Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang – An official at a state-run river management agency in East Java has accused factories of dumping toxic waste into one of the province's main sources of clean water.

Harianto, the secretary of Jasa Tirta River Management Agency, claimed Thursday at least 70 percent of factories located along Brantas River were disposing of their waste directly into this major waterway.

He warned pollution levels in the river had already passed safe levels, and that if the dumping continued the health of the river would be in serious jeopardy.

An analysis of the liquid waste dumped into the river between July and September this year found that of the 44 companies dumping waste into Brantas River, 33 were discharging waste that exceeded safety standards.

The waste was found to exceed the standards set by a 2002 gubernatorial decree on industrial liquid waste in East Java. The criteria used to test the waste were Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS).

BOD is a benchmark to observe the oxygen content needed to dissolve organic substances, COD to determine oxygen content for chemical processes and TSS to observe the total material contents being dissolved.

The 320-km Brantas River winds through Malang city, Malang and Tulungagung regencies, Kediri city and Nganjuk, Jombang, Sidoarjo and Gresik regencies, before emptying into the sea near the provincial capital Surabaya.

The worst affected areas are Malang and Surabaya cities, and Malang and Tulungagung regencies, caused by such businesses as slaughterhouses, sugar, tapioca, paper and textile mills, pig farms, cigarette and oil palm factories, and tofu producers.

"There are actually thousands of companies, but we only took samples representing the types of waste and their locations by using a device called an online water quality monitoring station," said Jasa Tirta lab head Vonny C. Setiawati.

The average deviation level of the liquid waste dumped directly into Brantas River reached more than 1,000 percent, and above 3,000 percent in some cases, such as waste from the Sempulur pig farm in Malang regency.

Waste from the pig farm had a COD content of 7,540.8 mg/liter, well above the allowable level of 200 mg/liter. Waste from the PT Penamas cigarette factory in Malang regency had a COD level of 3,664.1 mg/liter, above the maximum standard of 100 mg/liter.

Harianto said his office had reported the results of its tests to the East Java office of the Environmental Impact Control Agency (Bapedalda).

"The water quality of Brantas River is obviously affected by this. However, we have to conduct further analysis to be more specific, and Bapedalda will have the ultimate say in the matter. We only execute the tests," said Harianto.

He said Jasa Tirta was not authorized to take action against polluting companies, which is the job of Bapedalda.

"The important thing is that we have carried out our job as a management agency of Brantas River, according to Public Works Ministry Decree No. 56/1991, such as monitoring and evaluating liquid waste dumped into the Brantas River," Harianto said.

Jasa Tirta expressed hope all parties would take immediate measures to stop the pollution before it got worse.