Petcoke unit faces ‘pollution’ hurdle

PARADIP: The State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) conducted public hearings at Udayabata and Paradipgarh to seek feedback from locals on the re-opening of the aligned petroleum coke manufacturing unit and the power plant based on waste heat recovery boiler of Kalinga Calciner Limited  (KCL) on Wednesday.

The opinions and suggestions of locals will be sent to the National Green Tribunal for approval of environment clearance for re-opening of the unit, said Paradip ADM, Biswajit Biswal, who chaired both the meetings in presence of regional officer of OSPCB, Mahesh Mahalinga.
Earlier, the NGT East Zone Bench had issued closure order for KCL’s petroleum coke plant in April for not complying with the pollution control norms, after locals and some activists protested.
The Union Ministry for Forest and Environment had allegedly given environmental clearance to KCL’s unit despite objections raised by around 99 per cent villagers, including the then Chairman of Paradip, late Manjulata Jena. After receiving the clearances, the unit was set up in 2013.

Villagers claimed that the unit discharged effluents into the surrounding areas. The effluents emitted bad odour, discoloured plants and destroyed fauna in the area. These also posed a threat of contamination to the ground water. Villagers also alleged that the effluents and other untreated sewage would contaminate Taladanda canal and other water bodies in the area.

Taking a note of the objections raised by the locals, the NGT had directed OSPCB to monitor the pollution caused by the factory. As the unit failed to comply with the green norms on various grounds and lacked an electrostatic precipitator to check air pollution, the NGT had ordered its closure.
Meanwhile, environmentalist Ayaskant Ray and some other locals have protested re-opening of the plant, located midway between the Paradip-Chandikhole NH and Cuttack-Paradip State Highway.
Locals had also protested re-opening of a carbon factory, some 500 metres from the KCL factory.

Green lapses

Kalinga Calciner Limited  (KCL) had set up the factory in 2013 apparently after receiving clearance from the Union Ministry for Forest and Environment
Locals and activists alleged that effluents from the plant are damaging environment in the area
Earlier, the NGT East Zone Bench issued the closure order for the plant in April after it found KCL guilty of flouting green norms