Stop work order issued to chemical plant responsible for stench in Singapore

SINGAPORE – The Johor Department of Environment (DOE) has on Saturday (Sept 30) issued a stop work order to a chemical plant in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, which was pinpointed as the source of a chemical stench that enveloped parts of northern Singapore last Monday.

According to Malaysian daily New Straits Times, Johor DOE director Dr Mohammad Ezanni Mat Salleh said the order was issued after the plant suffered a fire at one of its facilities earlier this month.

"The order will be in effect until the plant completes necessary remedial actions. We will make sure that the plant complies with the order before allowing it to resume operations," he told reporters.

The plant was already the subject of an investigation over the gas-like smell that plagued parts of northern Singapore last week.

Together with the Johor DOE, the NEA had identified the plant as the source of the stench. “(The DOE) is taking action against the operator,” the Singapore agency said in a statement posted on its Facebook page on Friday.

Complaints about the odour appeared on the online forums such as Reddit and Hardware Zone last Monday evening. Many netizens said that the smell appeared to be largely confined to the North-Eastern parts of Singapore in areas like Sengkang, Hougang, Buangkok and Ang Mo Kio.

Checks by the NEA and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on factories in affected areas had failed to find any anomalies that could have caused the gas smell.

The NEA then decided to enlist the help of its Malaysian counterparts to investigate further.

Similar complaints have surfaced in the past.

In 2013, there were complaints of a "foul odour" in Punggol and Sengkang. An NEA spokesman then said that the smell could have possibly "emanated from palm oil industries".

NEA however ruled out industries near Punggol as the cause of the smell, after inspections of their equipment, processes, operations and records "did not reveal any abnormalities or issues in their operations" that could be behind the "chemical smell as mentioned in the feedback".