THE Housing and Local Government Ministry has ordered the CEP 1 Estate Sanitary Landfill in Simpang Renggam, Johor, to halt operations after reports of leachate overflow into a nearby river. 

The ministry has also ordered three mobile leachate treatment plants (MLTPs) to be placed at the site from tomorrow to increase leachate treatment capacity.

Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said in a statement that solid waste from the site will be transferred to the Seelong landfill for treatment, while leachate water in the cells of CEP1 will be transported in tanker lorries, beginning tomorrow. 

“With swift action, the federal government hopes the issue of leachate overflow from the CEP 1 landfill can be curbed immediately.”

The site gathers some 500 tonnes of solid waste every day from three local authorities – Kluang Municipal Council, Simpang Renggam District Council and Batu Pahat Municipal Council.

The ministry’s secretary general, Mohammad Mentek, will chair a meeting tomorrow to determine the effects of the leachate  overflow.

Agencies, such as the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry, the Department of Environment, the Johor Economic Planning Unit, the Johor Water Regulatory Body and Syarikat Air Johor, are expected to be part of the meeting. 

The federal government took over operations of the landfill in April 2017, and had upgraded it to a sanitary landfill in February 2018. 

The CEP 1 landfill began operations in 2003 on a 6ha site, and was initially managed by the Simpang Renggam District Council as an open landfill.

In 2010, the federal government covered parts of the landfill and in 2012, built a leachate treatment plant with capacity of 150 cubic metres a day.

Earlier, Simpang Renggam MP and Education Minister Maszlee Malik said water supply to about 75,000 households in Johor has been cut since Saturday morning when a water treatment plant in Simpang Renggam had to be shut down because of ammonia pollution in Sungai Benut.

Those affected are from Simpang Renggam, Ayer Hitam, Kulai and part of Pontian.

Maszlee said the pollution had worsened as the bund surrounding the CEP 1 landfill had broke, causing the leachate to be absorbed into the ground. – March 26, 2019.