Pollution board’s notice to Pammal tanneries

The Hindu , Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
Action follows residents’ allegation that 12 leather units let out untreated ‘wash’ water into the street.

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has issued notice to 12 leather units at Pammal for functioning in violation of norms and not registering themselves with it.

The action follows complaints from residents that while the seven spraying units were releasing untreated ‘wash’ water on to the streets, the five buffing units were discarding leather scrap-dust in the open, causing both water and air pollution.

“The units have been given two months to register with the Board and follow proper waster disposal norms, failing which they will be shut down. We are … identifying more such unregistered units,” a TNPCB official told The Hindu.

The Pammal-Pallavaram Nagalkeni stretch has 150 big, medium, small and petty leather units. While most of them have subscribed to a common effluent treatment plant (CETP), the petty units are not within the CETP’s ambit, Roughly 2000 kiloliters of effluents are taken to the CETP everyday, and treated water is discharged into the Adyar.

However, the problem with the petty spraying units, which polish and spray paint the processed leather, was that the quantity of wastewater generated by them was not commensurate with the investment made on a CETP subscription. While the Board insisted on a solar evaporation pan to discharge the wash water, the painters failed to do so.

Of late, the problem worsened, forcing nearly 100 families to move out of V.O.C Nagar as their wells were contaminated, according to Mangalam Balasubramaniam of the Pammal Sankara Nagar Civic Exnora.

As for the buffing units, they were discarding buffing dust in the open, and in a couple of cases, even clandestinely burning them, despite the Board’s ban on burning leather scrap.

“Mostly, the piles are set afire at night, aggravating respiratory disorders of residents, “ Mrs. Balasubramaniam said.

The notice is the latest in a series of steps taken by the Board against the Pammal tanners, besides pushing for zero-discharge and a reverse-osmosis plant in combination with the CETP.

The Central Pollution Control Board has classified tanneries as ‘red’ industries, as their hazardous waste had the “worst possible environmental impact on water sources.”

Tanners themselves admit that many petty units do not have proper waste disposal systems. “Despite our insistence, many are bypassing the CETP.

This creates a problem not only for the residents but also gives the entire industry a bad name. We have even asked the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to close some of them down,” says a representative of the All-India Skin and Hide Tanners and Merchants Association.

 
SOURCE : The Hindu, Wednesday, May 18, 2005
 


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