HÀ TĨNH — Authorities in central Hà Tĩnh Province denied the connection between Formosa’s waste water discharge and the reddish streak appeared on water edge near the province’s Sơn Dương wharf.

A joint force between local authorities and the Institute of Environmental Technology yesterday afternoon announced their testing results and affirmed that the reddish streak did not start from the Hưng Nghiệp Formosa Steel Corporation’s sullage pit.

Nguyễn Văn Toàn, the institute’s inspector said his taskforce team had arrived at the site to monitor the discharge of Formosa and took samples for testing three times in a month and at different time a day, but no link between the streak and Formosa waste water discovered.

“There’s no type of reddish waste water from Formosa,” he said, adding that Formosa sullage pit did not look like the one captured by a clip broadcasted on social network that show a strong reddish flow.

In a month, residents living near the coast where Formosa is based found a reddish streak on water edge and later a video clip spread out on social network saying that the start of the streak was from Formosa discharge system.

The clip appeared online last Saturday but it did not show capturing time and it was difficult to identify the location. But it sparked angers among Vietnamese netizens as they suspected Formosa once again release waste to the ocean after the deadly spill in April last year.

Public pressure has resulted in an inspection to Formosa yesterday by the joint force. Hoàng Thanh Tùng, deputy manager of Hà Tĩnh Authority for Industrial Parks said every sullage pit owned by Formosa have been checked and he assured no pit similar the one in the clip.

Formosa’s representative added that the company has three discharge gates open to the ocean and each has locker to manage the release of waste water. They all are in different size compared to the one in the clip, the representative said.

Dương Tất Thắng, deputy chairman of Hà Tĩnh Province People’s Committee affirmed the existence of a 50m reddish streak at local coast but called it a natural phenomenon that occurs annually during winter.

Local residents said the streak never lasts for long but continues to return, as it has for over a month. — VNS