Toxic waste weighing 337 tons from the defunct Union Carbide factory facility has been absolutely incinerated at a private waste treatment facility in Dhar district’s Pithampur industrial area in Madhya Pradesh, according to officials of Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB).
The waste was moved to Pithampur in January this year, more than 40 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, wherein 5,479 people lost their lives and lots of suffered physical disabilities because of the leak of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) factory.
More than 5-lakh people suffered health implications from the tragedy over the decades. Sriniwas Dwivedi, Regional Officer, MPPCB, informed that the incineration was finished on June 30 at the Ramky Group’s Industrial Waste Management plant in Pithampur, about 35 kms from Indore. The procedure start up on May 5.
“We have completed the incineration process securely. It took us 55-days to burn the whole waste, such as a spoil of 4 days in total, for routine cleaning of machines and incinerators,” Mr. Dwivedi stated. Of the 358 tons of waste that was transported from Bhopal on January 2 this year, 21 tons, in large part mud from the UCIL site, is still being burnt and the procedure will complete soon.
About 2.22 tons of waste from the packaging material used inside the transportation of the Union Carbide waste has also been parted. This primarily involves iron drums, that are being disconnected and subjected to high-temperature incineration, he stated. The disposal of the packaging waste was anticipated to be finished shortly, he said.
The original dump of waste become mixed with lime and other materials earlier than incineration, which created over 800 tons of ash. This ash has been stored in leak-proof bags, inside a safe storage discard at the facility. A devoted landfill cell is being constructed, as in keeping with scientific protocols, to eternally dispose of this ash, Mr. Dwivedi stated.
The toxic waste was transported to Pithampur amid protests by local residents. Demonstrators expressed fears of environmental and public health hazards, which had been released by the state authorities. Initially, 30 tons of waste was burnt on the plant for the duration of 3 trials and the emissions had been found to be within prescribed limits.
The procedure of whole incineration were approved by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on March 27 after the government submitted reports of the 3 trials. The MPPCB maintained that emissions from the incineration process, which include particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen fluoride, nitrogen oxides, mercury, cadmium, and other heavy metals remained within permissible limits for the duration of the operations.
