On waste-to-energy, the City Environment and Natural Resources Office had begun negotiating with 19 landowners in Langon, Cararayan, this city,  for possible donation of land that will serve as road right of way.

Mayor John G. Bongat said the proposed construction of the road facility, once completed, will shorten travel time in going to and from the proposed $70-M plant that will produce, through gasification, low-priced and environment-friendly energy out of the city’s garbage.

Yeon-Joo Choi, chairman of CJ Global Co., Ltd., said the facility will generate an estimated output of 18 megawatts daily from more or less 200 tons of solid waste collected from the city’s homes and business establishments.The converted energy produced “will be made available to local power users.”

City Engineer Leon B. Palmiano IV said that with the proposed road, which has a width of 15 meters and a length of 1.2 kilometers, there will be no need for garbage trucks to pass through Bgy. San Isidro proper to unload their trash to the energy facility, shortening the route by 2.6 kilometers.

City ENRO Oscar P. Orozco said the Korean firm CJ Global promised to finance the P16-M road construction once the land donation has been completed.

Apart from electricity, the wasteto-energy facility can also produce asphalt and methanol as byproducts for road construction and fuel for LPG, engines and motor vehicles, respectively.

CJ Global has already established an office in the city in preparation for the construction phase of  the waste-to-energy plant.

Based on the memorandum of agreement entered into by and between the city and CJ Global, the facility will start operation by 2013.

Unlike the ordinary process of incineration, gasification is zerowaste and there would be no toxicfume emission or effluent that will end up on the ground or run through any body of water.

PILIMANIA EVENT

On Pilimania, First Lady Farah Bongat and the Pilimania movers from the public and private sectors will hold another simultaneous citywide planting of pili trees in October or Noveber, this year.

This time, the members of the barangay councils and other volunteers from private sectors will be joined by the personnel  of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Army.

The follow-on activity will be held in agricultural and residential zones of the city’s 27 barangays, especially in the open spaces along urban poor sites, housing subdivisions and vacant public school lots.  An economic greening movement, Pilimania is under the city’s Greening, Environment Protection, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (GrEET) Program sanctioned under Mayor John Bongat’s Executive Order No. 2011-13.

Madam Farah Bongat, chairperson of the Pilimania 2011 Executive     Committee, said the planting of pili trees is expected to improve the city’s air-shed quality as it would lessen the ill effects of carbon monoxide since the plant exhibits a high carbon absorption rate.

As a component of a multipronged program that advances the city’s environmental and economic goals, the tree planting activity aims to have planted and grown at least 30,000 pili trees by December 2012.

Pilimania Project Officer Michael D. Rico said alongside the environmental gains, bigger opportunities to enhance the city’s One Barangay One Product Program (OBOP) can also be achieved by nurturing the plant since pili nut is now fast becoming a favorite delicacy among domestic and foreign tourists.

The Pilimania portfolio also includes plans for the establishment of protected areas in the city called “Protected Pili Green Spots” to be managed by barangay councils’ Pilimania patrollers, civic groups, and private corporations under a public-private partnership.

Mrs. Bongat calls on various groups to volunteer as patrollers that will adopt a site where they can plant and nurture pili trees, donate funds for grafted pili and seedling acquisition, or buy Pilimania paraphernalia like t-shirts, keychains, car hangers, commemorative pins, bag tags, mugs, tumblers and the like.

AIR POLLUTION CONTROL

Requiring a clear-cut policy on and best result from the city’s clean air campaign, Mayor Bongat promised to provide two units of smoke-testing machines for diesel and gasoline fuelled vehicles that crisscross the city’s roads.

Through the smoke-testers, ENRO personnel will effectively determine whether or not motor vehicles plying the streets of the city are within the smoke emission standards allowed by the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999.

In a dry run conducted last June 26, this year, only 8 vehicles passed the test for anti-smoke belchers among the 27 vehicles flagged down by the city ENRO.  19 automobiles or 70 percent of the total number of vehicles tested failed.

The campaign for clean air is mandated by City Ordinance No. 99-084, otherwise known as “The Anti-Smoke Belching Ordinance of the City of Naga,” authored by former City Councilor Simeon F. Adan.

The Ordinance covers all types of motor vehicles,for private use or used as a public utility vehicle, whether registered with the local Land Transportation Office or elsewhere in the country as long as they traverse any highway, road or street within the territorial jurisdiction of the city.

Stationary engines like generators, waterborne vehicles like motorboats and motor launchers as well as agricultural equipment are likewise covered by the provisions of the Ordinance.

Orozco said actual tests on anti-smoke belching will soon be conducted once the remaining important details of their operations have been threshed out and finalized with partner government agencies like the LTO and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.