CHENNAI: Over 90% of the mandatory environmental parameters that need continuous monitoring as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, to protect public health and environment have never been monitored at Chennai corporation’s Kodungaiyur 50 MTPD (Metric Tonne Per Day) Waste to Energy (WTE) incinerator since its establishment in 2021, said a report by the Federation of North Chennai Residents Welfare Association (FNCRWA) and Alliance of Incinerator Free Chennai (AIFC) on Monday.
The report, made public at Chennai Press Club, was based on RTI replies of TNPCB inspections, field visits by the team and interactions with the residents of Kodungaiyur.
Of the 48 mandatory environmental parameters, 45 – including eight of the 11 air emission parameters such as cancer causing dioxins, furans and heavy metals, 19 wastewater (leachate) pollution parameters, 13 toxicity parameters for bottom ash and fly ash, and five others – were never monitored, the report said, adding only three of the parameters (Particulates, Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides) were monitored just once in last five years.
The report also flagged serious technical deficiencies such as absence of advanced pollution control equipment like activated carbon filters to capture dioxins and heavy metals, non-installation of mandatory online continuous emission monitoring systems (OCEMS), inadequate management of toxic ash and effluents, and failure to demonstrate compliance with the mandated furnace temperature of 950 degree celsius. The team said this raised concerns of soil, groundwater and surface water contamination.
Speaking at the Chennai Press Club, FNCRWA president TK Shanmugam said the association approached CM MK Stalin around three-and-a-half months ago regarding Kodungaiyur and that he had promised to form an independent expert committee, but there has been no progress.
Over 10 lakh residents in Ezhil Nagar, Rajarathinam Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Chandrashekar Nagar, MGR Nagar, Annai Sathya Nagar and Krishnamoorthy Nagar are affected, the association said.
Dr S Janakarajan, professor and expert in water and environmental issues, termed it a “criminal act” by the private firm to run the incinerator in violation of norms.
“When heavy metal concentration is high in the air, it will immediately affect lungs and can cause cancer too,” he said, adding North Chennai, already industrialised, will further choke residents. Due to existing air toxicity, the life expectancy of North Chennai residents is 60, he said.
S Vishvaja of FNCRWA said several residents in Kodungaiyur developed asthma, skin infections and cancer after the WTE was established, and a door-to-door health survey is under way.
The association urged immediate shut down of the Kodungaiyur incinerator, called for an independent investigation into environmental and public health violations.
The team warned that if the government cannot monitor a 50 metric tonne per day facility, opening two large scale incinerators — at Kodungaiyur (2,100 TPD) and Tambaram (1,500 TPD) at a proposed cost of `3,450 crore — will create a public health and environmental disaster and turn the city into a permanent “toxic zone” similar to Delhi.