The State Pollution Control Board (PCB) will issue show-cause notice to the Kochi Corporation asking it to explain the steps taken to address the violations detected at the Brahmapuarm waste dumping yard.
The notice will be served based on the board’s findings gathered during the inspection held at the yard on March 3. The Corporation will be told to elaborate on the continuing incidents of fire outbreaks at the site, where heaps of waste have been lying idle for long. The local body had failed to contain the repeated fires that resulted in air pollution, besides triggering the possibility of causing harm to the public, said senior board officials. A major fire occurred at the yard on March 5.
The Chairman of the Board has asked the Ernakulam regional office to issue the notice to the Corporation Secretary, highlighting the violations found at the yard. The Board recalled that the average dioxin levels observed in the ambient air following a major fire breakout in February 2019 were 50 and 10 times higher than the reference and field blank data respectively.
The civic body has not yet implemented the recommendations made by the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) that stated it was essential to set up modern solid waste treatment plants and clear dumping yards of waste by biomining to separate combustible and inert material.
The contaminated ash separated during biomining should be moved to a sanitary landfill. Given the widespread burning of waste and dumping yard fires, analysis of dioxins in animal origin food samples such as milk, egg, meat and in human milk was recommended, said the report filed by the NIIST.
The board found that no action was taken to install proper effluent treatment facilities at the site. The temporary plant was found to be non-functional. The claim made by the Corporation authorities that they were properly treating the leachate from the windrow sheds at a nearby common septage treatment facility was false. The septage treatment facility was not functioning properly. It was suspected that they were discharging untreated or partially treated sewage and effluents to a marshy area located 50 metres from the setpage plant.
