JOHOR BARU: The Department of Environment is expected to take action against 18 illegal chemical factories that have been found to be operating in the Pasir Gudang area.
Its director-general Norlin Jaafar said so far, they had taken action against three factories in a series of joint operations with other agencies.
"We will work with other agencies to clamp down on the other illegal factories in the area," she said during a press conference here on Thursday (July 18).
On their operation in the area, Norlin said DOE officers had checked 257 registered chemical factories.
"We have managed to zoom in our initial investigations on three factories which have since been sealed," she said, adding that the DOE was preparing to take them to court.
The three companies, located within a 3km radius, reportedly released high levels of gasses such as methyl mercaptan, acrolein and acrylonitrile.
On the checks on 257 factories, she said at least 12 stop-work orders had been issued along with 60 notices and 136 compounds totalling RM270,000.
Norlin urged the public to forward information on pollution cases to the department as they were offering a reward of RM5,000.
"We will keep their identities a secret," she added.
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