KOCHI: The Local Area Environment Committee (LAEC), appointed by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes, has recommended closure of the Edayar-based Cochin Minerals and Rutiles Ltd (CMRL) on charges of dumping chemical effluents into the Periyar.

The move comes in the wake of water discolouration in the river from Saturday evening. The discolouration was found on an eight-km stretch from Pathalam to Kadamakkudi.

P.K. Ibrahim, Chairman of LAEC, said on Monday that waste ferrous chloride and ferric chloride discharged into the river had contaminated the water.

CMRL is producing Synthetic Rutiles at an average of 71 MT per day. In the process, ferric chloride and ferrous chloride containing metals including zinc, iron, lead, cadmium, copper, nickel, chromium, manganese with low pH is produced.

The discharge of the effluents into the river resulted in the discolouration of water. Incidents of large fish kills were also reported. Mr. Ibrahim said that change of colour from blue to green and then to red showed the different stages of hydrolyses of iron from ferrous to ferric stages in different pH ranges.

The iron salts get hydrolysed absorbing dissolved oxygen from the river water thereby depleting the dissolved oxygen level in the water. He said that the unit had earlier assured LAEC that it would not discharge any untreated effluent into the river. The closure recommendation was issued after it was found that the unit had violated this assurance. LAEC had shortlisted three companies for being responsible for discolouration of the river from Saturday evening. These units include CMRL, Cochin Chemicals and Binani Zinc.

Binani Zinc had closed down its plant for want of raw materials. The waste generated by Cochin Chemicals, a small unit, could not discolour the water by one day even after discharging the entire quantity of effluents, Mr. Ibrahim said.

Unit following norms

A.R. Narayanan, General Manager of CMRL, said that the company had been conducting its operations under the guidelines prescribed by the State Pollution Control Board. The company had also set up treatment facilities as per the norms set by the board. Ferrous chloride was one of the products manufactured by the company, he said.

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