EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF M/S. MIDWEST GRANITE PVT LTD Sy. No: 103/P, 59/P & 55/5 (P), Extent of 10.761 Ha RL Puram Village, Chimakurthy (M), Prakasam (D), Andhra Pradesh Project Proponent Environmental Consultant M/s. Midwest Granite Pvt. Ltd M/S. Pridhvi Envirotech (P) Ltd., Sy. No. 103/P, 59/P & 55/5 (P), NABET Accreditation S.No.118 RL Puram (V), Rev 80 date 10th September, 2019 Chimakurthy Mandal, Plot No.184/C, Lawn House, Prakasam District, A.P. 4th Floor, Vengal Rao Nagar, Ph: 9989506858 Hyderabad-500038. Email: [email protected] Ph: 040-40179770 Email:[email protected] [email protected] SUBMITTED TO ANDHRA PRADESH POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD PRAKASAM Proposed Black galaxy Granite Mine of M/s. Midwest Granite Private limited . Extent:10.761 Ha At Rajupalem Lakshmi puram Villages, Chimakurthy Mandal, Prakasam District, A.P. Draft EIA Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Granite is an important building material used from ages in our country. There is huge export potential for raw and polished granites. The Black Galaxy is Indian black granite, with a great market demand. This is a very unique type of black granite due to its abundant number of silver flakes. These are from a specific mineral and give this granite an unique and beautiful look The Black Galaxy is a black colored granite, with a deep black colour, thin to medium grain and clear signs of gold and silver shiny flakes. This is a well-known black granite from India, famous for its uniform and deep black colour, as well as its silver shiny flakes. Its main variations depend on the grain thickness and abundance of gold and silver flakes. Black Galaxy is actively traded as a commodity and owing to the large volume of quarrying, large blocks in First Choice material are becoming scarcer and much more expensive. Nowadays Indian Granite Star Galaxy aka Black Galaxy Granite has become most demanding natural building stone in USA, UK, Poland, Bulgaria, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Mexico and other countries. Although granite is a minor mineral, it is a major contributor in foreign exchange earnings. India is the second largest exporter of raw granite after China and ahead of Brazil and South Africa. 1.0 Proponents M/S Midwest Granite Privated Limited , was incorporated in the year 1981 by Mr. K. Ragahava Reddy with the core objective of developing competence and expertise in the field of natural stone, namely Granite, Marble, Limestone, and Travertine. In the ensuing years, Midwest has established itself as a very strong player in the domain of Exploration, Mining, Processing and export of natural Stone products. Midwest is among the top 3 natural stone players in India. Midwest mines over 3.5 million tons of granite per annum, which includes saleable product and waste granite. Midwest has presence in over 30 countries. Midwest has established market linkages with a number of direct customers in all important markets, through agency and distribution system. Midwest manufactures environmental friendly diamond tools for mining industry with facilities in India and Srilanka. Midwest is a recipient of several awards at National and State level. Midwest is recognized as “Star Export House” by Government of India. 1-1 Pridhvi Envirotech (P) Limited Proposed Black galaxy Granite Mine of M/s. Midwest Granite Private limited . Extent:10.761 Ha At Rajupalem Lakshmi puram Villages, Chimakurthy Mandal, Prakasam District, A.P. Draft EIA Report 2.0 Location of the Mine & Site Sensitivity M/s Midwest Granites Private limited is operating Black Galaxy Granite mine with two leases granted over an area of 10.761 Ha. In Sy. No. 103/P,59/P & 55/5 (P) of Rajupalem Lakshmi puram village, Chimakurthy Mandal, Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh The site is between Latitude 15O34’52” N to 15O35’3”N and Longitude 79O49’8”E to 79O49’26”E. The land area of the mine is 10.761 hectares. There two dump sites for mine. One Dumpsite to an extent of 18.960 Acres procured by Midwest Granites in Sy. No. 70, 75, 76/1, 76/2, 77/1, 77/2, 68, 69/1 & 84 of RL. Puram village of Chimakurthy (M). The Geographic coordinates of the dumpsite between 150 34’ 40.5”N 790 49’40.0”E and 150 34’ 44.5”N 790 49’07.4”E. Second Dumpsite, which is in use currently over an area of 11.25 Acres in Sy. No. 96/4, 96/6, 98/2, 98/3, 98/5, 100/1, 100/2, 96/7, 96/9 and 98/4 in RL Puram Village of Chimakurthy Mandal. The Geographic coordinates of the dumpsite between 150 35’ 03.1”N 790 48’42.2”E and 150 34’ 59.5”N 790 48’40.0”E. The proposed mine site is situated at 0.60 Km South west to RL Puram village. Major town and District head quarter, Ongole is at 23.9 km in SE, the Mandal headquarter Chimakurthy is at 4.77 km in North East direction from the mine site. The project site is located at a distance of 0.2 Km from Ongole – Podili Road There are 50 villages in the 10 KM radius of mine in 5 mandals with total population of 1,05, 582 people Ramathirtham Reservoir is at about 2.2 KM from the site and Nagarjuna Sagar Distribution canal is about 0.9 KM from the site. Other surface water sources are Musi River-3.1 Km (Tridutaty of Paleru) Gaddi Vagu at 8.1 km (NW) There are two reserve forests in study area . they are Chimakuthy RF-2.1 Km (N) Devarapalem RF – 1.9 Km (N). There are no ecologically sensitive areas or national parks in the study area. They are avian routes, elephant corridors, bird nesting and breeding areas in the study area. 1-2 Pridhvi Envirotech (P) Limited Proposed Black galaxy Granite Mine of M/s. Midwest Granite Private limited . Extent:10.761 Ha At Rajupalem Lakshmi puram Villages, Chimakurthy Mandal, Prakasam District, A.P. Draft EIA Report 3.0 Mine Clusture The site is in Chimakurthy Galaxy Granite clusture. Out of the total cluster area of 142.07 Hectares with 25 mines, Out of this 3 mines are not working with an area of 44.566 Hectares. All mines were granted lease after 9th September, 2013 Thus as per the Gazette notification number SO 2269( E ) dated 1st July,2016, none of the mines comes under cluster classification 4.0 Brief Back ground and Proposed activity M/S Midwest Granite Private Limited obtained mine transfer for an area of 23.5 Acres from M/S Victorian Granites Private Limited in the year 2006, which was running mine since 1997. One more mine lease with an extent of 0.644 Hectares was granted to M/S Midwest Grantes Private Limited in 2006. One more mine lease for an extent of 0.607 Hectares was transferred to Midwest Granites in 2006. The unit obtained Environmental Clearance for this quantity vide Order SEIAA/AP/PKM- 120/2013-1591 dated 10.06.2013 for production quantity of 31,157M3/annum in an extent of 10.761 Hectares The unit approached SEIAA in Andhra Pradesh for expansion of mine production capacity from current 31,157 M3/annum to 65,230.20 m3 /annum and obtained TOR to carry out EIA studies vide Lr. No. SEIAA/AP/PKM/MIN/07/2019/1083-1086 dated 13.09.2019 5.0 Project Cost Total cost of the project is Rs. 16 crores and the proponent proposed to incur about Rs. 38 Lakhs towards capital cost and 29.5 Lakhs as recurring cost for implementing Environment Management Plan. 6.0 Method of mining The mining will be carried out by semi-mechanized open cast method. For dislodging Granite blocks, drilling, blasting, wedging, saw cutting methods are used. 7.0 Baseline Environmental Data The baseline data for ambient quality, surface and ground water quality, noise and soil quality collected and analyzed for various parameters within 10 KM radius of the site between January to March, 2019 . The details of base line environment data are discussed below 1-3 Pridhvi Envirotech (P) Limited Proposed Black galaxy Granite Mine of M/s. Midwest Granite Private limited . Extent:10.761 Ha At Rajupalem Lakshmi puram Villages, Chimakurthy Mandal, Prakasam District, A.P. Draft EIA Report 7.1 Air quality data In order to assess the air quality data in the study are of 10 KM radius, 8 sampling stations were selected with 7 villages by name RL Puram, Pulikonda, Chimakurthy, Ramathirtham,Marri chetla palem, Ayyapavaripalem and Muvvavaripalem and one at the site. PM 10, PM 2.5, Sox, Nox, Co and VOC were measured in these villages for 24 hour concentrations. Peak values were reported at project site due to mining activity in clusture. Among the villages, PM 10 , PM 2.5 Dust concentrations & CO concentration are higher in Chimakurthy village.in Pulikonda & Ramathirtham Villages, So2 peak values are reported. NOx peak value is reported in RL puram Village However all 24 hours concentrations are within the CPCB norms 7.2 Noise Quality Data In order to evaluate noise in the surrounding study area, noise measurements were made in 8 locations ( 7 villages and 1 project site). Peak values are reported at project site with Lequ day value of 68.9 dB and Lequ. Night value of 58.7 dB. Among the villages Chimakurthy reported Lequ day day value at 61 dB and Lequ. Night value at 54.5 dB 7.3 Water Quality data In order to assess the water quality in the surrounding environment in 10 KM radius, 2 surface water samples in Ramathirtham reservoir and Jawahar Canal and 8 ground water samples were collected from the neaerby villages.