CHENNAI: The now defunct Sterlite copper smelting plant in Thoothukudi has operated for 16 years and 92 days without valid Consent to Operate from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and operated for 10 years, two months and 15 days without Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) authorisation. Who is to be blamed?
While holding Sterlite accountable, the Madras High Court has practically indicted TNPCB for the botch-up. "TNPCB did nothing in the matter. The regulator failed to discharge their duties diligently bearing in mind the purpose for which it was constituted," the court observed.
Not just this, the high court bench has found TNPCB wanting at least a half-a-dozen times. The court questioned as to why Sterlite was permitted to handle and dispose of hazardous and other waste after the
expiry of the authorization on July 9, 2013 without being monitored.
"Stringent action has to be initiated against the officials of the TNPCB who were in-charge at the relevant point of time equally the superior officers and others at the helm of affairs of the Board. All of them were silent spectators to the illegality," the bench added.
The bench said it was not clear as to why the State Government has abdicated its statutory responsibility cast under the Rules. The matter is a very serious issue and the petitioner cannot escape by contending that non-renewal of authorization can have no impact on the consent to operate.
The analysis of the data available in the Care Air Centre of TNPCB for the years 2015 to 2018 shows that the values have remained static for varying periods of time and certain readings were shown to be unrealistic, which will go to show that the air quality in the area was not monitored.
"It is not clear as to why the regulator did not take any stringent action on this aspect of the matter. Had TNPCB noted that the values remained static for several hours, they should have alerted the station or made an inspection to ascertain as to whether the monitors were functioning properly, was there any technical glitch, or was there any other factor which led to such abnormal display," the court observed.
The court said there was sufficient material to show that the groundwater pollution was on account of Sterlite's operation. It expressed displeasure regarding the manner in which the officials of the TNPCB had functioned earlier.
The court noted the fact that the infrastructure with TNPCB was thoroughly inadequate considering the
magnitude of the Sterlite unit.
The furnace stack height of Sterlite is 60 metres as against 102.8 metres as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) norms and this will contribute to excessive ground level concentration of SO2 in
ambient air.
"Thus, viewed from any angle, what is abundantly clear is that there is non-compliance of the stack height norm stipulated by the CPCB. TNPCB had failed in its duty in enforcing the norms stipulated by the MoEF/CPCB. It is not clear as to why the TNPCB did not take note of this issue earlier and did so only in the year 2018," he added.
As early as in the year 2005, the NEERI has recommended that the petitioner should use cleaner concentrate. The report also states that a quantity of 0.0008 MT/day of arsenic remains unaccounted.
The petitioner would state that they have submitted compliance reports, material audit requirement has been complied with and they account for the arsenic input and output in the process and there is no un-accounting.
"The question is as to who will testify for the correctness of the stand taken by the petitioner. Unfortunately, the organization which has to do the same, namely, the regulator, the TNPCB, appears to have not acted, presumably because the HWM authorization was not renewed. It is rather surprising as to how the TNPCB continued to permit the petitioner to operate and handle and disposed of hazardous waste without renewal of the authorization," it added.
"Thus, we can safely conclude that there is every possibility of these hazardous chemicals being not accounted for, thereby causing hazard to the environment. The person to be blamed is the regulator and the regulator alone. Thus, many issues have gone unnoticed and the regulator for the reasons best known has not followed up the matter with earnestness thereby putting the people of the locality in peril," the court said.
TNPCB chairman AV Venkatachalam was not available for comments. While, Sterlite CEO Pankaj Kumar claimed: "At no point in our operations were any concerns of pollution raised by the appropriate authorities."