DINGALAN, Aurora — A proposed sanitary landfill in this town has sparked a controversy as residents claimed the facility would pollute a nearby creek being used as source of potable water.

The residents said that the six-hectare site of the proposed municipal sanitary landfill in Barangay Caragsacan could pollute the Amit Creek and pose threat to the health of residents of three adjacent barangays which are Davil-davilan, Poblacion, and Aplaya.

Davil-davilan and Caragsacan were among the areas identified as "high-risk" in a 2006 report of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

A town official, who sought anonymity, said that the municipal government did not hold any public hearing before it acquired the site for the proposed sanitary landfill.

"If the municipal government pushes through with the sanitary landfill in Caragsacan, the stench of the garbage would affect the people, particularly children. Besides, it would pollute the Amit Creek which is a rich source of drinking water for residents," the official said.

"It is bad not only for the residents of Dingalan but also for the efforts to promote tourism," the official said.

Recently, the municipal government bought the landfill site at R300,000 for the proposed sanitary landfill in its bid to comply with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act which mandates every local government unit (LGU) to establish a sanitary landfill.

Mayor Zenaida Padiernos had asked Joselito Blanco, Dingalan community environment and natural resources officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to speed up the survey, relocation and geo-environmental assessment of the proposed landfill site.

The plan sparked protests from residents in the affected areas. They said that the landfill facility should be moved instead to Barangay Paltic, "another high-risk area.

They said that the choice of Caragsacan as landfill site was ill-advised just like an earlier move to set up a cemetery near the sea.

Padiernos denied that the landfill facility would be harmful to the residents. She said enough safeguards have been put in place to prevent it from causing harm to health of the people.