PCB had issued closure intention notice to Edayar unit in September

The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) had issued closure intention notice to the animal fat extraction unit in the Edayar industrial area that witnessed a boiler blast on October 5 (Saturday) night.

The notice was issued on September 3, 2024, after inspections by the Environment Surveillance Centre of the Board at Eloor had found lapses in setting up systems to control emissions. A 36-year-old native of Odisha was killed and three of his co-workers had sustained burns in the blast at Formal Tradelinks.

The company was among the 20 industrial units that were asked to explain why action should not be taken for their failure to set up systems to control emissions. A study by the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, had found that biofilters, used to remove pollutants and odour from air impacted by industrial and manufacturing processes, were not functioning properly in the units involved in rubber, meat and waste processing.

On why no follow-up action was taken against the erring unit after serving a closure intention notice in September, PCB officials said the management had submitted a reply stating that it had implemented some of the remedial measures. The management had requested that it may be exempted from a few other directives as it was a smaller unit compared to the bonemeal and meat processing units in the industrial area. There are eight such units figuring in the list of 20 companies that were found not complying with emission norms, they added.

The Environmental Surveillance Centre will submit a report to the Chief Environmental Engineer, Ernakulam, on the follow-up action to be initiated against the eight units. The Board had informed the erring units in September that failure to comply with the directions would result in legal action including closure of units, disconnection of electricity/water supply, and imposition of environmental compensation.

Published - October 07, 2024 07:46 pm IST