Environmental Assessment Jasodharpur Industrial Area Kotdwar, Uttarakhand
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Environmental Assessment Jasodharpur Industrial Area Kotdwar, Uttarakhand Centre for Science and Environment New Delhi1 © 2012 Centre for Science and Environment Material from this publication can be used, but with acknowledgement. Prepared by: Centre for Science and Environment 41 Tughlakabad Institutional Area New Delhi – 110 062, India Ph: 91-11-2995 6110, 2995 5124, 2995 6394, 2995 6499 Fax: 91-11-2995 5879, 2995 0870 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org 2 Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Jasodharpur Industrial Area.......................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Location........................................................................................................................................................................................ 6 2. Technology .......................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Induction Furnace......................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Reheating Furnace........................................................................................................................................................................ 9 3. History of Protests..............................................................................................................................................................10 4. Monitoring and Enforcement status: UEPPCB..................................................................................................................11 5. CSE Visits .............................................................................................................................................................................13 5.1 People’s Concerns.........................................................................................................................................................................13 5.2 Factory Visits.................................................................................................................................................................................13 5.3 Conclusion and Recommendations...............................................................................................................................................23 Annexures ...........................................................................................................................................................................26 References ...........................................................................................................................................................................88 3 Executive Summary asodharpur Industrial Area (JIA) of the State G The pollution control equipment in these Infrastructure and Industrial Development factories is highly inadequate causing massive JCorporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL) has about pollution 20 factories producing steel using induction G Solid waste disposal is a major problem and the furnaces. Situated near Kotdwar town of Pauri current slag dumping site on the bank of river Garhwal district in Uttarakhand, JIA was set up in Sigaddi Srot at Sigaddi is unplanned and will 1996-97. lead to huge water and land pollution during rainy season. Since 2008, the local communities have been complaining and agitating against the pollution from Our main recommendation is that these factories factories in the JIA. Their main concerns are air should not be allowed to function without a consent pollution and improper solid waste disposal. After to operate. All illegal factories should be shut down protests in 2008 and 2009 also the Uttarakhand with immediate effect till the UEPPCB gives them the Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board consent. UEPPCB should grant them consent only (UEPPCB) allowed the factories to operate with no when it is sure that these factories will be able to concrete action. In December 2011, the people meet the pollution norms. Simultaneously, factories aggrieved by the increasing pollution levels, decided should be given three months to upgrade their to come on the streets. They blocked the road to the pollution control equipment to meet the norms. industrial area and refused to move till their CSE’s assessment identifies that currently none of demands were met. One of the demands of the the factories at JIA can meet the norms due to highly people was to get an environmental assessment of inadequate pollution control equipment. Within the the area done by the New-Delhi based NGO Centre same three months a common effluent treatment for Science and Environment (CSE). plant should also be set up at JIA to treat the effluent from wet scrubbers of all the factories. As much as The UEPPCB in December 2011 requested CSE to possible the slag should be reused and additional carry out an environmental impact assessment of three months should be used to set up a landfill site JIA. CSE agreed to do the study. The CSE study for the slag being generated in these factories involved a preliminary visit to JIA, collection of different from the present one. information from various sources, comprehensive survey of the operating factories and interaction Also, electricity meters should be installed at all with various stakeholders. pollution control equipment to keep a tab on their electricity consumption. UEPPCB and SIDCUL The key findings of the CSE study are: should ensure proper disclosure of the pollution G The factories in JIA are operating without a status of the area due to the JIA factories. Those consent to operate and hence are operating who comply to conditions within this time illegally. The UEPPCB is not granting consents frame should be allowed to operate and others to these factories but still allowing them to should be closed. operate which is beyond our understanding. This situation is clearly untenable: allowing the CSE offers to survey the status of the imple- factories to operate without a consent and then mentation of recommendations of its report in six asking them to meet standards months time. 4 Environmental Assessment of Jasodharpur Industrial Area Final Report 1. Introduction he Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB) vide Letter TNo.: UEPPCB/ROH/Misc./2011/2004 dated December 12, 2011 asked the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of Jasodharpur Industrial Area (JIA) near Kotdwar town in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand (Annexure I: Copy of the UEPPCB letter). CSE replied by stating that instead of an EIA, it will carry out an environmental assessment of JIA to understand the ground realities. The methodology adopted for the assessment started with a preliminary visit to the area to understand the situation and familiarise with the issues around the JIA. A CSE representative visited the area in December 2011 for this preliminary survey. Then data and information was collected from the UEPPCB about the industrial area like number and capacities of factories, show / CSE KANCHAN KUMAR AGRAWAL cause/closure notices served, complaints filed, etc. Following the analysis of the information obtained from UEPPCB and the preliminary visit report, a final visit to the area was carried out. The second CSE visit was in March 2012 when the team carried out a comprehensive study visiting every operational factory, the slag dump area at Sigaddi, affected people and the UEPPCB in Dehradun. Jasodharpur Industrial Area in Kotdwar 5 This final report is a compilation of the preliminary fifteen of the visited factories were producing survey, information from UEPPCB, stakeholder ingots. Each of these have two furnaces but at the perception and the final survey. time of inspection only one was operational and one was on stand-by. The factories that produce 1.1 Jasodharpur Industrial Area bars have reheating furnace. At the time of visit in March, only two of the operational factories had The Jasodharpur Industrial Area was set up in reheating furnaces. Slag produced in these Kotdwar in the year 1996-971. The JIA was under the factories was originally dumped within the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development industrial area but is now being dumped at a Corporation when it was established2. It was only in designated site near Sigaddi4. This site was the year 2011 that the same was transferred to the designated by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) State Infrastructure and Industrial Development of Kotdwar following the December 2011 protests Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL). As per the (Annexure III: Copy of permission to dump slag UEPPCB, there are 24 factories in the industrial area at Sigaddi). spread over 90 acres. The UEPPCB pegs the number of operational factories as 18 (see Table 1: List of 1.2 Location factories in Jasodharpur Industrial Area). The factories together have a capacity of 13,930 metric tonnes per Kotdwar