Online newsletter for the citizens of Sagunto, Sison, Pangasinan, Philippines
This is the congressman’s response to questions raised on his previous post regarding Taxes, Financial Statements and DENR Compliance. For the purpose of keeping comments on topic, I posted his comment on this new post for comments. ~ jeanette
Mark Cojuangco
EMZ;
“Of course you know these, Sir…we have heard of your projects and often frustrations in drilling water wells for our communities. We’d like you to know that we are so thankful for all your drilling efforts, and hope you continue helping our farmers and barangays with machinery to dig water. More machines like the ones you “demonstrated” around Sison are needed in every barangay. But have you ever wondered what may be causing this difficulty of reaching the water shed?”RESPONSE FOR EMZ;
I believe that you may have a misconception of what is a “watershed”, but I am happy that you used the word because it now gives me an opportunity to elaborate on this important concept and reality.The ff links may help;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watershed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage_basinAlso; the ff picture would give a good visual idea of what a watershed area is/means;
[Source: http://www.chescocooler.org/watersheds.shtml]Of special significance in this picture is the concept/reality of “Divides” or “water divides” (also means; ridge line, crest, among others).
The picture may also be the basis to demonstrate (if you look at and analis the topo maps of Sison) that the watershed area where NCC is located, is isolated from the bigger part of Sison.
In fact being this watershed is only a very very small part of the town. NCC is more a part of the Pozzorubio and downstream town’s and communities’ watershed area.This is because the NCC plant site is bounded by an upper branch of the Aloragat river which serves as a boundary or “Divide” of the NCC watershed area (meaning, the area across the bridge from NCC is no longer part of the NCC watershed area). This river passes right in front of the plant, effectively cutting it off from the rest of Sison.
The areas that “with some vigourous stretching of reasoning” may still be considered as part of the same NCC watershed area are; Bgys Calunetan, Killo, and Alibeng. We have found good water there, and the population there is enjoying the good, high quality (as good as or better than bottled) water from the special “artesian” wells which we (through my congressional funds. And, I will ask my engineer to post the technical details, description and cross sectional drawings of these wells in the Sison website for your perusal) have provided.
EMZ; “But have you ever wondered what may be causing this difficulty of reaching the watershed? “
In any case, it is not a “watershed” that is reached by drilling. Rather, what we try to reach by our drilling is called a; “confined aquifer”.
Please see;
[click on photo for source]
and;
[click on photo for source]Both links are from the USGS (United States Geological Survey), and provide a picture illustration of what is a “confined aquifer”.
A confined aquifer is a strata of porous rock, gravel, sand or porous soil with enough pore space to allow water to flow. All the confined aquifers which are located under the ground in Sison were already there millions of years before NCC came into existence.
It is not NCC’s fault that these confined aquifers are deep or are deeper than in other towns. It is God who made it that way. It is because Sison is located at the foothills of a mountain range. As almost all people know, water is hard to find in some parts of mountains like in Baguio, because of the way rocks and soil are structured and layered in mountains.
The reason we have trouble finding water in some places in Sison are twofold.
Firstly, we are trying to find clean, potable, drinking water of high purity. By definition, this is located in a confined aquifer which is much below the much shallower surface or “open” aquifers (please see the illustrations in the USGS links above). Open aquifers are commonly reached by several lengths of tubo and “jetmatic” in what is referred to as a “Water table well”.
“Water table wells” are prone to contamination by septic tanks, sewer drains, runoff from poultry, piggeries, garbage piles etc.. If I were a tradpol, I would be content with giving the people these, never mind if they get sick, so long as I can easily claim accomplishments and patronage.
But we are not tradpols, and what we want is to give the people quality. What we are installing for the community are what is referred to as; “artesian wells” or wells which tap the much deeper “confined aquifers” (please see the links above to understand what are “artesian wells” and where under the ground do they draw water from).
Giving Quality wells turns out to be much harder to accomplish, specially in Sison because of the structure of the underlying earth. The misinformation coming from some quarters does not help either.
Secondly, The difficulty with drilling in Sison is that since much of the town is situated at the foothills of a mountain range, what is beneath us is often solid rock (bato) or clay (pila) or other non porous materials. This strata is not water bearing because rock and clay have no pores, and so can hold no water nor allow any significant water to flow.
This means that we have to drill much deeper to find the confined aquifer in any particular location, if there is any at all. Sometimes there may/will be non at all. This has been the case in Artacho where we already reached 1,000 ft. Don’t forget that we don’t want “water table wells” and so we go deeper that the “open aquifer” to find the “confined aquifer”, so that we can have real “artesian wells”
Because of this case and what happened in Artacho, we decided to purchase a special drill rig for cases and situations like what we find in Sison. Our new rig will allow us to reach 2,000+ ft.
The rig (very heavy duty), was bought specifically for Sison’s use by the district (ie; my congressional funds) and it cost 10 million + pesos. It will now be a permanent capability that we (the district) now have the means to reach the deeper water in Sison. It took me years to set aside enough funds to purchase this for the town, I only hope that no other political reasons will get in the way of our actually using it to drill in Sison.
With this new rig, we will drill again in Artacho and God willing, we will find water, and so hopefully also in Sagunto and Agat. I am taking a/the political risk in that.
The difficulty of finding water in some parts of Sison, has nothing to do with NCC. It would also be exactly the same case/situation if say NCC had never existed. There is no connection.
The lower lying towns of the 5th district are another case altogether. Most of them are located in alluvial plains which have porous soil layers under the surface confining layer. These areas even have gravel and sand (of about 20 feet thick) starting at about 200 feet deep (as in the case of Urdaneta, Villasis, Sto. Tomas, Alcala, Bautista, Laoac, including large parts of Pozzorubio and Binalonan). Our results in these areas have been very good indeed.
You must realize that some places on earth are really difficult sources for water with many having none at all. Even strata with porous rock may have no water or unusable water, For example, if it is sloping the wrong way. For example, from the sea to inland, instead of from inland to the sea. However, in the Philippines, this is the exception rather than the rule. And, I am optimistic of finding good quality water in most places in Sison if not all, if we drill deep enough.
REGARDING THE COMMENTS OF JUN AQUINO:
Yes. NCC is now compliant.
The limit by DENR for dust is 300 ug/NCM.
At 3 specific sampling sites, the readings for 2006 were at; 201 ug/NCM in Sitio Saguitlang, 6 ug/NCM in Inmalog and 37 ug/NCM in Labayog, the average being 81.33 ug/NCM.
These sampling sites are close to the plant. The other Bgys therefore are for all practical purposes, untouched, as the readings fall rapidly with distance from the plant.
Please find a copy of a certification of compliance (to be sent to Jeanette and hopefully posted within 2 days as a pdf file, maybe Jeanette can post it). And yes, NCC is now a blue color rating. It also was in; 2006, 2007, 2009.
Updated 4/29/2010. DENR certificate below as promised (click on thumbnail to enlarge) – jm
In 2008 there was no rating as the independent 3rd party contractor who takes the samples for DENR encountered equipment failure, and did not conduct any sampling for that year.
In 1995, NCC spent 238 Million pesos to purchase 2 units of then new EPs from “LURGI” in Germany, which were much larger than the old ones from KHD.
In 2005, the EP (electrostatic precipitator) systems (the new ones) were probably giving some trouble. They have since been reconditioned.
In addition, NCC undertook to add EP capacity in 2008, by making operational one of the old KHD EPs. This is in addition to the new LURGI units. NCC spent 12.2 Million pesos to do this.
NCC will again be spending an additional 12.2 Million, for a second expansion in EP capacity by way of reactivating the second old KHD EP. This should be operational by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
These improvements and investments can only mean lesser and lesser dust.
In the Philippines, NCC is the pioneer of the dry process as opposed to a wet process cement plant. It is the first plant of this type to be built in the Philippines in 1966 – 67. All other plants built in the Philippines after NCC are also dry process plants. Also, all of the wet process plants were converted to dry process in the 80’s and 90’s, because they could not compete with the dry process plants in terms of cost and energy consumption.
NCC therefore; does not use water in the cement making process and so it has no “effluent” discharge.
NCC’s water usage is for cooling purposes only. And so, water does not go out of the plant but is rather consumed in the plant by evaporation. There is NO effluent. The DENR rules on effluent water quality are irrelevant to NCC operation although they do apply to all kinds of manufacturing plants.
The total cooling water usage by NCC is; 210 GPM. This is not such a large requirement (ie; it can easily be accommodated by a 3 or 4 inch pipe).
This is supplied by impoundment (NCC has since 1966, dug up and maintained an impoundment pond within its property to capture rain water during the rainy season), and by a deep well as back up when summer is long.
RESPONSE TO KIKO;
I am sorry if the word “threatened” was too strong for you. That is why I added the qualifier word “(politically)” to try to give you my sense of what transpired. Maybe I should have said; “ultimatized” (hehe!, invented word) or; “given a political ultimatum”.
And yes, Mr. Aquino wanted me to choose and endorse his good self as our Vice Mayoral candidate in 2007.
Let me assure you that the only “magic wand” which I have, is the power that comes with the use of; solid evidence and logical objective reasoning. You too have access to this power. It would manifest itself if you were to; avoid conjecture and speculation, stick to the facts, and reason objectively.
Let me also assure you that everything which I have stated or state in this post is done so only with goodwill and the desire to inform. If I have managed to hurt anyone’s sensibilities, I am sorry for that. It is/was not my intention to do so.
From Congressman Cojuangco – More on Taxes, Financial Statements and DENR Compliance, 2010/04/26 at 1:25 PM
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wow.. ang galing ni apo Mark.. ditalyado ti panaka explikar na kaslaak la agiskwela iti geology.. sapay kuma ta kasta nga panag panag panpanonot ti amin
nga congressman..
kasatno ngata no mangabak ni manny pacquiao nga congressman idiay general santos (Sarangani Province) kasta ngata met pang explain na no adda piman issue kanyana? sus ginoo kunana cguro balik na ako sa boxing dong kay kamao lng gyud poonan..haha..(sorry just to make everyone smile)
the issues discussed above is really of a significant importance for all (SIsonian), that we really need drinking water and need an action man!!! …
Thank you Congressman,
These information are very helpful and alleviates concerns about dust emmissions and water discharge. This is a good exchange as people’s (including mine) questions and concerns are addressed objectively.
Again thank you for taking time despite your busy schedules.
Jeanette, kindly pose the report also in the Sisonian group as these questions were also raised there. Thanks for making this possible.
Thanks Ipe
I’m smiling.
I’m also in awe that our Honorable Congressman has taken the time to educate the constituents on these subjects. Like Congressman Cojuanco stated, these information are all over the internet, it just takes research time to go through them all. As busy as campaign season is now, I’m grateful that he has taken the time to answer the questions posed in such a detailed and objective manner. Very gentlemanly, indeed. Thank you, sir.
Ophelia Glasser
Thank you Congressman for giving us such detailed explanations. Thank goodness we asked here, or we’d remain clueless of what specific actions your office and NCC have been doing or applying to keep with challenges in our environment. If we don’t ask, when will you ever tell? (di ba? hehehe). Now, Sagunto Star is the first to capture your vivid answers. I’ve heard of some people being toured around NCC, got “other types of answers” and were not given explanations similar to what you have just provided. The last time I toured NCC was in the 70′s as well, when boy scouts and girl scouts were invited to see what’s going on in our town. Who knows how much NCC “has grown”? Should these information be confined to just government officials? I have no regrets asking these questions here, as like what I’ve said, they aim to clear out speculations, focus on Sison;s situation, educate and add information to the little that we know. I’ve found out that you could provide instant answers at a snap of a finger. Well, of course mining companies are well informed when it comes to these, and Sison’s condition is that familiar to you more than to anyone else, internet-savvy or “encyclopedic”. (You may even know more than just water and cement as its valuable resource too) Hmmmn. I think you should remain a congressman to complete all these projects of providing good drinking water to all, or support some other like-minded leaders to maintain and continue the projects. I realized that being more open would really foster better understanding and connection, and with your explanations and arguments, like others, would find openness sure solution to “divides”. I wonder if this was done in the past when lots of questions were raised here and there, even at Lolo Martin’s store when there were no authority to answer questions to the level of the common people. Thanks for adding an overview of the specific description of Sison’s rock beds and formation, not just copying and pasting what maybe applicable to mostly US and other areas. Mining companies like NCC must have researched a lot prior to extracting mines or ores in a target like Sison…and that was what I think many were waiting for. Hope you won’t get tired sharing what you know. I thought our queries will never get your attention, but I was surprised you have allotted some of your precious time to explain. I also appreciate how the company keeps on upgrading to the “state-of-the-art” technology. What convincing arguments compared to just claiming NCC complies and that it indeed has this latest and effective means. Please continue on sharing with us what you think concerns everyone.
Okay…before somebody tells me to stop muttering and mumbling words here…I will park my pen…
To think of a new question to raise, hehe (No, just kidding) Peace!
I posted this at Facebook…so may be relevant here too…just an additional discussion on “watershed”….may give you additional views too as I am learning a lot from various ideas. Cheers!
———
Written by Kent Swanson
What exactly is a watershed?
Imagine a watershed as a geographic region where all the water that falls within it arrives to a common point, such as a lake or a river. Watersheds are separated from each other by ridges or other geographic features. When a water drop falls on one side of the ridge, it flows into one watershed, if it falls on the other side, it flows into another watershed.
Watersheds can be delineated on a small scale, such as space between hills, or on a macro-scale, such as the Amazon basin. Another commonly used term for a watershed is a "drainage basin.”
If the watershed where you live is in poor health, impurities and contaminates may accumulate as the water flows from the top of the ridges to the output. Additionally, the health of the upland areas of a watershed affects the quality and quantity of the water downstream.
Living in a watershed
On a human scale, what happens within a watershed, whether natural or caused by humans, affects the water quality and health of that watershed, while not greatly impacting neighboring watersheds.
For example, let’s say that the "Contaminators” live in watershed A, and the "Envirofriendlies” live in watershed B. Their watersheds are separated by step ridges, but are adjacent to each other.
The Contaminators have been busy logging all the trees in the upper watershed, throwing garbage into the creeks, using chemical fertilizers and pesticides on their gardens, and building lots and lots of paved roads and parking lots everywhere. The Envirofriendlies however, have been busy preserving their forests, keeping garbage out of their water, gardening with organic products on their properties, investing in public transportation, etc.
If we look at the quality of water and the environment within the two watersheds, we’ll see a big difference, even though the two watersheds are next to each other.
Watershed A, where the Contaminators live, is quickly eroding because of the lack of vegetation. The water is also highly contaminated because of the trash, pesticides, and fertilizers. Also, because of all the pavement, very little water recharges groundwater resources, and therefore, this watershed is starting to experience severe drought. That’s because most of the water leaves the watershed quickly in the form of runoff.
In contrast, watershed B, where the Envirofriendlies live, has more water year round as the water soaks into the ground and is slowly released throughout the year by the capillary action of the trees and plants in the area. Watershed B also has cleaner water, cleaner air, limited erosion, more wildlife, less problems with disease, etc.
Why we should think about watersheds
Watersheds create a sort of forced community of living things. What our common watershed neighbors do affects everyone in the community. Additionally, we have to think of the watershed as a whole connected unit, with the upland conditions affecting the quality of water, air etc. What happens upstream will influence everyone who lives downstream.
Therefore, watersheds are useful to consider when we decide to protect or restore an area. When we get together with our watershed neighbors, we can define the limits of our watershed, look at the environment challenges that we face within our area, and make plans to manage our environment.
Thinking on the scale of a watershed is useful for environmental work as we can scale things down for planning purposes, and therefore have a greater impact on the environment. For example, if we look at a city, we can divide it into watersheds. Then, we can measure the overall health of each watershed and decide which of them need help, and which are in good health. We can prioritize watersheds for restoration that are at risk, and focus on preserving watersheds that are already healthy.
Additionally, it is also easy to monitor the health of watersheds over time, as they are seen as contained units. In the example above, if we measure the water quality of watersheds A and B, we can see the changes over time as the Contaminators continue to chop down trees etc.
Even though the two watersheds are adjacent, the water quality and erosion rates in watershed B will not be affected by the conditions in watershed A. If the Contaminators decide to start some tree planting projects and stop throwing trash in the river, they can monitor their progress by calculating erosion rates and water quality within their own watershed, and the changes conditions in neighboring watersheds will not come into play.
Let’s indeed hope that the Contaminators follow the example of our friends in the adjacent watershed!
Now that we’ve got you thinking like a watershed, below we offer a few resources for you to explore.
Watershed Restoration Resources:
EPA Watershed Page. http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/
The Watershed Management Council. http://www.watershed.org/wmc/index.php
EPA Guide to Watershed Monitoring. http://www.epa.gov/watertrain/monitoring/
Kent Swanson is a freelance writer specializing in environmental issues. See these websites for more of his work:
EcoBackyard (www.ecobackyard.com)
Practical Environmentalist (www.practicalenvironmentalist.com)
Gardening Gift Guide (www.gardeninggiftguide.com)
Just out of curiousity Emz, do you know Kent Swanson’s background in geology, biology or environmental sciences? The reason I ask is this paper you’ve copy/pasted, as well written as it is, addresses the needs of a metropolitan area like Los Angeles where the natural river has been cemented to control flood-waters and run-offs from city streets and drains. Kent Swanson, by the way, is a freelance writer and also a member of a consulting agency. It is a consulting group that represents (spins for) whoever hires the group for the benefit of the client. Clients could either be Greenpeace or Conoco Oil—whoever can afford them. They are “behavioral consultants”…whatever that means.
To me, it means we ALL have to be careful when we cite papers, know the backgrounds of the writers, and do our OWN research on subjects we’re not knowledgeable about before we tackle them. It all sounds great on paper but is it worth the paper it’s written on? NCC could afford to hire Mr. Swanson, I’m sure, and he could write just as convincing an article for the benefit of the corporation. Will that really solve what concerns or convince the people of Sison? Just a thought…
I would like to inform all, that the certification from DENR has already been passed on to a member of my staff and it should be forwarded to Janette as a pdf file anytime now.
I have also asked Eng. Jonar Manaois, who is in charge of our drilling, to put together something on the Sison website which explains and illustrates the technical details of the wells which we are constructing here.
It will include links to the manufacturers of the casing and screens, pumps, risers, which are specified, so that these may be better understood and appreciated.
There will be pics and details of the pressure system and dispenser system, as well as an illustration of a typical well’s cross section.
Also, pics of our old drilling rig, and our new drilling rig.
Also maybe some pics of installations in various areas of the district and Sison, and maybe also a list of accomplishments so far.
Give it at least a week if not two, to happen.
Jeanette just informed us that she has received the BLUE status report of NCC. Congratulations to NCC and the people who worked to achieve it! We are grateful for the Congressman for being so kind to us explaining and showing illustrations of what they do to counter the impacts of this major business our town hosts. How about other businesses’ activities?
In whatever way we arrived at this realization, we apologize for any inconvenience and discomfort our discussion may have caused…but what a nice ending if we all -people bond together to maintain what has been achieved and DO our own part instead of just waiting and criticizing (Ouch!). With your leadership Dear Congressman, being public official or not, please tell the people and inform them of the ways they could help. Their own backyards and surrounding rivers must also be kept (ouch again!). I am very sure Sisonians local and abroad will be very willing to help for the success of your projects especially in clear and drinking water search, as well as in agricultural/ irrigation supply (okay, will read more lectures here…before I get things mixed up, and I get attacked through technical terminology confusion
).
Let us also see what we could do to our eroding cliffs surrounding Bued river (hello SIF…what programs do you have?) and other rivers in Sison. I think, Mayor Kimi’s pull (as future congresswoman) could also usher us to more progress and solutions.
Gradually, Sisonians are uniting and are looking forward to seeing NCC owners, Town officials (whoever would be elected) new leaders in barangays, NGOs, etc. to work together to finally attain progress for our town.
Congratulations Sisonians!
(Now I can have a nice sleep too Nette..nap actually) ;0)