'IOC's upgradation project led to effluent discharge'
Vadodara   20-Nov-2011

The recent upgradation project worth thousands of crores at IndianOil's (IOC) Gujarat Refinery (GR) plant caused pollution and the eventual fire in Mini river three weeks ago. Gujarat Pollution Control Board's (GPCB) investigations revealed that there was manifold increase in the discharge from GR over the past some time as its effluent treatment plant (ETP) wasn't equipped to handle it. GPCB member secretary Hardik Shah and principal secretary for forests and environment, Gujarat Government S K Nanda recently met IOC director R K Ghosh and executive director (ED) P Sur to discuss the action taken plan over the accident.

IOC was asked to prepare two plans - one long-term and one short-term - to ensure that such incidents don't happen in future. "IOC had taken up residue upgradation project and it led to substantial increase in its effluent discharge. But, their ETP wasn't upgraded to meet with the increased discharge. And, hence the additional effluent was discharged into the storm water drain that flowed into Mini river," said GPCB regional officer R B Trivedi.

"We have asked them to upgrade their ETP to deal with the additional effluent. As of now, they have been asked to release the effluent into Effluent Channel Project (ECP) pipeline after treating it. Also, IOC has been asked to stop releasing any effluent or water into the storm water drain," Trivedi said.

Nanda confirmed that IOC's ETP hasn't been revamped for a long time. "Their ETP is very old and it has to be upgraded to meet with the current discharge. We have asked them to remove all the sludge from Sindhrot ravines and also go for bio-remediation project to clean up the area," Nanda told TOI. He said another review of IOC's plans will be done next month.

There was fire in Mini river earlier this month due to presence of oil sludge, creating major panic among the people living in the adjacent villages. GPCB had given a show cause notice to IOC asking why it shouldn't close some of its units. "The capacity of GR ETP is five million litres per day (MLD) and earlier only 3.5 MLD effluent was channelised to the ETP. But the discharge from the refinery increased due to the upgradation project. Also, there was a bit of mismanagement," Trivedi said.