Geological,Hydrogeological and Geotechnical study of the proposed Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility(TSDF) at Dabbaspet, Bangalore District, Karnataka State.
Dirk Walther
The industrial growth in India is particularly accelerating, especially in the southern Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. There are many large and medium scale industries both in the public and private sectors in these states. During the manufacturing process, in addition to waste water and air emissions, solid, semi-solid waste and sludge are generated. At present, only the state of Andra Pradesh has available facilities to collect and dispose hazardous industrial waste in an adequate way. In the other states in general the hazardous waste is stored partly by the industries themselves however a significant portion of partially hazardous waste dumped illegally.
Based on the Indian Hazardous Waste Rules (Handling and Management Rules, amended 2000), the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board is in the process of implementing a Hazardous Waste Management System in the state of Karnataka. The planning for a TSDF, further referred to as the project, is currently under way and will be the centre of such a management system.
Presently, there is no facility to treat or safely dispose the hazardous waste generated. It is estimated that about 80,000 tons hazardous waste per year is generated in the state. Out of this about 60,000 tons per year is expected to be handled at the proposed TSDF.
In order to minimize the adverse impact of improper disposal of hazardous waste, and to comply with the requirement of HWM Amended Rules 2000,the Government of Karnataka have proposed a common Treatment, Storage and Disposal facility (TSDF) at a site located in the Dabbaspet Industrial Area close to Tumkur Road, Bangalore district approximately 50 kilometers Northwest of Bangalore city.
As per the requirement of HWM amended Rules 2000, an Environmental Impact Assessment has to be undertaken. For the EIA geological, hydro geological and hydro chemical baseline data are required. It is the consultants role to supervise the field work and to organize analysis in order to provide the required data.
During this project technical expertise were given for an impact assessment study at the site in Kolar district as was requested by the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The main focus of the project were geological, hydro geological and geotechnical study at the site in Bangalore district which has been favoured as TSDF site by the pre-feasibility study. This pre-liminary work is to be incorporated in a future Environmental Impact Assessment.
Secondary information was collected about the geological and structural geological field conditions by macroscopic rock analysis of tafelbergs,whalebacks(major outcrops of rocks)and small outcrops. Wells in area of 100km2 were measured for ground water table levels and a ground water contour map was designed. In the immediate surroundings of the future Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) site ground water samples were taken and submitted to the KSPCB lab for the purpose of baseline data collection. Al results and field data were stored in a purpose built database.
An important output was the support of the decision making process for the location of the planned TSDF site at Bangalore district. The topographical survey for the Dabbaspet site was executed and the required land will be communicated to the KIADB. For geo-electrical investigations a company has been selected and given an introduction to the type of work involved.
The MoEF study entitled “Impact assessment of migration/dispersion of hazardous pollutants into the water of two lakes” was prepared and submitted to the HAWA project. This report will serve the decision process for the two processes for the two sites at Kolar and Bangalore district.