the site (on Thursday)," she said.
Sharifah Zakiah said checks showed that dust management procedures had been done by the quarry operator by sprinkling water on a road located inside and outside the site.
"The operator should increase the frequency of water sprinkling on the road surface during the current dry spell," she said.
Sharifah Zakiah added that the state DoE office will also coordinate further action with other relevant agencies to jointly monitor the quarry and to propose improvement measures to be implemented by the operator at the site.
She said although the state DoE had not received any complaints from the villagers concerned, before SAM's statement, the department is committed to acting against those polluting the environment.
SAM president Meenakshi Raman recently called on the state government and local authorities to act on complaints by villagers of Kampung Padang in Bandar Baharu over quarry site operations.
She said the villagers claimed that the quarry operation was affecting the local community.
Meenakshi, in a statement, said the villagers claimed that they had to deal with many issues such as the presence of cracks in house walls, dusty roads, and noise from rock-crushing machines operating late into the night, causing discomfort amongst the villagers.