Vedanta Limited challenges closure of Sterlite by state govt

CHENNAI: Vedanta Limited has informed the Madras high court that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had directed Sterlite to remove copper slag from its copper unit in Thoothukudi only because it was obstructing water flow in a nearby channel, and not because it was polluting the environment.

Challenging the closure order of the state government, senior counsel for Vedanta Limited Aryama Sundaram, informed the special bench of Justices T. S. Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan that closure of the copper plant in Thoothukudi cannot be ordered when there is no evidence of pollution. “Even if there was pollution, closure is not the only remedial measure and we have nothing at all to prompt closure, except the police firing,” he added.

He said the copper slag produced at Sterlite has been cited as one among the reasons of pollution caused by the unit. Even Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in a 2003 clarification to Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) made it clear that copper slag produced at the plant would not have toxic material given the high temperature at which it is produced. The slag is highly stabilised, non-toxic, and non-hazardous.

He said until the dispute reached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), it was not the stand of the TNPCB that copper slag was a pollutant. Referring to a Stanford report cited by the state government, to argue that copper slag was a pollutant, the senior counsel said that the report dealt with copper smelting plants that used to operate between 1860s and 1950s.

That technology is obsolete, it does not exist anymore. We are now 60 years down the line. And if copper slag were toxic, it wouldn't be recommended for landfilling and road construction, he added.

The special bench adjourned the matter to July 4 for further hearing.