Item No. 9 NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL SOUTHERN ZONE
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Item No. 9 NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL SOUTHERN ZONE, CHENNAI Original Application No. 208 of 2017 (SZ) IN THE MATTER OF: John Weslay and 2 Others. ... Applicant With State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority, Tamil Nadu and 6 Others. ...Respondents Date of hearing: 16.12.2019 CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. RAMAKRISHNAN, JUDICIAL MEMBER HON’BLE MR. SAIBAL DASGUPTA, EXPERT MEMBER For Applicant(s): M/s. Aishwarya For Respondent(s): M/s. G.M. Syed Nurullah Sheriff for R1 M/s. Abdul Saleem and S. Saravanan for R2, R3 M/s. P. Srinivas for R5, R6 1 O R D E R The application was filed by the petitioners regarding the illegal dumping of domestic waste at Vengadamangalam by establishing Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Facility (IMSWMF) by the fourth respondent ESSEEL. According to the petitioners, consent was granted for this purpose as per order No.6112 dated 28.03.2013, and further consent to establish for expansion, and consent to operate for expansion of the facility on 29.05.2015. According to the petitioners, sixth respondent municipality has applied for environmental clearance before the first respondent to establish integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Project of Three Hundred (300) TPD capacity for this place for waste disposal of respondents five to seven municipalities namely, Tambaram Municipality, Pallavaram Municipality and Greater Corporation of Chennai and for establishment of material recovery facility at three locations namely Kannadapalayam for fifth respondent to handle 81.79 TPD, at Gananapathypuram for sixth respondent to handle 89 TPD and at Pallikaaranai for seventh respondent to handle 81.18 TPD of Municipal Solid Waste under the Solid Waste Management Project (JNNURM) . The first respondent had issued environment clearance to the sixth respondent vide their order dated (i)/001/F-198/2010 dated 10.03.2010.with following conditions: 1. Land fill capacity of 20,93,704 MT shall be developed in phases of 5 years each; 2 2. However, as proposed the proposal includes the land filling only for phase I and targeted MSW management programme shall be considered and implemented separately in phases to attain 20 years design period and this is not covered under present ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE. 3. The total are of plot is 50 acres for composting and land fill facility, out of which 26 acres will be for the sanitary land fill. Waste requirement is 161CLD which will be met from the supply of Tambaram, Municipality. The sewerage of 3.20 KLD will be treated in the septic tank and soak pit. 4. The lecheate generated from the above 3 transfer stations will be 1.07 KLD which will be collected through drains stored in the collection sump and transported to Vengadamangalam site for further treatment. Transportation will be as per the manifest under Rule 7 of the Hazardous Waste Management handling and Trans boundary Movement of Rules 2008. Compost - 60 TPD, RDF – TPD, recyclables – 15 TPD, Inerts – 24 TPD. Eco-bricks – 21 TPD will be generated form the process activity. 3 5. It has been proposed to provide cyclone and bag filters for the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) plant to control emissions. The inert shall be disposed in sanitary fill. 6. The first Respondent concerned with the State Level Expert Assessment Committee (SEAC) findings as follows: (i) Project site is away from human sanitation; (ii) No vegetation. No water bodies. No sanctuary and National Park are nearby. (iii) Water table existing 12 meters. (iv) No litigation from any quarters against the project. (v) Only segregated bio-waste is transported to the processing site from respective sites. (vi) Eco-friendly and non-polluting process. No incineration. Considering the necessity of the facility, the Expert Appraisal Committee recommended the project exempting the same from public hearing treating this as B2 category and Environmental Clearance was granted accepting the recommendations of State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). According to the petitioner the categorization made is not proper and the issuance of Environment Clearance without public consultation is illegal. It is also mentioned in the petition that now dumping is being done in an unscientific manner and there is no proper disposal of the waste collected in accordance with rules provided. It is also against one of the conditions 4 imposed while granting Environment Clearance as well as consent to operate and establish. On account of the illegal dumping and unscientific manner in which the disposal of waste is handled by the sixth respondent, it is causing innumerable health hazards in the locality. So the petitioner filed the present petition seeking the following relief: “Regulate the operation of the 4th Respondent industry in compliance with all the special conditions specified in the Environment Clearance dated 10th March, 2010 and the consent order dated 28th May, 2015 in order to prevent the 4th Respondent from causing any pollution in Vengadamangalam Village .” They also produced certain photographs showing the pathetic condition of the dumping yards. The matter was first taken up on 18.08.2017 and considered M.A. No.144/2017 filed by the applicant seeking amendment wherein they have mentioned that they never wanted to set aside the Environmental Clearance dated 10.03.2010 issued in favour of fourth respondent Pallavaram and Tambaram Municipal Solid Management System and their grievance is only that the condition of Environmental Clearance have not been complied with. So the application has been admitted by this Tribunal and directed to issue notice to the respondents. Respondents two and three filed a reply statement stating that Government of Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply 5 Department have set up an Integrated Municipal Solid and Waste Management Facility at Vengadamangalam Village, Chengalpattu Taluk, Kancheepuram District for the processing and disposal of Solid Wastes generated from Pallavaram, Tambaram and Alandur Municipality. The Municipal administration and Water Supply Department had accorded administrative approval for this purpose, as per G.O. Ms. No.107 dated 30.07.2008. The Revenue Department vide its G.O. Ms.No.178 dated 06.04.2004 had allotted 20.23 acres of land for establishing an integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management facility at Vengadamangalam Village in S.F. No. 16/1,2,3. The State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority had issued environment clearance by their letter No. SEIAA/TN/EC/7(1)/001/F-198/2010 dated 10.03.2010 for implementation of Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management facility at this area for set up and transfer a) For Tambaram Municipality at S.No.4/1 and 3, 5/3 Kannadapalayam Village, b) For Pallavaram Municipality at S.F.No.432 pt. Ganapathypuram Village. c) For Alandur Municipallity at S.F.No.23/1A3,Gaanapathipuram Village. The Alandur Municipality has been now brought under Chennai Corporation. The scheme is now serving only for Pallavaram and Tambaram Municipalities. It is also mentioned in the counter statement that 6 Commissioner, Pallavaram Municipality has applied for consent to Establish under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 for setting up an integrated Municipal Solid waste management facility at the said site for processing and disposal of Solid wastes generated from these three Municipalities. It was granted to M/S. Essel Pallavaram Tambaram MSW Private Limited as an integrated Municipal Solid Waste Processing facility at Pallavaram, Tambaram and Alandur Municipality with certain conditions and later as per proceedings dated 22.05.2015 consent to operate was granted to manufacture Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) of 2100 Tonne per month and Bye product of compost 900 Tonne per month. Part of the MSW processed product as RDF about 45000 Tonne is stored within the premises. In the meantime there was a fire accident occurred on 24.04.2017 in the RDF yard and nearly 20000 Tonne of RDF gutted to fire. Fire hydrant system provided as per the Fire Safety Department, for the facility handled about 1,33,972 Metric Tonne of municipal Solid Waste since July-2015. Open dumping or open firing has not occurred inside or outside the unit. Fourth respondent filed a separate statement more or less adopting the contentions raised by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. They have further stated that DPR was submitted by the fourth respondent for sixth respondent for segregation, shredding and separation. The fourth respondent segregates ferrous and nonferrous materials, stones, steel, scraps and glass bottles, along with compostable and burnable items. The burnable item called RDF, 7 are being stored at the site as waste to be used in waste to energy project which will be commissioned by November 2019, after completion of the window turning process. The Compostable material would be sold to Madras Fertilizers Limited (MFL) and Southern Petro chemical Industries Corporation (SPIC). Both the scrap items as well as the unusable materials are either sold to local vendors or used as land filling with proper soil cover. According to them, all these things were implemented only as per the concession agreement and as per the consent order issued by Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board. There is no violation committed by them. The Draft Project Report (DPR) for waste –to-energy product technology is based on pyrolysis technology provider i.e., M/s. Rochem India Private Limited. However, due to technology failure, the answering Respondent only implemented RDF and compost unit and has taken consent only for this purpose. There was a proposal to establish waste to energy unit in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Energy Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) for execution of Power Purchase Agreement on public private participation. They are selling the fertilizers to Madras Fertilizers Limited and Green Star Fertilizers Limited.