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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Saturday, Jan 05, 2008 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
According to norms, only effluent with a TDS value of less than 2,100 mg a litre can be discharged Reason for the breach is the continuous rain for the last 10 days PERUNDURAI: Fourteen textile processing industries attached to the common effluent treatment plant in the SIPCOT industrial estate here have stopped production. On Friday, the temporary closure entered the seventh day after an effluent treatment tank breached. On Saturday last, condensed effluents from one of the seven solar evaporation pans (SEPs) gave way, letting out litres of effluents on to the ground and nearby water bodies. According to R. Shanmugam, manager, CETP, during the 15-minute breach that happened a little after 1 p.m., around 3.5 lakh litres of the effluent with a TDS (total dissolved solid) value of nearly one lakh hit the ground and water bodies. According to Government norms, only effluent or treated effluent with a TDS value of not more than 2,100 mg per litre can be discharged. This means that the last Saturday’s discharge was more than 45 times the Government-prescribed value. The condensed effluent is in other words a concentrate of dyeing and bleaching chemicals, as the CETP obtains it after 90 per cent water in the effluent is evaporated. The CETP stores for a week the 10 per cent condensed effluent, which is 45,000 litres a day, in SEPs for it to solidify. The solidified waste is then packed in sacks for safe keep. The reason for the breach, according to Mr. Shanmugam, is that rainwater along with the daily inflow of condensed effluent pressured the SEP. “The last 10 days’ heavy rains increased inflow in to the SEPs, forcing it to give away.” The seven SEPs, spread over 10,000 sq m, can hold about 3.5 lakh litres of the condensed effluent. The 3.5 lakh litre highly concentrated effluent that flowed out of the SEP straight entered the Odai Kattur tank and from there has started reaching Kannaikattu Kuttai, a 90-acre pond near Vaipadi Panchayat in Chennimalai Union. The Kuttai water severs nearly a dozen villages in the area. The water from there flows to the bigger Balathozhuvu Kulam, a 400-acre pond. If the polluted water reaches the Kulam, the lives of residents of a dozen panchayats stand threatened. “It is a mini-Orathapalayam waiting to happen,” says M. Natarajamurthy, president of the Ingur Panchayat. “The pond water, ground water, agriculture fields, produce and bore wells will get polluted, leaving the residents with no option but to move out of the area.” He and a few other panchayat presidents have petitioned the Collector, who asked the Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage Board to explore the possibility of safely discharging the polluted water from the Odai Kattur tank. When contacted Collector T. Udhayachandran said safe discharge seemed next to impossible.
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