In its statement of defence to a class action filed by PKR’s Wangsa Maju MP Tan Yee Kew and 809 residents, the government said environment department (DoE) officers conducted investigations at Yip Chee Seng & Sons Sdn Bhd’s premises on March 17 and 18, 2020 and found no hazardous waste being dumped into the river.
Neither did the officers find any effluent in the workshop during a check on Sept 3, 2020. They only found used oil filters, lubricating oil and used car batteries.
“The workshop breached the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations and has since been compounded in March and September last year,” it said.
Tan and the residents filed the suit in the High Court in April against the workshop, the state authorities and the federal government over water disruptions in the Klang Valley that lasted four days from Sept 3 last year.
The 810 plaintiffs want a court declaration that Yip Chee Seng & Sons are liable for negligence, and that the public authorities, including the state and federal governments, breached their statutory duties in maintaining water quality.
They are also seeking damages for their hardship and suffering during the disruption.
Also named as defendants are the menteri besar, Selayang municipal council, Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) and the irrigation and drainage department.
The defendants from the federal government are the National Water Services Commission, Environmental Quality Council, DoE and the environment and water minister.
Air Selangor and a company, Pakar Scieno TW Sdn Bhd, were also named in the suit.
Previously, Yip Chee Seng & Sons in its defence, denied that it had disposed of hazardous waste into Sungai Gong. The workshop’s four directors and a manager were charged in the Selayang sessions court last year with allegedly committing mischief by causing hazardous waste to flow into the rivers, and are awaiting trial.
The federal government also claimed it should not be held liable over the water cuts.
“The plaintiffs have no reasonable cause of action,” they said.
State government says it took appropriate mitigating steps
Menteri besar Amirudin Shari and the state government said its irrigation and drainage department (JPS), took appropriate and immediate steps after LUAS informed it about foul odour in the Sungai Gong flood reservoir pool on Sept 4, 2020.
“JPS assisted LUAS in providing machinery for water treatment purposes,” they said.
The state government added that the water cuts were due to pollution caused by Yip Chee Seng & Sons.
“They (Yip Chee Seng & Sons) are the tortfeasor (offenders) in this matter.”
LUAS also affirmed that the agency had done its job in accordance with the law to mitigate the problem.
Pakar Scieno TW, a company responsible for managing the environmental quality monitoring programme or EQMP, said they were wrongly named in the lawsuit.
“Our job scope is limited to detecting chemical substances such as ammonium, ammoniacal nitrogen and nitrate in the river and not odour.
“We are not responsible for the Sept 3, 2020 water cuts,” the company said.