The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a detailed report from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on the ammonia gas leak from Coromandel International Limited in Ennore.
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Hearing a suo motu case on the gas leak, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal Korlapati on Tuesday included the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH), Tamil Nadu Maritime Board, and the Fisheries Department as respondents and also sought a report from DISH.
The Bench asked the counsel appearing for the TNPCB if safety inspections are done regularly at Coromandel, a fertilizer manufacturing company, that handles ammonia, to prevent such mishaps. To this, the counsel said there were two aspects — environmental and safety — and while the TNPCB was responsible for one, industrial accidents came under the ambit of DISH.
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In the late hours of December 26, ammonia gas leaked from pipelines used to transfer the gas from ships to the storage tanks of the unit during the pre-cooling process done over 30 hours prior to the actual transfer process. The vapour pressure maintained in the pipeline is said to have dropped, causing gas bubbles to seep out.
Mr. Korlapati asked if there was a chance that the leak happened from the storage tank. “I strongly feel the leakage is not only from the pipe. It took 20 minutes for them to arrest [the leak]. If it was only residual ammonia in the pipes which leaked, it would have automatically been contained, but it said the gas was felt half a kilometre away,” he said.
However, the counsels said the strong winds pushed the gas fumes further south. The Bench inquired about the fish mortality due to the gas leak in the sea and adjourned the case to January 8.