Kuantan Port Consortium (KPC) Sdn Bhd has denied that the "red sea" at Pantai Balok and Pantai Batu Hitam, Kuantan was caused by bauxite mining activities.

This is because the rivers that lead out to the sea at the two areas are not connected to Sungai Pengorak.

"Findings have found that it is not related to Sungai Pengorak as Sungai Balok and Sungai Tunggak are not even connected with Sungai Pengorak at Kuantan Port," KPC chief operating officer Khasbullah A Kadir said.

He also said that KPC had been filtering the water discharge from the port to Sungai Pengorak.

The result is that the water at Sungai Pengorak had become better since Dec 29 last year.

Heavy rain had destroyed three steel filters on Dec 29 last year, he said, but the filtration system still works and has reduced the water pollution at Sungai Pengorak.

Last night, KPC also said that it has prepared a special plan to overcome the issue of environmental pollution in Kuantan due to bauxite mining activities.

Khasbullah said the plan might take some time to execute as it is a big project, adding that the export process of bauxite at the port will become 60 to 80 percent cleaner once the plan is completed.

Malaysian bauxite export spiked 1,100 percent year-on-year in 2014 to become China's top supplier, after Indonesia banned exports to encourage the growth of the local aluminum industry.

Exporters are now mostly shipping out raw ore, but purifying the material will fetch a price of more than 20 times, at US$43.5 (RM186) per tonne as at early December.

Bauxite washing generates large amounts of waste water that is often poorly stored and it seeps into rivers, potentially poisoning them with heavy metals and further deepening Kuantan's growing woes.