Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
Yamuna pollution
The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) filed its comments on the final report of the Yamuna Monitoring Committee on July 5, 2020.
With respect to sewage treatment plant in the catchment area of the Yamuna, the GMDA stated that a sewerage treatment plant with a capacity of 162.50 million litres per day has been proposed.
The points which are discharging untreated sewage in storm water drains (SWDs) would be plugged by December 31, 2020, but due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, the target date of diversion of sewage would have to be extended for some points, GMDA said.
Discharge of Dhankot, Bajghera and Dharampur village needs to be diverted and treated, GMDA said. The development and panchayat department of Haryana informed that waste water of village Dharampur would be connected to sewer treatment plant (STP) of Clearlon Experts Pvt Ltd.
GMDA has been requested to construct STPs at Dhankot and Bajghera.
However, the lockdown brought new insights as the biological oxygen demand (BOD) parameters of discharge before the Najafgarh drain reduced from 43.29 milligram / litre to 14.39 mg / l, the GMDA said.
The same quantum of water supply was still being provided to the residents during the lockdown and GMDA was of the view that “expenditure on Phyto-remediation shall be made judiciously as current scenario clearly reflects that BOD levels are within limits.”
It can be concluded that domestic sewage generated during the lockdown was being treated to the desired parameters and existing STPs were working efficiently.
The main sources of pollutants, therefore, are industries closed during the lockdown contributing to high BOD and chemical oxygen demand.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board should identify the source of contributors of pollution and take action against such polluting units, the report said.
Gas leakage at Sainor Life Sciences
Status report was filed by the district collector, Vishakapatnam district, on leakage of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) vapors at Sainor Life Sciences Pvt Ltd, JN Pharma City, Thanam village, Parawada mandal on June 29, 2020.
Two persons died due to inhalation of H2S gas, released while transferring ‘mother liquor of stage-III of Benzimidazole into SSR-107’.
The incident occurred as the hose pipe was directly inserted through the nozzle, without fixing it properly with the nipple arrangement for air tightening.
The report mentioned that the standard operating procedures with safety integration was not developed for storage and transfer of mother liquor and that the workers were not imparted effective training about the potential hazards.
Bharampuram Solid Waste Processing Plant
The National Green tribunal (NGT) on June 3 called the steps taken by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) in the matter of pollution at Bharampuram Solid Waste Processing Plant in Kerala as inadequate. It said unscientific handling of waste management could lead to serious adverse consequences.
The tribunal directed KSPCB to take effective steps on a day-to-day basis and file a report before August 4, 2020.
The order was in response to the report filed by Justice A V Ramakrishna Pillai, former judge, Kerala High Court on February 22, pointing to continuing violation of law.
Another report filed on June 16 by the KSPCB said the e-tender floated for legacy waste by the municipal corporation was cancelled.
Further, the entire quantity of non-biodegradable waste was collected and transported from Kochi Corporation and disposed in the two sheds and nearby open yard of Brahmapuram plant and only a per cent of plastic waste was segregated from the above and given to recyclers.
DPCC report on units in Karawal Nagar Industrial Area
No units in Karawal Nagar Industrial Area are allowed to operate on fuel other than Liquefied petroleum gas / piped natural gas and regular inspections have been carried out to check the compliance of environmental norms, the report by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) said.
The report was in response to the NGT order, which directed inspection of units in the area by a team comprising officials from DPCC, CPCB and sub-divisional magistrate office, Karawal Nagar.
The DPCC stated in the report that there are 117 white category units, 54 number of green category units and 13 orange category units.
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