THE heavy machinery maintenance yard blamed for the pollution of Sungai Gong was not given a stiffer punishment for a previous offence as tests then did not show a breach of permissible pollution limits, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said.

There was not enough evidence to warrant harsher punishment when the business was fined RM60,000 and ordered to stop work in March, he said.

Investigations using samples taken at the time showed readings that were weaker than the current pollution, which caused the closure of four water treatment plants drawing from Sungai Selangor on Thursday.

“The Department of Environment (DoE) informed us that they had compounded the facility the first time while the Selayang Municipal Council issued a stop-work order.

“Then the movement control order (MCO) was implemented, and only after the MCO, around June, they restarted operations.

“At the time, the DoE believed the yard had cleaned up its act and there was no evidence (of worse pollution).

“The readings from the sample taken then were not as strong as the ones taken now,” Amirudin told a press conference at the Pengurusan Air Selangor head office in Kuala Lumpur.

He was asked to respond to criticism that state authorities failed to conduct enforcement against the yard, knowing that it had been fined previously.

The maintenance yard has been identified as Yip Chee Seng & Sons Sdn Bhd/AAY Construction Sdn Bhd in Rawang.

Selangor exco Hee Loy Sian has said that it failed to store used machine oil and diesel and allowed them to flow into the river.

Police have arrested and obtained a six day remand order for four brothers said to be running the yard.

The closure of four water treatment plans cut supply to more than 1.2 million account holders across the Klang Valley since Thursday.

The plants resumed operations last night for flushing and cleaning, and water supply is to be restored in stages, with priority given to hospitals and kidney dialysis centres. – September 5, 2020.