VISAKHAPATNAM: THE High Power Committee Committee (HPC), which probed the styrene monomer vapour leak at LG Polymers at RR Venkatapuram, in its report submitted to the State government, suggested that additional security steps should be taken wherever hazardous industries are located close to residential areas or habitations. It said hazardous chemicals should be stored in tanks below 500 kilolitre capacity on the industry premises instead of huge tanks of capacity 2,000 kilolitre and above.
The bulk hazardous chemical storage facilities should be shifted from the industrial premises to bulk storage facilities, which should be away from habitations and can be transported to factory by tankers/ pipelines. There shall be constant close watch on the online monitoring of the effluent and emissions by the AP Pollution Control Board and Central PCB, it said. There shall be constant monitoring of onsite and offsite emergency plans in respect of such hazardous industries located close to the residential areas. Mock drills should be conducted on the premises of the industries every six months and outside the industrial premises in the community every year.
Local Crisis Group should be immediately constituted for each of the hazardous industry as per the Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness, And Response) Rules-1996. The Local Crisis Groups should be involved intensely in the mock drills and training for dealing with emergencies. Adequate number of sensors attached with hooter system to identify the release of toxic gases, which are harmful to the human beings and property, from the industry shall be installed not only inside the industry but also outside within the identified impact zone, based on consequence modelling study.
The sensor activation should alert the local police station, nearest fire station, SDRF cell at Collectorate, Inspector of Factories and regional office of the AP Pollution Control Board. The HPC said there should be compulsory annual safety audit and annual environmental audit by the respective regulatory bodies. The industries and commerce department should take lead in developing industrial estates away from the habitations, with adequate buffer zone especially for hazardous industries. Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) reforms have introduced a single desk policy, with timelines for service delivery of the approvals by each of the regulatory departments.
Further, the EoDB has also introduced the concept of joint inspection by the Common Inspection System (CIS). The HPC said Central Inspection Monitoring Committee (CIMC) should introduce necessary alerts to the licensing authorities for the timelines. Similarly, any non-inspection or any other failure in inspections should be adequately addressed. However, the committee said the single desk system or the CIS should not interfere/ hamper with the compliance and safety protocols in any manner. The HPC also suggested constitution of the Factory Safety Board with suff icient manpower.
