S-3,
Rajashree Apartments, 18/57, 1st Main Road,
Jayanagar,
Telefax:
91-80-6341977/6531339
Email: [email protected]n Website: http://www.esgindia.org
Chairman
Central Pollution Control
Board
Ministry of Environment and
Forests
Govt. Of
Parivesh Bhawan
07
October 2003
Reg: Blatant violations of
Environmental norms and standards by West coast Paper Mills and non-enforcement
of penal provisions by the
Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a
detailed report on the blatant violations of environmental norms, standards and
statutory requirements by M/s West Coast Paper Mills, Dandeli, Uttara Kannada, Karnataka. This report also implicates the Karnataka
State Pollution Control Board for not acting as per law, despite various
representations.
You are urged to take
corrective action immediately.
Thank you,
Yours faithfully,
Leo F. Saldanha/Rajmohan Pillai/Dr. Ananth Chikkatur
Environment Support Group
Endorsed by:
|
Pandurang Hegde Parisara Samrakshana Kendra Sirsi |
Sunita Dubey Environmental
Justice Initiative |
Cc:
1.
Mr. S. M. Krishna, Chief Minister of Karnataka
2.
Mr. R. V. Deshpande,
Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Industries
3.
Mr. Pradipto Ghosh, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests
4.
Dr. Nalini Bhat, Director, Ministry of Environment and Forests
5.
Chief Conservator of Forests, Southern Regional
Office, Ministry of Environment and Forests
6.
Principal Secretary, Karnataka Dept. for Ecology,
Environment and Forests
7.
Secretary, Karnataka Dept. for Ecology and
Environment
8.
Chairman,
Report Submitted to
Chairman,
Central Pollution Control Board
Prepared by
Environment
Support Group (
For
Kali Bachao Andolan
Endorsed by
Parisara
Samrakshana Kendra (Sirsi)
and
Environmental
Justice Initiative (
07 October 2003
West Coast Paper Mills, a public
limited company, has from as early as 1994 been producing far in excess of
consented quantity per
Environmental Impact Assessment report
Per the aforementioned
letter, the legally allowed production capacity of the paper mill is 85,500 tpa, whereas the company’s EIA report prepared by Tata
Consultancy Service submitted in August 2000 in application for expansion to
the KSPCB, is based on an increase from 1,19,750 TPA to 1,63,500 TPA. There
is no EIA study carried out on the increase in production from 85,500 TPA to 1,19,750 TPA.
Legally it is required that
the EIA study be carried out for the entire expansion program and not a part of
it. Hence West Coast paper mill should be asked to carry out a new EIA
study for expansion from 85,500 tpa to 1,63,500 tpa, pending which the
company should be forced to back down its production to the consented limit,
given compliance with other applicable conditions.
The Southern Regional
Office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests conducted a detailed review
of the WCPM environmental compliance record, and found the company wanting in
most respects. The illegal production
expansion issue has been dealt with in detail, and extract of this report is
annexed at Annexure B.
“No Increase in Pollution
Load” Certificate Suspect:
KSPCB has certified vide
its letter No.
KSPCB/WPC/WESTCOAST/TC-17CAT/2002-03/307 dated 17 July 2002, that there would
be no increase in the pollution load if the company
increases production from 85,550 TPA to 163500 TPA. This certificate was sought
by the company to seek exemption of environmental clearance from the Ministry
of Environment and Forests.
It must be highlighted here
that the no-increase-in-pollution-load claim of WCPM is wholly suspect,
especially considering that the plant has doubled production illegally. That
even their claim was entertained by the KSPCB without sufficient verification,
and further, has even issued a certificate, is absolutely untenable and must be
revoked. A copy of the aforementioned certificate is annexed at Annexure
C.
Clearly the motive here is
to dodge the requirement of full environmental clearance per EIA Notification
of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. In the absence of any reliable
study, especially given that the past five years compliance statements by the
company are of very poor quality and involve highly deceptive reporting, and
also considering that the KSPCB has not independently monitored the situation
carefully, as required, the Precautionary Principle must be invoked. Consequently action must be caused to force
the company to comply with the full environmental clearance process as required
per law.
WCPM releases its effluents into the
Halamaddi Nalla, which
joins the
The absence of an effective effluent
treatment system in the plant is basic evidence that the effluents can never
match the standards set by State and Central authorities. Untreated paper
effluents pollute the
KSPCB has in its occasional studies
over the past three years found the effluent not conforming to standards
prescribed. It has served notices on the company on a couple of occasions vide
letter Nos. 2630 and 754-55 dated 23.01.02 and 08.07.02 respectively. The
company has demonstrated little regard to these notices, and continues to
discharge the effluent without required treatment into the river.
During the CPCB inspection in
January 2003 it was found that the mill was discharging insufficiently “treated“ effluents in excess of allowed quantities (almost twice as much) into the
It has also been established by a
December 1999 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) study, commissioned by
the company to assess the possibility of ground water contamination, that a
one-kilometer stretch of the
A Legal Water Sample report of the
KSPCB shows no conformance with required standards and a copy of this report
No.88 dated 10/7/03 is annexed at Annexure F.
Upgradation of the Effluent treatment plant
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
pointed out the inadequacy in the effluent treatment system in the August 2000
EIA report that it supplied to company.
It was suggested that the system be upgraded immediately, and should
include an appropriate Activated Sludge Process (ASP). The company has dodged
this issue till date.
The controversial support of KSPCB
to the expansion application involves a clear requirement that the company
shall have a new effluent treatment system ready by September 30th
2003. This deadline has been abrogated, and yet no action has been initiated
as required per law till date. It is
to be noted that various enquiries suggest that this new system is several
month’s away from completion.
It would be imperative for KSPCB
then to follow its legal commitment and shut down the plant.
Instead, the company is continued to run the plant and discharge
untreated effluents into the river, to the illegally expanded capacity. This is posing increased risks to public
health and environment, which could be accentuated due to low flow of the river
in a drought year. A copy of the KSPCB letter No.
KSPCB/DEO(17CAT)/AEO/203-04/ 565 dated 6 June 2003
indicating the deadline is annexed at Annexure
G.
Representations made on this issue
Chief minister, Government of Karnataka
A representation was made to the Chief minister
on 6th June 2003, as part of a networked initiative, the Kali Bachao
Andolan (KBA). This resulted in the CM
directing the Secretary, Karnataka Department of Ecology and Environment for a
report on the matter. The Secretary in turn asked for a report from the
Chairman, KSPCB. This report, which was to be supplied by July, is yet to be
submitted. A copy of the Representation
made to the Chief Minister and the subsequent order of the Secretary is
enclosed at Annexure H and H-1.
Chairman ,
There have been several meetings with KSPCB official with regard to the
pollution from WCPM. On 23 August 2003,
various representatives of KBA met with the Chairman, Mr. J. Alexander, and his
attention was drawn to the issue. A
letter dated 23 August 2003 highlighting significant issues was submitted and
the same is enclosed at Annexure J.
In particular the serious incident of pollution due to discharge of
untreated effluents on 29/30 June 2003, and the consequent impact, was brought
to his attention. That a newborn infant
died after consuming its mother’s milk who suffered
gastroenteritis along with 50 others from Kariampalli village immediately
downstream from the discharge point, was highlighted. It was also brought to the Chairman’s
attention that a 27-year-old man suffered acute renal failure on account of
neglect from the district and company authorities in responding to this
crisis.
Various options to provide a permanent relief to villagers were
discussed, but as yet no remedial action has been affected.
To press the matter further, the Chairman was met again on 19th
September 2003, by a wider delegation of Kali Bachao Andolan. This time he was pressed to initiate action
if the company was not showing evidence of complying with the 30 September 2003
deadline to install the effluent treatment plant. Chairman offered to make a site visit to
assess the situation, and in the meantime promised that he would instruct the
company to provide remedies to affected communities. It was also bought to his
notice that people raising pollution issues were under threat from the company.
He said that this was a very serious matter and the Board would not tolerate
such high-handed behavior from anyone.
R.V. Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium
Industry, Government of Karnataka
Affected people and their representatives met the Minister on the 19th
September and apprised the Minister of the prevailing situation in Dandeli.
They spoke at length about the problems they faced due to the discharge of
untreated effluents into the
He also instructed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zilla
Panchayat, Uttara Kannada, to conduct a detailed health survey on the impact of
pollution on the immediately affected four villages downstream of the discharge
point. This study is now underway per an
order of the CEO dated 24 September 2003. This report is due anytime now.
Kanhiya Lal Chandak , Executive Director,
West Coat paper Mills
On 30th September, the day of the company’s Annual General
meeting, villagers from
Kariampalli, worst affected by the recent pollution by WCPM, along with
representatives of Environment Support Group, Parisara Samrakshana Kendra,
Alternative Law Forum and Samvada, as part of the KBA network entered in
protest the WCPM campus. Individual
investors were met with and encouraged to force their company to comply with
environmental norms and statutory requirements.
The participants later secured a meeting with Mr. K. L. Chandak,
Executive Director, West Coast Paper Mills and his senior managers.
In this meeting
he was asked to respond to a number of queries and violations of law. Some of
the issues raised during the discussion were.
§
Willful negligence by WCPM causing serious pollution
of the
§
Causing grievous injury and harm to villagers
downstream of the effluent discharge point.
§
Criminal neglect of villagers affected by the
pollution incident on 29/30 June 2003.
Also of not providing drinking water facilities despite the pollution of
surface and underground aquifers being reported to be serious for a decade now.
§
Lax approach to statutory warnings requiring the
company to install a state of the art effluent treatment plant. This involved violation of a key direction
requiring the treatment plant to be ready by 30 September. Further, carelessly discharging fly ash from
the power plant, including in a local college campus.
§
Gross violation of production limits set, as the
company was on record that it was producing more than twice the consented
quantity. This resulted in more fresh
water intake, and doubling of pollution, with consequent adverse impacts on
public health and environment.
§
The company has wrongly claimed that this increase
in production will not increase the pollution load, in an attempt to dodge
compliance with a full environmental review requiring public involvement. The past five years’ environmental
compliance reports filed by the company with the Karnataka
Pollution Control Board has too many factual inaccuracies and is a
copy-paste job across the years. It
appears the regulatory authority has colluded with the company by not examining
such details and taking appropriate action.
§
The company was behaving in a manner as to threaten the local
communities with dire action if they questioned the company’s errant behaviour.
During the hour -long meeting with the affected villagers Mr. Chandak
promised that WCPM will undertake the expenses of
providing drinking water to all villages affected by pollution of Kali due to
discharge of effluents. Additionally the company will invest in a mobile
medical unit to provide immediate health relief to affected villages. Further,
WCPM will accept monetary claims from all affected families and these claims
would include cost of loss of income and livelihood due to disease, death and
disease of cattle and failure of crops. He emphatically asserted that the
company would comply with all regulations. He also confirmed that the
production would move towards elemental-chlorine free process in the near
future especially if the country’s laws required it to. He also added that the
company is in the process of applying for ISO 14001
certification.
The wide concerns over the utter lack of
compliance with statutory requirements and the adverse impacts on the local
health and environment have been consistently reported in the press. A selection of such reports is annexed at Annexure
K.
Also enclosed is photographic evidence of the nature of the impact, and
of protest actions that have been initiated to bring the company to book. This
is annexed at Annexure K-1
END OF REPORT