Scmc second visit to kerala
SUPREME COURT MONITORING COMMITTEE
VISIT TO KERALA – OCTOBER 13/14, 2004
The SCMC (Dr D.B. Boralkar, Dr TapanChakrabarti and Dr Claude Alvares) visited Kerala on 13/14October in order to verify the Compliance Reports submitted by the Kerala Government dated 4th October 2004.
Copies of the Report of the Task Force set up by KSPCB and Interim Report on Activities of the Local Area Environment Committee (LAEC) for Eloor-Edayar were also submitted to the Committee.
The Committee had detailed discussions with the LAEC of Eloor-Edayar and local area committee set up in connection with Binani Zinc. It met industrialists at a meeting held under the auspices of CII.
The following day, the Committee met officials of the KSPCB and went over the 21 items of the Compliance Report dated 4.10.2004. It also met with Mr. Kurien of KSIDC (also Director, Industries Department), Government of Kerala to discuss its serious concerns about secured landfills in the State.
Thereafter, it briefed the members of the media on the status of implementation of Hazardous Wastes Rules in the State and on its assessment of the status of the Kerala’s compliance with the directions given in the SC Order dated 14.10.2004.
Compliance Points:
Item No.4 (p.2):
The Committee was informed that 22 industries, which did not show cause to directions issued by the KSPCB, were ordered to close on 24.9.2004.
Order for closure was also issued against M/s. Travancore Titanium Pvt.Ltd., Thiruvananthapuram, on 10.10.2004 which does not have an ETP.
All the balance units will be issued authorization if they complete a temporary facility for storage of hazardous wastes by 15.10.2004. In Eloor-Edayar area, the report of LAEC must also be considered before authorization is granted. Those who do not make the application by 15.10.2004 will be directed to close down forthwith.
The Kerala Board was directed to produce before the Committee the list of industries seeking extension beyond one month (i.e. October 15, 2004). No such list was produced before the Committee. Since not much evidence of substantial compliance was submitted in any case, extension of time is rejected. Some of the industrial units have sought time till December 2005. All such applications/proposals are rejected.
SCMC is therefore issuing the following directions for those units going for closure after October 15, 2004:
1)Non-conforming units to be closed, as per SC order. List of such units shall be provided to LAEC, where applicable.
2)LAEC will visit and ensure that all units are closed.
3)Considering the fact that time has been granted upto March 2005 for TSDF construction, restart of these units can be considered only on the merit of each case by LAEC and subject to following conditions:
Submission of environmental audit report by the industry to LAEC;
Submission of time-bound action plan for compliance of the court directions, with regard to TSDF;
Adequate storage arrangement (with capacity for one year) shall be made for hazardous wastes;
The unit shall remove all wastes in and around and bring it into the storage;
Submission of plan for remediation of environmental damage, if any done or seen due to indiscriminate disposal of hazardous waste. This plan shall be to the satisfaction of the Kerala Board. In case of non-compliance of this direction, KPCB will invoke action against default under 16 (2) of the HW Rules, 1989 as amended;
The unit shall provide bank guarantee of the amount equivalent to 10% of total remediation and/or compliance cost or ten lakhs (whichever is less).
This bank guarantee shall be forfeited in case of failure of the industry to fulfill the commitment within the stipulated time and industry shall be liable for legal action by the Board.
The Board should ensure that all efforts should be made not to close down units which generate only small quantities of hazardous wastes since the storage of such wastes can be ensured without much difficulty (or they can be stored on a shared basis with other small industries). Special proactive efforts in this context must be made in the case of cooperatives of weavers.
Thereafter, not even a single day’s delay should be allowed for issue of authorization order in the case of those units that are recommended for such authorization either by the LAEC or the District Offices of the Board.
Item No.5 (p.2):
In connection with water supplies from Binani Zinc, problems have been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties including the Panchayat of Kadungallur.
Item No.6:
The composition of the LAEC for Eloor-Edayar was laid down in the SCMC report dated 20.8.2004.
We find, on going through the documents, that some alterations in the composition of the LAEC have been made unilaterally by the Board. The original notification setting up the LAEC is defective in so far as three officers of the PCB have been appointed in place of one person. We had overlooked this because the LAEC, as per the compliance report dated 10.9.2004, had started functioning in real earnest to the satisfaction of all parties.
By two subsequent notifications dated 24.9.2004 and 8.10.2004, however, several names of political persons and trade unions etc have been appended to the LAEC.
The LAEC was set up because the SCMC found that the Board had been found wanting in the discharge of its duties and as a result of its inaction, the river Periyar, a life-line of Kerala, was dying a permanent death. The Periyar river bed had been turned into an illegal hazardous waste dump by the industries in the area with the full knowledge and acquiescence of the Board.
Hence, the SCMC in its wisdom, and relying on the specific directions given by the Supreme Court in its order dated 14.10.2003, decided to advise the State Government to set up the LAEC which would carry out an environmental audit within six months. Its recommendations, based on physical inspection of each of the 247 industrial units in the area, would not only help stop the dumping of hazardous wastes into Periyar, but also become the basis for a rehabilitation plan for which the SCMC has already asked the industries to put up Rs.2.5 crores.
We had also informed the Board that in any event no authorisations be granted until there was a report present from the LAEC that the unit was fulfilling all the norms of the HW Rules and other environment laws.
Now, as a result of the two notifications dated 24.9.2004 and 8.10.2004, the LAEC has stopped functioning entirely. This development is being viewed seriously by the SCMC.
We find that the constitution of the LAEC is not in compliance with the requirements of the SCMC in its report dated 20.8.2004. The SCMC is not agreeable to the decisions of the Board in this respect, as the LEAC is functioning in order to assist the SCMC in its work of implementing the Supreme Court order dated 14.10.2004 and unilateral changes are not permitted in any circumstances.
We are therefore directing KSPCB as under:
1)Fresh LAEC will be re-constituted forthwith.
2)The LAEC will comprise:
a)Adv. P.K. Ibrahim, Kerala High Court (Chairperson).
b)Representatives of two NGOs (PeriyarMalineekaranaVirudhaSamiti and PUCL;
c)Representative of three industry associations including CII, KMA and Edayar Small Scale Industries Association;
d)Member Secretary, KPCB (Convener)
3)The notifications dated 17.8.2004, 24.9.2004 and 8.10.2004 will be withdrawn forthwith.
4)Terms of reference as in the earlier notifications.
5)All reports and decisions taken by the LAEC earlier will constitute part of the proceedings of the new LAEC constituted.
For the purposes of clarification, no changes may be made in the composition of the above LAEC or any of the LAECs set up in pursuance of the Report dated 20.8.2004 without prior consent of the Chairman, SCMC.
Item No.11:
It was brought to the notice of the Committee that Hindustan Coca Cola is not willing to abide by the directions of the KSPCB in respect of water supply to local communities. Until the scheme for supply of water is installed, KSPCB is advised not to allow the plant to re-start.
Item No.13:
Hindustan Coca Cola is given permission to choose alternative water purification technology in place of the RO system recommended by the SCMC. However, an appropriate system has to be installed within six months. KSPCB should be informed when the system is being commissioned.
Item No.14:
The SCMC is serious concerned with the lackadaisical manner in which this matter (of secured landfill) is still being handled by the Government. We are therefore issuing the following directions to the State Government for setting up the TSDF within six months:
1)The state government shall appoint a nodal agency for development of Common TSDF. This may be either the KSIDC or any other appropriate body. The TOR of the nodal agency can be worked out in consultation with the SPCB.
2)Subsidy of Rs.2 crore is available from the MoEF for CHWTSDF subject to matching contribution by the state. The state government shall take up the matter with the central government in this regard after making its own commitment of matching contribution.
3)Identification of land for TSDF shall be made within two weeks and notification to this effect shall be issued within one month. The state government shall make a case before MoEF for seeking exemption of public hearing in view of the urgency of the matter and due to the fact that the proposed TSDF will be located in the already notified industrial area and on a place which is in any case presently used as a dumping site for solid waste.
4)The industries shall make capital contribution of 50% of the cost of the TSDF. State government nodal agency shall be free to engage services of a professional operator for construction, operation and maintenance of TSDF on BOO basis. In this case, the capital contribution of 35% shall be made by the operator and 15% shall be made by the industries. This is along the lines of CETP scheme of MoEF.
5)After notification, the land shall be handed over to the operator within a period of two months starting from today. A suitable agreement (bi-partite or tri-partite) shall be made by the nodal agency. The state government shall provide the land at a nominal rate (say, Rs.1 per sq. mt for a lease period of 50 years) for the project.
6)The operator shall construct, operate and maintain the TSDF strictly in compliance of the Supreme Court order and guidelines issued by MoEF and CPCB.
7)The first cell of the secured landfill of the TSDF shall be ready for operation by March 2005 and the operator shall be prepared to receive the wastes with effect from February 2005. For this purpose, the operator can create a temporary storage at the TSDF site.
8)The TSDF shall consist of SLF in first phase. In second phase, HW incinerator shall be installed for disposal of incinerable wastes.
9)The transportation of hazardous wastes shall be strictly as per the directions of the Supreme Court and the guidelines issued by CPCB. The operator of TSDF may outsource transportation arrangements in order to save his own capital and O & M costs.
10)A separate laboratory may not be established immediately for the use of the TSDF. However, the TSDF operator may use the services of the laboratory of Kerala Board or any other laboratory recognised under the EPA, 1986.
Item No.16:
The Board has been requested to invite NGRI, Hyderabad, to conduct the study required by the Report of the SCMC dated 20.8.2004 in connection with the contamination of ground water by Binani Zinc. This takes care of the letter dated 10.9.04 addressed to the SCMC by the Board.
Other matters:
We are herewith issuing the following directions in connection with the collection and recycling of used/waste oil:
1)All the generators of used/waste oil shall obtain authorisation from SPCB such as KSRTC, KSEB, power plants, ports, etc who are generating used oil/waste oil and are involved in its sale/auction. The authorization should ensure that the waste/used oil is routed to Southern Refineries, or any other CPCB registered recycler in the State, as communicated earlier to the Board.
2)All the generators involved in sale/auction of used/waste oil shall be directed to submit Form XIII to the SPCB.
3)Legal action shall be taken by the Kerala Board against the generators who are giving the use oil/waste oil to recyclers that are not registered with CPCB. This is necessary as per Rule 19 of HW Rules.
4)Kerala Board shall ensure that recycling/reprocessing of hazardous waste oil/used oil is done strictly in accordance with the application of EST as required under HW Rules and directions of SC.
5)Transportation of hazardous waste/use oil shall be done strictly as per direction of the SC and guidelines of CPCB. Kerala Board is required to issue authorisation for transportation
(Sd/-) (Sd/-)
Dr D.B. Boralkar Dr TapanChakrabarti
Member/SCMC Member/SCMC
15.10.2004 15.10.2004
(Sd/-)
Dr Claude Alvares
Member/SCMC
15.10.2004