Ho Chi Minh City police Monday found the local Hiep Phuoc Power Plant burying untreated toxic waste on its own land just hours after a raid on the facility.

Vinh told the police he had been ordered to dump the slag from the plant’s steam generators by his group leader Hoang Thanh Chuong.

PC36 had observed another worker doing the same thing with around one ton of waste during a raid earlier that morning.

Police discovered many holes used to bury untreated waste as a result of the raid.

Many harmful substances were found being stored improperly at the plant, including tall piles of furnace slag.

A Hiep Phuoc representative said the firm had contracted Green Environment Company to treat the harmful waste two years ago.

However, since last year, the company had begun storing the waist to save on transport costs to Green Environment.

Asked about the amount of waste buried illegally, Pham Hong Tien, operations head at Hiep Phuoc, said they would dig up the waste and report later. Tien said it would be hard to track down wrongdoers, as any workers had buried the waste of their own volition.

Yet, Lam Hieu Nghia from PC36 didn’t agree with Tien, saying that it was impossible for the workers to bury the waste without management knowing, given the facility’s advanced security system.

While Hiep Phuoc has committed to removing and treating all the wastes, PC36’s inspectorate took seven samples from the solid wastes and waste water for analysis and asked the company to delay the burial to keep the site unchanged and draw up accurate statistics on the waste.

Source: Tuoi Tre