Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) on Saturday denied allegations about the discharge of untreated effluents to the Phalguni and said the Schedule ‘A’ Miniratna Central Public Sector enterprise continues to rigidly comply with all pollution control parameters.
Managing Director Mundkur Shyamprasad Kamath and Director (Refinery) Sanjay Varma were responding to recent allegations by the Democratic Youth Federation of India State president Muneer Katipalla holding the firm and other industries responsible for discolouration of the Phalguni water.
Mr. Kamath told reporters that soon after reports of the allegations appeared, a team of officials from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board visited the refinery on March 4 and checked all the drains around the refinery that join the Phalguni. They took samples and found no discharge from MRPL into the Phalguni.
“We treat the effluents and discharge it into the sea. There is no discharge from the refinery to the river,” Mr. Kamath said.
Mr. Kamath said since 2015 the CSIR’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has been regularly conducting grid analysis, which includes monitoring quality of air and water in and around the refinery.
The KSPCB and the Central Pollution Control Board were independently monitoring water, sound and air pollution parameters.
Mr. Varma said MRPL is a responsible public sector undertaking, which stringently follows pollution control norms. “We are not like firms that let out something in order to save costs,” he said.
Discolouring of water in the Phalguni, Mr. Varma said, has been a phenomenon seen during the summer for the last five years when vented dams are closed and there is no flow of water downstream. With absence of underground drainage facility in the residential areas in the vicinity, solid waste is being let out to drains joining Phalguni River. Lot of hotel waste too is getting dumped. This organic load gets reflected during summer and dissolved oxygen in this water gets dropped, he said.
On the pending development of green buffer zone for the phase three expansion of MRPL, Mr. Kamath said Dakshina Kannada district administration is yet to earmark 27 acres of land for the purpose.
