Curbs on polluting units hit expansion plans

Ambika Sharma

With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) prohibiting the operations of polluting industries in three industrial clusters of Baddi, Kala Amb and Parwanoo, after they were designated as “severally polluted areas (SPA)” by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the working of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has come under the scanner.

Applying the ‘Sustainable Development, Precautionary and Polluter Pays” principle to protect the environment and victims, the regulatory bodies have been directed to identify the polluting industry, particularly which falls under the red and orange category, and close its polluting activity, besides initiating prosecution and recovering compensation from them.

While a compliance report has to be submitted to the NGT within three months, the state board has to ensure that till the carrying capacity of such areas was assessed, no new industrial unit or expansion of existing units of red and orange category would be allowed in these areas. Information pertaining to the polluting units is also supposed to be made public within three months. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has to ensure the enforcement of action plans for improving the environment.

These orders have come as a major blow to the state at a time, when the government was making efforts to woo the new industry by holding a series of investor meets at home and aboard.

Various parameters such as the scale of industrial activity, scale of exceedance of environmental quality, health-related statistics and compliance status of the industries have been taken into account, while calculating the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI).

Poor CEPI

The Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI), which is calculated on the basis of air, water and land pollution, has been assessed at 68.26 for Baddi, 65.77 for Parwanoo and 65.70 for Kala Amb. Clusters having CEPI score up to 70 are designated as critically polluted and those between 60 and 70 are rated as severally polluted areas.

The Tribunal, while noting the ill-effects of industrial pollution on the environment and public health, observed that no activity degrading the environment could be permitted and the violation of laid norms was a criminal offence.

It has also directed that the environmental issue of the polluted industrial clusters would be monitored by a Central Monitoring Committee represented by the Central government officials as well as the Chief Secretary of the state. Study of the carrying capacity of these clusters will also be undertaken besides initiating training programmes of the officers to equip them for effective compliance of the environmental norms. 

These results were not surprising, as the board has failed to take concrete steps to bring any worthwhile improvement in the environment vis-à-vis air and water norms.

Non-attainment cities

Still worse, Baddi and Nalagarh also figure in the list of 102 non-attainment cities in the nation as their air quality has failed to adhere to the National Ambient Air Quality standards prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under Section 16 (2) (h) of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

The 12 parameters 

The CPCB had revised the standards in November 2009 and 12 parameters were required to be monitored to maintain optimum air quality. These include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter (PM) 10 and PM 2.5, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, ammonia, benzene, benzo pyrene, arsenic and nickel. The State Pollution Control Board, however, monitors only sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter as per the website of the board, which speaks volumes about its concern for improving the air quality. Little has been done to add more parameters on the board’s radar in the last 10 years, which raises doubts about the board’s concern to improve the air quality in these industrial areas.

7 towns sans ambient air  

The level of ambient particulate matter (APM) examined by the CPCB from 2011 to 2015 had been found to be below the laid down norms on a continuous basis in these industrial towns. Himachal has the fourth-highest number (seven) of such towns — Baddi, Damtal, Kala Amb, Nalagarh, Paonta Sahib, Parwanoo and Sunder Nagar — in the country.

Officials of the board woke up and chalked out an action plan on the directions of the CPCB, but it was yet to be adopted in letter and spirit.

Member Secretary, SPCB, Aditya Negi, said: “The regional officers of these three areas have been directed to submit weekly reports of air and water samples drawn from the red and orange category units of their areas. The power supply of some erring units who will willfully default in abiding by the norms has been disconnected. Stringent measures such as imposing monetary penalty on such units are also being contemplated to discipline violators.”

Apart from this, the action plans devised to mitigate pollution were being strictly enforced and stress on the use of clean technologies was being laid, he said.

Measures recommended

Various short, mid and long-term measures were recommended by the officials and departments, including Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority, local Municipal Committees, PWD and the Himachal Housing and Urban Development Authority were also roped in to achieve ambient air quality levels.

Short-term measures included ensuring complete ban on biomass and garbage burning in the area, ensuring proper management of solid waste as per the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, with special stress on checking the instance of fire in the waste storage areas before its scientific disposal.

Curbing encroachment by scrap dealers in a time-bound manner and shifting these to a designated site with requisite infrastructure has also been stressed upon. But not even an iota of the action plan has been translated into reality and the air pollution of this industrial belt continues to deteriorate with each passing day. The action plan also recommended ban on using husk-fired boilers in future and the existing industries were supposed to submit an action plan to phase out the use of husk-fired boilers and popularise the use of solar system, instead of using DG sets etc, which contribute to air pollution, but these were confined to paper only.

With little provision to check vehicular emissions, the officials of the Transport Department were only monitoring vehicles as per the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, whereas as per the action plan, a slew of measures were supposed to be introduced including check on overloading and regular check of pollution certification among others. Yet another measure like 100-day action plan was chalked out, which also aimed at improving the environment in industrial clusters.

One of the most publicised measures was opening of an Environment Training Centre (ETC) at Baddi in February 2018, which was supposed to act as a facilitator to train people in key environmental aspects. Even those dealing with various types of waste management, including municipal solid, plastic, industrial (especially the red category emitting units etc.), were supposed to be trained to aptly handle its management. It, however, failed to achieve its purpose, as barely four training sessions were conducted in the last financial year.

Action plans questionable

Taking into consideration the ineffectiveness of the action plans, the NGT has raised a key question whether mere making action plans obviates the requirement of enforcing the law, especially since continued polluted activities are criminal offences. Since the rule of the law requires prohibiting such activities to safeguard the environment and innocent victims, the Tribunal has stressed the need to bring the violator to book besides recovering compensation for the damage caused to the environment, at least for five years and also initiate prosecution against the polluter. 

It was also interesting to note that the SPCB has failed to ensure that all industrial units send their toxic-ridden industrial effluents to the Rs 60 crore Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in Baddi and it was running below its capacity at mere 17 million litres per day (MLD) as against its capacity of 25 MLD. The functioning of the CETP was also under scanner, as its water samples were consistently above the prescribed level and instead of using the treated water for farming and other use, it was merely discharging it into the Sarsa river. The board has not updated the water sample results of the CETP after 2017 on its websites, which raises questions on their role.

Instead of adopting a strict stance, the board has even bypassed the norm of making primary treatment of industrial effluents compulsory in Baddi, despite apex court directions. While this has helped the CETP to earn more profits, as higher the pollution load more the returns, it has conversely helped the erring units.

Sanjay Khurana, president, Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association, said: “The erring units should be taken to task but those abiding by norms should not be made to bear the brunt of NGT’s decision. With a slew of measures like CETP, the pollution level has been improved considerably, but there is a need to challenge the NGT orders.”

However, lack of effective action against the erring units, which have constructed bypass routes to dump their untreated effluents into the rivers in these industrial clusters, was a major cause of the rising water pollution. Though several such cases come to light every now and then, stern action was not visible on the ground. Cases of fish mortality were routine in the Baddi industrial area, which houses 89 per cent of the state’s industry. Things came to such a pass that the entire Sarsa river was choked with white toxic-ridden froth in August last year due to the letting out of untreated industrial effluents. Taking note of the issue, the NGT had imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on the CETP.

Experts said the lack of sampling of the stack of industrial units, failure to monitor the air quality parameters and long pendency of key permissions such as consent to operate, with 348 units being in Baddi alone, were telltale signs of SPCB’s lax functioning.

Health risks aplenty

With little coordination with the Department of Environment, the board’s failure to act as an effective regulator has exposed the residents of these clusters to various health risks. The need for a third party audit was being vehemently felt to monitor the working of the board. Key aspects such as the introduction of clean technology for polluting industries faring in the red and orange categories were a key requirement in these three industrial clusters. “Undertaking the audit of these industries and following all 12 parameters of National Ambient Air Quality norms as well as all water monitoring norms should be initiated at the earliest,” experts said.

It remains to be seen whether the board officials wake up to address the root cause of pollution or merely undertake a cosmetic exercise, as has happened in the past, when studies undertaken by the CPCB as well as IIT Kanpur had pointed to deteriorating environment of these industrial clusters with presence of carcinogens. 

Sarsa river water quality placed under priority-III 

• The water quality of Sarsa river in Baddi was placed under ‘priority III’ by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) during an assessment based on the biological oxygen demand (BoD) — dissolved oxygen needed by organisms to break down organic material and content — released in September 2018. It was found to be between 8 and 16 mg per litre, as against the safe limit of 3 mg per litre, clearly pointing towards the deteriorating quality of water
• The CPCB, in a report on “River stretches for restoration of water quality”, had also placed Sukhna river stretch in Parwanoo with 54 BoD in priority-I and Markanda River in Kala Amb with BoD ranging from 3.2 to 24 at priority-II among 351 polluted stretches on 323 rivers. Himachal, along with other such states, were directed to devise an effective action plan to improve the water quality 
• It was interesting to note that Parwanoo, which houses less than 10 per cent industries of the state, was placed under priority-I, while Baddi housing 89 per cent industries fared much-lower at priority-III. The situation has been reversed now with the CPCB’s own monitoring putting Baddi at the 44th position and Parwanoo at the 54th position with water pollution index being 63.75 and 61.88, respectively. This illustrates how figures were fudged merely to attain desirable results by the state, while the ground reality was the exact opposite

NGT order

• The NGT has directed the regulatory bodies to identify polluting industry, particularly which falls under the red and orange category, and close its polluting activity, besides initiating prosecution and recovering compensation from them. Red category industries have a pollution index score of 60 and above, while the orange category industries have this score between 41 and 59.
• There are 142 red category industries in Sirmaur district, where the Kala Amb industrial cluster is located and 295 in Solan district, where Parwanoo and Baddi are housed.
• While a compliance report has to be submitted to the NGT within three months, the SPCB has to ensure that till the carrying capacity of such areas is assessed, no new industrial unit or expansion of existing units of red and orange category will be allowed in these areas. 
• Information pertaining to the polluting units is also supposed to be made public within three months. 
• The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has to ensure the enforcement of action plans for improving the environment.

The erring units should be taken to task but those abiding by norms should not be made to bear the brunt of National Green Tribunal’s decision. With a slew of measures like Common Effluent Treatment Plant, the pollution level has been improved considerably, but there is a need to challenge the NGT orders. Sanjay Khurana, President, Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association