| File Note: |
• The industry was granted consent to operate under the provisions of Water Act, 1974 and Air Act, 1981 for operation of cement grinding unit to manufacture cement @ 50 TPD with grinding process only by using clinker, gypsum and fly ash as raw material subject to the conditions mentioned therein with validity upto 31.03.2015.
• The industry was found violating the provisions of Water Act, 1974 & Air Act, 1981, during visit to the industry on 25.11.2015. Accordingly, notice u/s 31-A of the Air Act, 1981 was issued to the industry with an opportunity of personal hearing before the Chief Environmental Engineer on 29.01.2016, wherein it was decided as under: -
1. The industry will provide silo for the storage of fly ash, within 2 weeks.
2. The industry will upgrade the APCD to achieve the latest prescribed standards of SPM, within 2 weeks.
3. Environmental Engineer, Regional Office, Bathinda will visit the industry, after 2 weeks, verify the facts, collect sample, process the consent cases and submit report with recommendations within one week after visit.
• Thereafter, the industry was visited by AEE of this office alongwith JSO on 05.05.2016 and one no. air emission sample of the industry was collected during the visit. As per the analysis report, the conc. of particulate matter was found to be 88 mg/Nm3, which is beyond the permissible limits (50 mg/Nm3).
• The industry was visited by AEE of this office on 11.12.2017 and was found violating the provisions of the Water Act, 1974 & Air Act, 1981. Accordingly, notice u/s 31-A of Air Act, 1981 and show cause notice for violation of the provisions of the Water Act, 1974 was issued to the industry with an opportunity of personal hearing before the Worthy Chief Environmental Engineer of the Board on 09.03.2018, the proceedings of which are yet awaited.
• Now, the industry has applied for renewal in the validity of consent to operate under the provisions of Water Act, 1974 and Air Act, 1981 alongwith a certificate from green consultants, that new bag filter house (pulse jet type) having suction hoods have been provided with all the dust emitting points and further confirmed that the bag filter house will confirm with 30 ppm emission norms. The industry was visited by AEE of this office and it was found as under :-
1. The industry was not in operation during the visit as per requirement.
2. The industry has installed one no. ball mill and bag filters have been provided as APCD with it which was in line. The industry has provided suction of dust through flexible pipes from the hopper (where fly ash, gypsum and clinkers are mixed, leading to the ball mill), packaging section and conveyer belt. The flexible pipes thus provided are further attached to the ID fan. The suction mechanism provided by industry is not adequate as the flexible pipes are not capable to arrest the dust generated in the such type of units. Also, there was lot of dust on the floor in the processing area and in the packaging section causing difficulty in the movement.
3. The conveyer belt carrying the raw material (fly ash, clinker, gypsum) are not covered. The raw materials i.e. fly ash and clinker are stored inside the processing shed and no separate storage has been provided due to which the material was spreading all over the premises of the industry, in violation to the condition of the environmental clearance.
4. The industry has not provided asphalt / concrete roads within its premises and katcha roads exists, in violation to the condition of the environmental clearance resulting in generation of lot fugitive emissions thereby causing nuisance and difficulty in movement even outside the processing shed.
5. The industry has developed green belt in an area of 1 kanal at the entrance of the industry and the same has not been all along the boundary wall to mitigate the effects of air emissions.
6. No ambient air quality monitoring station has been provided as per the condition of environmental clearance.
7. The industry has provided septic tank for the treatment of domestic effluent and the discharge of the same is into soakage pit.
Recommendations :
In view of above, it is recommended that consent to operate under the Water Act, 1974 and Air Act, 1981 may be refused.
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