The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Defer Pollution Board proposal: coffee planters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Others

Defer Pollution Board proposal: coffee planters

By Our Special Correspondent

YERCAUD, AUG 3. The Shevaroy Planters' Association (SPA) has urged the Tamil Nadu Government to permit coffee growers here to "neutralise coffee pulp wash water, which is acidic, on the estate itself" until an economically viable pollution control technology is developed.

At an SPA annual general body meeting on Saturday, the planters expressed concern over the insistence by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) that effluent treatment plants (ETP) be put up at all plantations at a time when they were undergoing hardship due to a fall in coffee price in the international market and escalation of production cost.

The chairman, Vijayann Rajes, asked the Government to direct the TNPCB to defer its proposal until a viable technology was developed.

Bioreactors costly

Though the National Environmental Research Institute (NEERI) at Nagpur developed a model, acceptable to the growers, the TNPCB did not accept it. Instead it insisted on their setting up a `bioreactor', which cost Rs. 3 lakhs.

Mr. Rajes said coffee production did not cause air or noise pollution. Water used to pulp coffee contained only organic solids and so was biodegradable, he said. Coffee wastewater was only an agricultural waste and no industrial effluent. The acidic level could be easily neutralised with lime. It was not harmful to environment as were wastes from tanneries, distilleries and textile units.

The planters came down on the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for "frequent power shutdowns and low voltage problems".

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