NEA comments on flaring at Bukom

The emission of dark smoke from a chimney is against the law outside agreed limitations, says the National Environment Agency (NEA) -- according to today's Straits Times article about flaring on Pulau Bukom.

Flaring on Pulau Bukom, near living reefs at Pulau Hantu and
other areas of rich marine biodiversity including Cyrene Reef.

Other insights from the article: Shell says it is within the limitations but an NEA spokesman said: 'We are working with Shell to understand and stem this unusual spate of smoke emissions from the flare stacks.'

'Black smoke is emitted by a flare when there is insufficient steam to burn off the hydrocarbons in a smokeless manner. It is the responsibility of the plant operator to ensure that sufficient steam is produced to keep the flare smoke-free,' said the NEA spokesman. The steam provides the oxygen to allow the hydrocarbons to burn without smoke.

NEA says the flare at Pulau Bukom has 'not impacted the air quality on the main island of Singapore so far, and there is no cause for concern'.

Full article on the wildsingapore news blog.

I have noticed that the flaring at Bukom often goes on at night. At sunrise, the flaring ends but a huge cloud of emissions is often left hanging over the site.

Huge 'cloud' over Bukom with flaring,
just before sunrise, Jun 2010.

The Straits Times article also notes that: "The Straits Times' citizen journalism website Stomp has also been receiving regular posts about the flare since March."

The most recent posting to Stomp about flaring on Bukom was shared a few days ago, on 30 Aug. Skyline of west Singapore ruined by huge pollution clouds with the comment "This oil refinery in the west of Singapore which started operations last year has been spewing a lot of pollution. Don't we have pollution control measures that prohibits this?" and this accompanying photo.

Here's more Stomp posts and photos on flaring with extracts of some comments.

• Pollution, or just burning excess gas at Pulau Bukom? 19 Aug 201
• Smoke spewing from Jurong Island refineries: Health hazard? 20 Jul 2010
• Pollution to enviroment continues with Pulau Bukom flaring 27 Apr 2010
• Pulau Bukom flaring goes on for weeks: When will the pollution end? 1 Apr 2010
• Absurd that flaring is still occurring at Pulau Bukom 31 Mar 2010 ""Today at 1pm, I noticed that the pollution continues. This is happening even though the NEA officer called me last week to inform me that the flaring has stopped. According to him, Shell was opening a new refinery and needed to flare off the chimneys - perhaps to test/flush the refinery system? However, that activity has ended, so why is there still pollution? What is happening? Why isn't Shell issuing a press release?"
• Flaring spotted over West Coast sky 30 Mar 2010
• Flaring at Jurong Island can be seen even in heavy rain 17 Mar 2010
• Is gas flaring on Jurong island legal? Worried if this is health hazard 15 Mar 2010
• Glowing sky over Jurong Island not caused by 'aliens', but oil refineries 14 Mar 2010
• Flaring in the middle of the night at Pulau Bukom 17 Mar 2010 ""Perhaps the person responsible does this in the middle of the night, avoiding the attention from the Ministry of Environment? Will there be health hazards caused?"

There are even YouTube videos about the flaring

Pulau Bukom Petrochem Flare by day - View from Southern Ridges

Pulau Bukom Petrochem Flare at Night - View from River Valley


More links

• More about flaring and incidents of flaring on Bukom on the wild shores of singapore blog.
• More photos of flaring at Bukom on wildsingapore flickr.
• Flaring At Shell's Pulau Bukom Site on the Shell website 3 Aug 2010