Green bench threatens to shut Tangedco's Ennore units

Chennai: Annoyed with the environmental violations in Ennore Creek, the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday threatened to close down both the Tangedco units if fly ash deposition is not cleared within a week. The Court appointed advocate Lakshmi Narasimhan to monitor the cleaning procedure in the creek.

After watching the videos taken by the petitioner, the bench comprising Justice P Jyothimani and expert member P.S Rao came down heavily on the lack of progress by Tangedco. They warned, “If Tangedco fails to remove the fly ash in a week, both the units of North Chennai Thermal Power Station will be ordered to be shut down at the next hearing.” The next hearing is on August 3.

The videos reveal the sorry state of the creek and the major water bodies, the Kosasthalaiyar river and the Buckingham canal, which are now filled with fly ash deposited by North Chennai Thermal Power Station.

“The deposition of ash is so bad that the boats in the river cannot even float during low tide,” said Pooja Kumar of the Coastal Resource Centre, an organisation fighting for the environmental and livelihood rights of the people at the Ennore Creek.  R.Ravimaran of All Ennore Fishing Village Coalition, who filed the suit in the tribunal last December, told DC, “The officials from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and North Chennai Thermal Power Station who inspected the creek recently assured us to clear the fly ash. But, it never happened. There is no water either in the creek or in the Buckingham canal. It is full of fly ash.” The bench has also ordered the prosecution of errant Tangedco officials under Air and Water (Prevention and Control of) Pollution Acts. Meanwhile, the counsel for the petitioner has requested that the tribunal form a committee to monitor the pollution at Ennore.

What does the law say about fly ash?
 Fly ash - a by-product of coal-fired power plants - is a toxic residue with enhanced concentrations of arsenic, barium, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, thallium, selenium, molybdenum and mercury. The thermal power stations in Chennai are certainly defying the law of the land, which mandates the utilisation of fly ash in construction sector.  Nityanand Jayaraman, noted environmentalist, said, “The government of India mandates cent per cent utilisation of fly ash in bricks, road construction and cement kilns, within four years of the commissioning of the coal power plants. While the notification says that, there is not much of demand for it, as most of the power plants are centralised production units”.