Batu Arang Incinerator Danger In Light Of Putra Heights Fire

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MP SPEAKS | Malaysians are all shocked and aghast at the gas pipeline fire in Putra Heights. Everyone is impatiently waiting for the investigation report to find out how such a disaster could have happened.
While our hearts go out to the victims, finding out who was responsible provides scant relief to those who sustained physical injuries and financial losses. It is too late for them. Much of the damage they suffered cannot be adequately compensated by monetary means.
However, it is important know whether the precautionary principle was applied and to be applied in the future to prevent or mitigate such a disaster from recurring.
Whether the precautionary principle was applied or whether it ought to have been applied is therefore important not only for the Putra Heights fire but to many other ongoing or proposed projects as well.
One such project is the proposed incinerator project in Batu Arang. It is important to avert a potential explosion and fire many more times disastrous and on a much larger scale than the Putra Heights gas pipeline fire.
In the Putra Heights incident, the fire was able to be put under control when the gas valves were shut and the remaining leaked gas burnt out. What if the fires are fueled by an inexhaustible supply of fuel such as millions of tons of coal deposits?
Putra Heights fire on Tuesday (April 1)It is proposed to be built in Batu Arang, a RM4.5 billion waste-to-energy incinerator burning 2,400 tons per day of municipal waste to generate 58 megawatts.
The incinerator project is lighting a fire not over a gas pipe but a whole coal mine that may be filled with combustible gases and coal. There may be adequate safety measures but it is not yet proven to be a scientific certainty. There is, in other words, a risk for which precautionary measures are necessary.
Batu Arang coal mines
Batu Arang was the second most important town following the discovery of large deposits of coal in the days of the steam engine. It is estimated that 15.5 million tons of coal have been extracted, but many millions of tons may still remain.
The coal mine was closed not because the coal deposits were exhausted but due to a change of use from coal-burning steam engines to diesel engines.
The coal remains in the 11 coal mining sites with a complex network of tunnels measuring an estimated 54km, 304.8m below the town, and extending to a depth of 600m. The tunnels have not been mapped and surveyed to confirm they are clear of combustible gas or materials.
Coal is highly combustible, with its ignition temperature ranging from 390 to 500°C. Most hazardous waste incinerators operate between 980°C and 1,200°C to completely burn organic materials.
Given that coal can ignite at a third of an incinerator’s operating temperature, the precautionary principle applies not to build the incinerator over or next to a coal mine with an extensive network of underground tunnels with potentially inexhaustible supply of combustible gas and coal.
Dangers of coal fires
Understanding the dangers of coal fires is important. The history of coal fires is as ancient and widespread as coal itself.
For instance, Australia’s Burning Mountain, the common name of Mount Wigen in New South Wales, the fire was earlier mistaken for a volcano but geologists have since identified it as a coal seam fire.
It is estimated that the fire has burned for approximately 6,000 years and is continuing to burn for many more years to come. It is the oldest known coal fire.
In Centralia, Pennsylvania, a coal seam fire has been burning since at least May 1962. The town council arranged for the cleaning up of illegal dump sites by gathering the rubbish in an abandoned coal strip mine.
Unknown to the town council, a 15-foot-long opening connecting the abandoned coal mine with underground mine tunnels allowed the fire to spread to the coal seam under the town.
The coal fire has burned for the past 63 years and is estimated it can continue to burn for over 250 years more. Centralia with a population of 1,500 has since been abandoned, with only five residents left and most of the buildings demolished.
In eastern India, north of the Damodar River, approximately 70 fires burn in the Jharia coalfield, the largest coal fire complex globally. Most of the fires in the Jharia coalfield have been burning since 1916, with the fires causing significant environmental damage, including land degradation, subsidence, and air pollution.
The fires are attributed to unscientific mining practices that allowed oxygen to enter and ignite the coal. Local communities have been severely affected, facing health problems, including respiratory illnesses and skin diseases, due to the toxic fumes and heat. The fires have also led to the destruction of homes and infrastructure, forcing people to relocate.
Coal seam fires can burn for thousands of years, which can be ignited by heating, whether by humans or natural causes. As coal seam fires burn underground, they are extremely difficult and costly to extinguish. They burn for decades and even millennia until the fuel source is exhausted.
The precautionary principle, or in short “the better safe than sorry” approach, emphasises caution and proactive measures when facing potential risks, especially when scientific certainty about the nature or extent of the risk is lacking.
Whether the precautionary principle was applied to the Putra Heights gas pipeline fire is now moot for the victims, but it must be applied to the proposed incinerator project in Batu Arang. - Mkini
WILLIAM LEONG JEE KEEN is the Selayang MP.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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