Ta Kwu Ling landfill waste leaks into nearby rivers
The effluent from Ta Kwu Ling rubbish dump is likely to contain a high level of ammonia which is harmful to soil and crops, expert says
Effluent that might contain a high level of ammonia has leaked from a rubbish dump in North District into nearby rivers, contaminating water used by farmers to irrigate their crops.
The leak at the Ta Kwu Ling landfill, discovered last month, was disclosed by the government yesterday amid complaints it had hidden the news from the public for more than a month.
The leak occurred after a supposedly impermeable layer at the base of a holding lagoon at the landfill was damaged, sending contaminated leachate into the Kong Yui Channel, which flows into the Shenzhen River, and then to Deep Bay, where the Mai Po nature reserve is located.
Officials said yesterday that no one was thought to have been drawing drinking water from the concrete-lined channel, but that a few farmers were using it for irrigation.
They said the leak had been dammed and some effluent had been diverted into waste piles while the remainder had been transferred in trucks to an off-site treatment plant operated by the Drainage Services Department.
Assistant director of environmental protection David Wong Tak-wai refused to disclose the extent or type of the pollution, but said the government was considering prosecuting the contractor, Far East Landfill Technologies, for violating the Water Pollution Control Ordinance.
Professor Jonathan Wong Woon-chung, a waste specialist from Baptist University, said the impact of the leak was difficult to measure without knowing the scale of it.