Union Carbide’s toxic waste to be incinerated

BHOPAL - The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) has given clearance to a private waste management company to dispose 346 tonnes of toxic waste of the now-defunct Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)’s pesticide plant, officials said.

Madhya Pradesh Waste Management Project - a division of Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd., Hyderabad - has been permitted by the MPPCB to operate an incinerator at its disposal facility in Pithampur, some 300 km from here, a government source told IANS Sunday.

“MPPCB gave us the go-ahead Friday for operating the incinerator at Pithampur where we run a treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF),” an official of Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd told IANS.

The Central Pollution Control Board has already given its clearance for operating the incinerator. The company is now awaiting NOC from the fire department following which it will start trial runs at the facility, the official said.

The disposal of the toxic waste, left behind by the UCC at its pesticide plant after the Bhopal gas tragedy, had been hanging fire for long.

The tragedy occurred when a toxic leak from the pesticide plant in Madhya Pradesh’s capital killed and maimed thousands of people on the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984.

The delay in disposal of waste was caused due to a legal battle between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments over a proposal to dispose the hazardous waste in Ankleshwar in Gujarat.

In 2009, the Supreme Court directed disposal of the hazardous waste at the Common Transport Storage and Disposal Facility (CTSDF) at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district.

The MPPCB did not permit the disposal of waste earlier because Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd. had failed to comply with several environmental norms.

“But now since we have received the clearance from the MPPCB and are awaiting a no objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department, we expect to start the trial runs in 10-12 days after receiving the NOC,” Ramky Project head Amit Chaudhary said.

He added that the trial runs will continue for at least four to five months before the incinerator is ready for disposing the hazardous waste.

Some city-based non-government organisations have demanded transparency in the toxic waste’s disposal.

In 2008, 40 tonnes of hazardous waste from the UCC plant was dumped at Pithampur TSDF and the whole operation was conducted in a hushed manner, the NGOs said.