The post-National Day Mangrove Cleanup @ Lim Chu Kang – join us on our 6th year on Saturday!
from Otterman speaks
“Debris ingestion by sea turtles is a global phenomenon of increasing magnitude” from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Additional Flypast at Singapore National Day Parade Preview
from Bird Ecology Study Group
More power to rainwater harvesting in Singapore!
from Water Quality in Singapore and More recognition to grey water recycling!
Lip Kwok Wai and Leong Wai Kit Channel NewsAsia 6 Aug 13;
SINGAPORE: In the months that land formerly lining the Malaysian-owned railway became the Green Corridor, problems have sprouted in some areas.
There were reports of graffiti on pillars, illegal parking near Tanglin Halt, and puddles forming in some spots.
The Land Transport Authority said it has arranged for contractors to re-paint the pillars.
Those caught leaving graffiti will be handed over to the police.
As for the puddling issue, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) said heavy usage coupled with wet weather can result in certain stretches becoming muddy.
It is working with the relevant authorities to improve the drainage system along the corridor to ensure the area won't become a breeding site for mosquitoes.
To deter illegal parking, SLA has installed concrete blocks and bollards to prevent the entry of vehicles.
Some volunteers said they plan to patrol the Green Corridor and inform the authorities if they see anything amiss.
- CNA/fa
Fear of tiger sharks, for instance, helps protect seagrass from being over-grazed, which in turns pulls CO2 out of the atmosphere and provides a habitat for fish and shellfish
Michael Heithaus and Inside Science Minds Guest Columnist
Scientific American 7 Aug 13;
This story was originally published by Inside Science News Service.
(ISM) -- Throughout most of the world sharks are in trouble. Big trouble. In some areas, with adequate management, shark populations have stabilized, but likely at levels far below what they were decades ago. In the rest of the world, shark fishing continues to be a major threat to many species. Recent estimates suggest that around 100 million sharks are taken by fisheries every year.
Because of their slow growth – sharks may take a decade or more to reach maturity – and low rate of reproduction – many species have fewer than a dozen young a year – this rate of catches is unsustainable. The decline of sharks will continue.
Why should we care? What will that mean for the oceans and even for fisheries targeting species other than sharks? We know from studies on land that when large predators are removed, entire ecosystems can be destabilized. That can be bad for animals and people. If similar things happen in the oceans, we not only need to think about halting declines of sharks, we will probably need to find ways to rebuild their numbers.
The attention that the Discovery Channel's Shark Week brings to these animals is great, but that attention needs to extend beyond the first week of August for these predators and the places they live to recover and eventually thrive.
For the past fifteen years, my colleagues and I have been trying to figure out how important tiger sharks are in the aptly named Shark Bay, Western Australia. Why travel halfway around the world? Quite simply, to study sharks in a place where their ecosystem is relatively untouched. Also, because Shark Bay features some of the world’s largest seagrass beds. Seagrass is important because it provides a habitat that supports populations of fish and shellfish that people rely on. It also helps to combat climate change by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. By working in Shark Bay we can understand the role of sharks and what might happen to Shark Bay and its seagrass if tiger sharks were to disappear. It also lets us predict what might happen in other places where sharks have been overfished.
In Shark Bay, we have worked not only on sharks, but on their prey — including dolphins, sea turtles and sea cows — as well as the wider ecosystem. Our findings demonstrate that tiger sharks are critical to the Shark Bay ecosystem. But not in the way you might think. It turns out that the fear of sharks – by the sea cows and sea turtles that eat the seagrass – helps protect the seagrass from being over-grazed.
Here is how it works: Tiger sharks like to hunt in shallow waters in the bay; a perfect place for seagrass to grow. To avoid becoming a shark snack, turtles and sea cows generally avoid these areas. The seagrass can grow into a lush habitat that provides shelter for small fish and shellfish that will grow up into species people want to catch. In areas that sharks don’t frequent, seagrass is heavily grazed and does not support big populations of fish and shellfish. That means that if we were to lose tiger sharks from the bay, the seagrass likely would be grazed down all over.
The loss of seagrass would be bad news for fish and fishermen – and maybe even for turtles and sea cows! It also could result in the loss of a large amount of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere that would no longer be stored by seagrasses. There is evidence that the loss of sharks is hurting seagrass in some places.
In Bermuda and the Indian Ocean, where shark populations have declined, increasing populations of sea turtles are causing entire seagrass beds to virtually disappear. And it isn’t just in seagrass ecosystems where sharks are important. Recent studies point to the possibility that healthy coral reefs need sharks, too.
Luckily, many countries have begun to recognize that sharks can draw tourists. The associated economic benefits of shark tourism can outpace the income from fishing for sharks. There also has been a growing realization that if we don’t slow down shark fisheries, they will disappear. This has led some countries to adopt fishing quotas aimed at keeping sharks at sustainable population levels.
Other countries have gone further. Shark sanctuaries – where they are protected from being fished - have been declared throughout the waters of a number of countries around the world. This kind of precautionary approach is vital to protecting and restoring shark populations while scientists work to learn more about their potentially critical role in coral reef and other marine ecosystems.
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet LiveScience 6 Aug 13;
2012 was a year of climate records, from temperatures to ice melt to sea level rise, a newly released report on the state of the global climate says.
Even though natural climate cycles have slowed the planet's rising temperature, 2012 was one of the 10 hottest years since 1880, according to the report released today (Aug. 6) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
One reason the world's warming is slower in recent years is because of recent La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, which cause atmospheric and ocean temperatures to cool, said Tom Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center during a news teleconference."There are a number of factors that cause climate to vary from year to year, but when you look back at long-term trends, temperatures have been increasing consistently," he said.
But in the Arctic, surface temperatures rose twice as fast in the past decade as lower latitudes, said Jackie Richter-Menge, a report co-author and research civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "The Arctic continues to be a region where we have some of the most compelling evidence of the fact that global temperatures are warming," she said.
A strong and persistent southerly airflow in spring 2012 contributed to the Arctic's record warmth, Richter-Menge said. The effects included a record-low summer ice pack extent in the Arctic Ocean, and surface melting across 97 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Richter-Menge said researchers are also seeing long-term changes, such as more coastal vegetation growing in the Arctic tundra and rising permafrost temperatures.
"The near records being reported from year to year are no longer anomalies or exceptions," Richter-Menge said. "They have become the norm for us and what we expect to see in the near future."
Ice melt from Greenland and glaciers elsewhere are contributing to sea level rise, according to the climate report. In the past year, sea level rose a record 1.4 inches (35 millimeters) above the 1983 to 2010 average, said Jessica Blunden, a climatologist at NOAA's Climatic Data Center and lead editor of the report. "It appears ice melt is contributing more than twice as much as warming waters," she said during the teleconference. As the ocean warms, water expands, contributing to sea level rise.
The annual State of the Climate report compiles climate and weather data from around the world and is reviewed by more than 380 climate scientists from 52 countries. The report can be viewed online.
The planet hit several records or near records in 2012, the report said. These include:
Record ice loss from melting glaciers. 2012 will be the 22nd year in a row of ice loss.
Near-record ocean heat content, a measure of heat stored in the oceans. When the ocean holds more heat than it releases, its heat content increases.
Record sea level rise of 1.4 inches above average.
Record-low June snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. The June snow cover has declined 17 percent per decade since 1979, outpacing the shrinking summer Arctic sea ice extent by 4 percent.
Record-low summer Arctic sea ice extent. Sea ice shrank to its smallest summer minimum since record-keeping began 34 years ago.
Record-high winter Antarctic sea ice extent of 7.51 million square miles (19.44 million square kilometers) in September.
Record-high man-made greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. In 2012, for the first time, global average carbon dioxide concentrations hit 392 parts per million and exceeded 400 ppm at some observation sites. The number means there were 400 carbon dioxide molecules per 1 million air molecules.
8th & 11th August Walks at Bukit Brown
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History. and National Day Events 2013
Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [29 Jul - 4 Aug 2013]
from Green Business Times
Bukit Brown - Nature & Heritage
from My Nature Experiences
Chattering Lory eating Terminalia catappa fruit
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Butterflies Galore! : Leopard
from Butterflies of Singapore
Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat Workshop, Sat 31 Aug 2013 @ NUS
from Otterman speaks
RMBR Toddycat David Tan makes the news
from Raffles Museum News
Featured video: Sumatra's last elephants versus palm oil
from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance
'Mischievous' post caused Pulau Ubin residents undue anxiety, says SLA
Straits Times 6 Aug 13;
THE Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has accused the youth arm of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) of posting a "mischievous" article online "to mislead the public" on Pulau Ubin's development and cause undue anxiety to the island's residents.
The article, on the Young Democrats' visit to the island in May, was uploaded on the party's website last Wednesday.
Yesterday, the SLA, custodian of state land, denied its claim that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) had approached resident Chua Bing Qing in 2009 to evict him, but later charged him rent for using the land after learning that the house he lived in was his mother's.
The URA did not approach him, "much less to evict or charge him rent as claimed", the SLA said on its Facebook page.
It added that Mr Chua confirmed this to SLA officers who visited him after the article appeared. Separately, his brother Peng Hong corroborated it.
Another claim in the article was that a "Madam Samiyah" at Kampong Chek Jawa was evicted from her house 15 years ago, and was paid $400,000 for her land.
SLA said its records show there "never" was an owner by that name whose land was affected by any land acquisition exercise.
It also denied that resident Lim Cho Tee received a slew of SLA notices demanding rent payment.
The family had paid up promptly every month through Giro, the SLA said.
These latest rebuttals by SLA follow a scare in April when residents thought they were given an eviction notice.
The letter was actually to inform them of a census survey to decide their resettlement benefits and how much they need to pay to keep living on the island.
Noting media reports of the Government's plan to keep Pulau Ubin rustic for as long as possible, the SLA said: "It is mischievous and irresponsible for the article... to mislead the public and cause undue anxiety to the residents in Pulau Ubin."
YDs visit Pulau Ubin to look into development issues
Singapore Democratic Party website 31 July 2013
The Young Democrats (YD) set out on a trip to Pulau Ubin in May this year to look into the concerns of the residents there following media reports about the development of an adventure park on the island.
Riding rented bicycles, the YDs visited Kampong Jelutong where they met Mr Chua Bing Qing (蔡炳庆) who has been living on the island for 50 years since he was 7 years old.
Mr Chua had worked for a construction company. He now earns his keep by selling aluminium drink cans.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) had approached Mr Chua in 2009 to evict from the island but found out that the house he lives in belonged to his mother. The URA later decided to charge him rent for the use of the land.
The YDs also met Madam Samiyah at Kampong Chek Jawa. Madam Samiyah’s relatives manage a charming alfresco fresh coconut juice store. She was evicted from her house 15 years ago because her area was slated for land reclamation.
Her property comprised ten acres of land. But Madam Samiyah said she did not back down; she engaged a lawyer and lodged a case against the Government.
She was eventually paid $400,000 for the sale of her land. She now lives in Bedok, working as a cleaner and visits her relatives on the island.
Another resident, Mr Lim Cho Tee, said that he had received numerous notices from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) which were posted on his door, demanding rent payment.
Mr Lim has been paying $473 per month in rent which does not include the electricity and water costs, which he gets from a diesel generator and wells respectively.
The Government seems to be trying to play down the eviction of the residents. By charging Ubin inhabitants high land rent, the Government's objective seems to get these Singaporeans out of the island. Newspaper reports of the low rent that the Government charges are not accurate.
Like the Bukit Brown Cemetery which is slated to make way for an expressway, the building of an adventure park on Pulau Ubin is another project that seems to be catering for the 6.9 million population that the Government is pushing for.
Such urbanisation of Ubin adversely impacts the ecology of the island and adds to climate change. This is the reason why the YDs have decided to look into urbanisation issues faced by the inhabitants of Ubin.
Even if the development of the island is justified, there is also the issue of proper compensation for the displaced residents.
Vimita Mohandas Channel NewsAsia 5 Aug 13;
SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority has awarded a S$134.7-million contract to Swee Hong Limited for building a new dual four-lane road between MacRitchie Viaduct and Adam Flyover via Bukit Brown Cemetery.
In a joint statement, LTA and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said public exhumation of graves affected by the road works will begin in the fourth quarter of 2013.
LTA will be contacting the next-of-kin of affected graves who had registered their claims to make arrangements for exhumation.
The statement said since details of the affected graves were published in March 2012, LTA has received a total of 1,263 claims for affected graves.
Construction of the new road will begin in stages after exhumation of the affected graves is completed.
While construction is ongoing, members of the public can continue to enter other parts of Bukit Brown Cemetery that are not affected by the road construction.
Details of the access routes will be made available to the public when construction starts.
The new road is planned to be completed by end-2017.
Announced in September 2011, the new road includes a bridge over existing streams.
It is meant to ease the congestion along Lornie Road and the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) during peak hours, and to cater to expected growth in traffic demand.
- CNA/xq
Exhumation of Bukit Brown graves to start in Oct
Siau Ming En Today Online 6 Aug 13;
SINGAPORE — Almost two years after the project was announced, public exhumation of graves at the Bukit Brown Cemetery will begin from October this year to make way for the construction of a new dual four-lane road that connects MacRitchie Viaduct to Adam Flyover.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority said this yesterday, following the award of a tender for the construction of the new road to Swee Hong Limited for S$134.7 million.
The LTA has received 1,263 claims for the affected graves — about a quarter of the total number to be exhumed in place of the new road — and next-of-kin will be contacted to make further arrangements for exhumation.
“Construction of the new road will begin in stages after exhumation of the affected graves is completed,” said the joint statement.
Plans for the new road were announced in September 2011, aimed at easing the peak-hour congestion currently experienced along Lornie Road and the Pan-Island Expressway, as well as to cater to the expected growth in traffic in the area.
The Bukit Brown site has been earmarked for future housing.
The road project sparked off a series of calls from heritage and nature groups to preserve the cemetery, which is about 90 years old.
A working committee, formed in October 2011 to document and research the history behind the cemetery, has completed the documentation of all 4,153 affected graves.
The LTA said it will assess claims on unclaimed graves on a case-by-case basis. Otherwise, the remains would be cremated, the ashes kept by the authority for three years, before they are scattered at sea.
Once the exhumation of the affected graves is completed, construction work for the new road will begin. The road is to be completed by the end of 2017.
“While construction is ongoing, the public can continue to enter other parts of Bukit Brown Cemetery that are not affected by the road construction. Details of the access routes will be made available to the public when construction starts,” said the authorities.
Work on Bukit Brown road set to begin next year
Construction to start once affected graves are exhumed
Jermyn Chow Straits Times 6 Aug 13;
WORK on the controversial new road that cuts through Bukit Brown cemetery will start as early as the beginning of next year after the affected graves are exhumed.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said yesterday that it had awarded a tender to local contractor Swee Hong to build the dual four-lane road at a cost of $134.7 million.
The estimated 2km stretch, which will link the MacRitchie Viaduct to the Adam Flyover, is meant to ease peak-hour congestion on Lornie Road and the Pan-Island Expressway.
The road is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, a year after its initial 2016 projection.
The LTA also said that 4,153 of the 100,000 graves at Bukit Brown will be exhumed from the fourth quarter of this year, a deadline which was pushed back from April.
It has already received 1,263 claims for graves, while the rest that would be affected by the new road or are in its vicinity, have been documented by a committee led by anthropologist Hui Yew-Foong.
He will next lead a 10-man team to follow families that are exhuming their ancestral graves.
When contacted yesterday, Dr Hui, who is with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the appointed documentarian of Bukit Brown cemetery, said: "We want to record the rituals or ceremonies that are conducted before the exhumation so that we can preserve the memories, heritage and traditions."
He and his team are also looking to record all artefacts that may be unearthed, like jewellery, bangles or miniature pots.
Construction of the road was first announced in 2011, sparking an intense debate between heritage and nature groups and the Government.
Instead of laying a road flat on the ground through the cemetery, the LTA has already agreed to build a 600m-long bridge to allow wildlife to cross beneath the carriageway.
Dr Chua Ai Lin, vice-president of the Singapore Heritage Society, believes the Government has "done all it can" to reduce the impact of the new road on wildlife and heritage sites.
She also commended the authorities for giving families and researchers more time to document the graves.
She added: "But there were alternatives that were not relooked and that was a missed opportunity for us to prevent irreversible impact on the environment and heritage."
S Ramesh Channel NewsAsia 5 Aug 13;
SINGAPORE: The land reclamation case between Malaysia and Singapore, which started in 2002, has now been documented into a book.
The three co-authors were involved in the episode, which concluded in April 2005.
They are Ambassador-at-Large Professor Tommy Koh, Dr Cheong Koon Hean, CEO of HDB, and Judicial Commissioner Lionel Yee, who was at that time with the Attorney-General's Chambers.
The book was launched by Singapore's Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam.
The book is about the about the talks, technical and legal arguments over Malaysia's legal action against Singapore.
Singapore's reclamation work around Tuas and Pulau Tekong was at the centre of the dispute.
Malaysia had asked the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea in Hamburg to order Singapore to stop work immediately, arguing that it had caused serious environmental degradation.
The three co-authors were at the forefront at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, arguing Singapore's case.
Judicial Commissioner Yee said: "For the lawyers on the Singapore team, it was baptism of fire, but thanks to Malaysia, we learnt many valuable lessons from this case, whether it is working with foreign counsel or just doing the logistics of conducting case before an international court or tribunal. And we would be making full use of the experience that we gained from Malaysia again when we met them four years later at the International Court of Justice for the Pedra Branca case.”
Former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, who was at that time Singapore's Attorney General, said it was a story that needs to be told to remind Singaporeans that now and again, relations between Singapore and Malaysia can easily go awry for many reasons.
Mr Shanmugam said: "It was very important for us to win this case and it really showed the government coming together, lawyers, engineers, a lot of people working together and how we succeeded and subsequently the experts completely agreed with us and therefore the provisional measures were not ordered.
“Between Malaysia and Singapore, when we agree that we can go for third-party adjudication, it doesn't hold any particular issue so central that it holds the entire relationship hostage."
Mr Shanmugam stressed that bilateral ties with Malaysia are excellent, with both countries doing several projects together.
- CNA/xq
Book on land reclamation case launched
Besides recalling drama, it serves as reminder of issue of conflicting legal rights
Grace Chua Straits Times 6 Aug 13;
ONE September day in 2003, Mr Lionel Yee was on a plane coming in to land at Changi when it flew over Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong.
Then a legal officer in the Attorney-General's Chambers, he was returning from Hamburg after presenting Singapore's case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos). It involved a dispute with Malaysia which alleged that land reclamation at Tekong was harming the environment and causing navigation problems.
Mr Yee, now Judicial Commissioner in the Supreme Court, passed the islands in an instant. "That's what we had been fighting for, for so many weeks and months," he said.
Last night, he and his co-authors, Ambassador- at-large Tommy Koh and Ministry of National Development deputy secretary Cheong Koon Hean, launched a book on the landmark case.
All three were key members of the Singapore team at the tribunal.
Malaysia & Singapore: The Land Reclamation Case - From Dispute To Settlement, was launched at the National Museum by Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs K. Shanmugam.
It details the dispute over reclamation projects at Tuas, Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong when in 2003, Malaysia took Singapore before the Itlos in a bid to halt reclamation work that had started in 2000.
The dispute raised a larger issue of conflicting legal rights - Singapore's to reclaim part of its sea for national needs, and Malaysia's to protect its maritime environment from harm.
It was resolved when international experts showed the reclamation was not causing major environmental damage. Both countries agreed on minor changes to the Tekong reclamation and to monitor the area's ecology.
Mr Shanmugam said the case should be captured for posterity, and remarked on what it reflected about ties between the countries: "When we agree that we can go to third party adjudication, it doesn't hold any particular issue as so central that it holds the entire relationship hostage."
The $26.75 book is published by The Straits Times Press and the Centre for International Law and the Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore. All royalties will be donated to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.
A chapter in the history of bilateral relations
Straits Times 6 Aug 13;
SINGAPORE has reclaimed land at its edges for decades, expanding its land area by more than a fifth since the 1960s.
The land includes spots that most people take for granted, such as Marine Parade and East Coast Park.
So it was no surprise that this reclamation activity eventually rubbed its closest neighbour the wrong way.
In 2002, Malaysia objected to reclamation works at Pulau Tekong and Tuas, two years after the work had started. It claimed the projects damaged the environment, affected fishermen's livelihoods and caused navigation difficulties.
The case was heard at the International Tribunal For The Law Of The Sea in 2003, where the two countries agreed to a full scientific study. It was resolved after a team of independent experts found that the Tekong reclamation project had no major impact on the environment.
A decade on, three key members of the Singapore team - Professor Tommy Koh, Dr Cheong Koon Hean and Mr Lionel Yee - have written a 128-page volume on the experience, giving a sense of the drama in and out of the courtroom. It details Malaysia's complaints and Singapore's legal preparations, a tense week in Hamburg before the tribunal, a joint study by international experts, arbitration at The Hague and a settlement between the countries.
The Singapore team had a keen eye for anything that would help - such as photos of a container vessel breezing through the Elbe River channel in Hamburg to show navigation channels near Tekong would be wide enough even after reclamation.
The book also documents lighter moments. For example, one of the Joint Working Group meetings in Putrajaya ended so late that a Singapore delegation, including Prof Koh, was unceremoniously dumped at a petrol kiosk in Johor on the way back as the coach driver was late for another assignment.
The easy-to-read volume is targeted at laymen interested in international law and international relations. It charts a key moment in the history of bilateral relations between Singapore and Malaysia, and serves as a reminder how vital reclamation is to Singapore and how careful it must be about reclaiming land.
GRACE CHUA
Pallavi Gummalam Jakarta Globe 5 Aug 13;
The World Wide Fund for Nature said it found Asian Agri and Wilmar, two of the world’s biggest palm oil concerns, were recently buying palm fruit that had been grown illegally in the Tesso Nilo complex in Riau, Sumatra, which extends into the Tesso Nilo National Park.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a self-regulating industry body, responded by emphasizing a rule that says oil mills must “record the origins of all third-party sourced fresh fruit.”
“[Criteria 2013 ] requires complete transparent control of the entire supply chain, from field to factory,” the organization said in a statement over the weekend.
RSPO said Asian Agri and Wilmar were cooperating and would stop buying palm clusters from illegally cleared land. Assuming continued cooperation on the matter, the organization said, no official complaint against these companies would be lodged for the time being.
A report published in early July by the WWF underscored its determination to see that all palm oil buyers ask suppliers about the production chain to ensure compliance with laws. It also suggested that destruction of forested areas in Indonesia, at least in part, resulted from a lack of the country’s failure to enforce its own laws.
The RSPO said its own standards for sustainable palm oil production are very high, adding that it was developing measures for its members to ensure careful screening of the source of the fresh palm bunches they purchase. It also acknowledged the challenges for companies and the Indonesian government in encouraging transparency and abating unsustainable palm oil practices.
The watchdog groups were calling the case of Asian Agri and Wilmar an “alarm” warning for the Indonesian government to tighten up legal requirements and procedures for responsibly sourcing produce used by the palm oil industry.
Mohd Haikal Mohd Isa Bernama 5 Aug 13;
JOHOR BAHRU, Aug 5 (Bernama) -- Phase one construction of the RM9 billion Pengerang Independent Deep Water Petroleum Terminal is progressing well and is scheduled for commissioning in the second quarter of next year.
Johor Petroleum Development Corporation Chief Executive Officer Mohd Yazid Jaafar said construction work was 65 per cent completed.
"Construction work is on target and slated for commissioning in the second quarter of next year," he told Bernama.
The terminal, to be built in phases on 200 hectares (500 acres) of reclaimed land, will have a total of five million cubic metres of petroleum storage capacity.
The project is undertaken by main board-listed Dialog Bhd, Royal Vopak of the Netherlands and state-owned State Secretariat Incorporated.
Phase one of the petroleum storage facility has the capacity to store up to 1.3 million cubic metres of petroleum products.
Royal Vopak is the world's largest independent tank storage provider.
Mohd Yazid said the project also includes a liquefied natural gas import terminal which the company planned to develop under phase two of its master plan.
Meanwhile, Johor Petroleum Development Corporation, via its facebook account, has made a clarification following numerous "misquotes and misreporting" on the participants and potential investors in its proposed Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex.
It said the complex is being developed to create and add value to Malaysia's downstream oil and gas industry.
To date, two separate catalytic projects have been committed within the complex, namely the terminal and the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project by the national oil corporation, Petronas.
Apart from the two committed projects, Taiwan's Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co (KPTC) has also indicated its interest to invest in a refinery and petrochemical development project within the complex, the corporation said.
The proposed project by the Taiwan company is separate from the two projects being undertaken by Dialog-Royal Vopak-Johor State Government joint venture and Petronas' RAPID.
Should it decide to proceed, KPTC's investment is expected to be within the region of about US$13 billion, in which it plans to build a 150,000 bpd (barrels per day) crude Naphtha Cracker.
-- BERNAMA
Salvaging Efforts at Pulau Hantu
from Pulau Hantu
Crabs meet cobra at Chek Jawa
from wild shores of singapore
Sekudu survey in the predawn
from wonderful creation
Horror in the heartlands
from The annotated budak and A closer loop
Butterflies Galore! : White Palm Bob
from Butterflies of Singapore
Endangered Species Awareness for Children
from Bird Ecology Study Group
"Tigers" @ Gardens By the Bay
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
Spotted Dove
from Monday Morgue
The true cause of the accident that has seen crude washing up on our beaches, with potentially devastating affects on the tourism industry, seems shrouded in mystery
Bangkok Post 4 Aug 13;
The head of PTT's oil slick clean-up team was driving back to Bangkok last Sunday evening from Rayong when he received a phone call he wasn't expecting.
After determining the situation was under control following the spraying of dispersants from ships and a Singaporean plane, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) president Bowon Vongsinudom had decided to head home and leave the monitoring of the situation to his staff and marine officials stationed in the area.
He had spent most of the last two days trying to minimise the damage from a crude oil spill 20km offshore, when a floating hose transferring oil from a tanker to a PTT refinery pipeline broke sending, PTT says, 50,000 litres of oil spewing into the coastal waters.
At 8pm on Sunday night Mr Bowon received a call from one of his staff informing him oil was washing on to Koh Samet's Ao Phrao beach in large quantities.
''We were puzzled where this oil was from,'' Mr Bowon told Spectrum. ''It is one of the puzzles that I cannot find the answers to yet. One is how the hose broke, and where this oil was from. It's a huge amount.''
The oil spill and the stain it has left on Thailand's world famous beaches and image as a pristine tourist destination has led to intense debate on PTT's handling of the crisis and the emergency plan it deployed.
There are also serious questions being asked by academics about the size of the oil spill due to the vast area it covers and the volume of dispersants sprayed on it, which is by some estimates six times the amount required to treat a 50,000 litre spill.
DRAMA UNFOLDS
Mr Bowon says he first learned of the accident between 6-7am on Saturday morning, but it was unclear when it happened. One of the tanker's two floating hoses connected to an underwater buoy, which is attached to a fixed pipeline to the PTT refinery, had broken. Despite earlier media reports, Mr Bowon said the breakaway coupling on the floating hose had not come loose. A source from the Marine Department, which PTT is required to report to on the accident, said the safety valves were closed manually.
The PTTGC chief said when the hose broke the safety system activated immediately and the only oil that was spilled was the amount contained in the floating hose.
Mr Bowon however could not confirm whether the valves were closed automatically or manually.
At a press conference on Thursday, PTT said that the valves had closed automatically and there was no time lag after the hose broke.
PTT estimates that only 50,000 litres of oil leaked into the the sea. This was calculated by the amount of oil believed to be in the 100m floating hose at the time of the accident.
As per standard procedures, a boom was in place when the oil transfer was underway but in this case it was of little use in stopping the spread of the oil in the sea.
Mr Bowon said PTT decided to use dispersants to clear the slick although he refused to say what type or the amount used. The Marine Department source said the dispersant Slickgone, composed mainly of paraffin and dioctyl sodium sulphosuccinate, was used.
On Saturday, PTT deployed 10 ships to help spray dispersant on the slick. The Marine Department source said they used about 120 200-litre tanks of dispersant _ about 24,000 litres in total.
On Sunday, Singapore-based clean-up company Oil Spill Response Ltd was called in. It deployed a plane that sprayed 12,000 litres of dispersant on the slick. The ratio for the spraying of the chemical to oil is 1:20, so the amount of the dispersant used was considered high.
Napa Wangkiat, of the Engineering Faculty of Rangsit University said the Pollution Control Department gave the company permission to use only 5,000 litres of dispersant.
''One litre of dispersant is used for 20 litres of oil spilled, so 5,000 litre should be enough for as much as 100,000 litres of oil spilled,'' Mr Napa said. ''However, the company report to the Stock Exchange of Thailand mentioned that 32,000 litres of dispersant was used in the clean up.
''The public does not know how the company used those chemicals. Did they mix it with water or other substances to make such a high volume?''
PTT says the dispersant works by breaking down oil globules which are then ''digested'' by bacteria. The process takes one to two weeks to complete.
Mr Bowon said as the oil slick spread, the ships followed its trail and kept spraying dispersant. The plane from Singapore took over the task at 3pm on Sunday. It informed PTT that the slick had only spread to one area which it sprayed until it was covered.
Mr Bowon said they believed the initial stage of the clean-up had been completed as the sprayed areas started to turn brown, an indication they were reacting to the dispersant. He asked the plane to double check the area and they replied that everything was okay.
Their biggest fear _ that based on tides and weather modelling maps the slick would hit Koh Samet _ appeared unfounded.
It was early on Sunday evening and PTT staff and Marine Department had checked both ends of the island and believed the battle had been won, but the victory would only last a few hours.
DARKNESS APPROACHES
Mr Bowon didn't get to go home. When Spectrum visited Ao Phrao beach on Wednesday he was there observing the clean-up operation involving dozens of PTT staff, the ugly gloop from the oil splattering their white bio suits and rubber boots.
''At this point, I cannot say it is impossible that there will not be oil washed ashore,'' he said. ''We will keep monitoring it and that is the only thing we can do.''
An oil extracting machine, which clears oil from the beach, is still pumping away and white sand has re-emerged in places. But as the morning tides came in so do sheets of oil and the water in front of Ao Phrao turns a dirty brown in contrast with the sparkling green sea further off shore.
Mr Bowon is proud of the efforts of his workers who have used paper sheets to mop up the oil. So far they have managed to scoop up enough to fill 80 one-cubic metre tanks. Hundreds of enlisted men and women from the Sattahip naval base have also lent a hand.
He says he still has no idea where the oil came from and believes that oil globules, which were broken up by the dispersant, were picked up and ''packed together'' by sea waves.
But another PTTGC executive Spectrum spoke to on condition of anonymity was adamant the procedures they had deployed during the clean-up were correct and successful.
He said using booms to contain the spill near the tanker would not have worked as they would have been scattered by the rough seas so they mainly relied on the use of dispersants. As the oil was spilled in water 20m deep PTTGC considered it safe to use the chemicals. However, the official added that not all the oil may have been broken up and a ''small amount'' could be what had landed on Ao Phrao.
He said the environmental impact was minimal and according to their monitoring the water quality was already improving.
Pakorn Prasertwong, chief of the Environment Division of the Marine Department, who has helped in the operation, said the company had tried its best to follow its 100-page emergency plan.
He agreed with Mr Bowon that some of the oil molecules may have been ''packed again'' and washed ashore in the calmer waters off Ao Phrao. He said the type of dispersant used was approved by the government but the amount used was questionable.
''Considering the conditions they had, I think they did what the theory required,'' he said.
Satellite images from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) show that the initial size of the spill covered a large area, but has now reduced to a quarter of that size.
On July 27 the oil slick covered an area of 19 square kilometres and was moving east. But by Thursday it covered an area of five square kilometres.
SLIPPERY DIPS
Associate professor Siwat Pongniumchan from the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida) believes PTTGC and government agencies involved in the mop-up are hiding the truth.
Mr Siwat, who heads Nida's research and development centre and management of disaster, questions not only the amount of oil spilled, but also the long-term environmental impact of chemical dispersants.
He said he agreed with other academics, such as Somporn Chuai-aree of Prince Songkhla University, who believed a far greater amount of oil was spilled than indicated by the oil giant.
Mr Somporn said based on his analysis of the GISTDA satellite images from the beginning of the accident the likely amount of oil spilled was as low as 108,000 litres or as high as 190,000 litres.
Mr Siwat urged the government to establish an independent panel to investigate not only the cause of the accident, but also the volume of the spills and the clean-up process which he believes will have long-term impact on the marine and coastal ecosystem.
He also pointed out that the volume of an oil spill had an impact on any fine and the amount of compensation paid.
''A report of a small amount of oil spilled may help the company receive lower fines,'' he said. ''But don't forget that the incident occurred only 20km from the shore, the impact on people and natural resources is tremendous.''
Mr Siwat noted that the Australian unit of PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) admitted to four charges over the 2009 Montara oil spill, 250km off Australia's northwestern coast. Thousands of barrels of oil gushed into the ocean over a 10-week period following a blowout at PTTEP Australasia's West Atlas rig in the Timor Sea, with the slick spreading as far as Indonesian waters and environmentalists claiming it grew to almost 90,000 square kilometres.
The company estimated the clean-up cost at A$40-$50 million, and the Darwin Magistrates Court fined it $510,000 last September.
Mr Siwat said despite numerous oil spills involving the company, PTT invested little in clean-up equipment.
The Eco Marine company in conjunction with the Thailand Institute of Science and Technology Research had developed an environmentally friendly substance called Keeen, which has for four years been used to treat oil spills in the south, especially in shallow water mangrove areas.
A spokesman for the company said there was no guarantee chemical dispersants would work.
''The chemical dispersant may make the oil spill vanish from sight, but it doesn't go anywhere, it just remains under water for a long period of time,'' said a representative from the company.
He said there was a possibility that oil particles could be washed up onto beaches by the tides.
Trin Varuwanich, chairman of the Oil Industry Environment Safety Group Association (IESG) said they had had no request to help, but were on standby to do so if PTT asked them.
''We discussed the matter with the company from the first day of the incident,'' Mr Trin said. ''The company said the problem is not that big and can be handled by the company and its partner from Singapore.''
PTT and 16 other oil companies are members of the association that has equipment to clean up oil spills and regularly organises training drills.
''We moved some equipment from the warehouse in Si Racha in Chon Buri province to Rayong so that the PTTGC can use when necessary,'' he said.
Under a 1998 national plan on oil spills, the IESG has responsibility for oil spill clean-ups along with the other government agencies, including the Harbour Department, the Royal Thai Navy and the provincial authorities.
The Pollution Control Department, an agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, is responsible for providing information to the operating team on where the oil spill is heading and other information to support the clean up work.
But the joint operation is only activated when the volume of the oil spill is deemed large, for example more than 100,000 litres.
''Most oil companies have their contracts with companies on oil spill clean up work. However, they can ask for help from the association if they want or if the scale of the problem is large, the clean up operations be conducted under the national plan,'' Mr Trin he said.
According to the Pollution Control Department report, the national plan was activated in several cases when the amount of oil spill was as high as 160,000 litres.
Mr Trin suggest that the national plan needs to be reviewed due to increase in oil industries with higher risk of oil accidents.
The bulk of the oil spill incidents in the 1970s were the result of ship collisions, mainly due to poor navigation systems or incompetence. Since the early 1990s, however, these navigation difficulties have mostly been ironed out and the majority of spills since have resulted from technical problems during the transfer and transportation of oil. Thailand's major recent oil spills are listed below.
1. WHEN: April 10, 1973
WHERE: Chao Phraya river mouth
HOW MUCH: 1.6 million litres
CAUSE: Ship collision
2. WHEN: May 29, 1977
WHERE: Chao Phraya river mouth
HOW MUCH: 240,000 litres
CAUSE: Ship collision
3. WHEN: 1979
WHERE: Off Koh Sri Chang,
Chon Buri
HOW MUCH: 240,000 litres
CAUSE: Container ship fire
4. WHEN: March 6, 1994
WHERE: Off Koh Sri Chang,
Chon Buri
HOW MUCH: 400,000 litres
CAUSE: Ship collision
5. WHEN: anuary 16, 1996
WHERE: Chao Phraya river mouth, Samut Prakan
HOW MUCH: 160,000 litres
CAUSE: Ship collision
6. WHEN: October 30, 1996
WHERE: Map Ta Phut industrial estate, Rayong
HOW MUCH: 152,000 litres
CAUSE: Container ship collision
7. WHEN: May 22, 2001
WHERE: Map Ta Phut industrial estate, Rayong
HOW MUCH: 24,000 litres
CAUSE: Container ship collision
8. WHEN: January 15, 2002
WHERE: Off Koh Juang, Chon Buri
HOW MUCH: 187,200 litres
CAUSE: Ship collision
9. WHEN: December 17, 2002
WHERE: Laem Chabang port,
Chon Buri
HOW MUCH: 168,000 litres
CAUSE: Ship collision
10. WHEN: October 6, 2007
WHERE: Chevron's Trident-16 (Offshore Mobile Drilling Unit), Gulf of Thailand
HOW MUCH: 26,400 litres
CAUSE: Storage tank leak
11. WHEN: December 9, 2007
WHERE: Songkhla's Sating Phra district
HOW MUCH: 20,000 litres
CAUSE: Shipwreck
12.WHEN: June 15, 2008
WHERE: Chao Phraya river, Samut Prakan
HOW MUCH: 40,000 litres
CAUSE: Ship collision.
13. WHEN: September 4, 2011
WHERE: Phuket's west coast
HOW MUCH: 40,000 litres
CAUSE: Ship caught in bad weather
The Pollution Control Department classifies oil spills into three different tiers of severity and outlines standard response measures to each.
TIER 1
Any oil spill not exceeding 20 litres. This type of spill normally occurs due to minor leaks while oil is being transferred between storage depots and ships. The company which spilled the oil will be solely responsible for the clean-up, but can request help if necessary. The Marine Department must be notified of any such spill.
TIER 2
Any oil spill between 20 to 1,000 litres. This type of spill normally occurs from minor collisions or other accidents between ships. The government and private sectors must work together to clean up such a spill. The Marine Department must be notified immediately, and foreign help may be sought if the situation gets out of control.
TIER 3
Any oil spill exceeding 1,000 litres. This type of spill normally occurs from serious ship collisions and pipeline or storage tank leaks. Foreign assistance is usually necessary.
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