‘4 weeks not enough to set up tertiary filtration facility’

“We are following all the instructions given by the Gujarat High Court. However,we have already asked the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute to conduct a study and make appropriate interventions in the design of FETP. There is a need for the tertiary filtration plant,which will take at least two years to complete,” said Desai.

He added,“On the other hand,GPCB lowered the crucial criteria for COD,a crucial indicator to determine presence of hazardous chemicals in treated waste water,from 500 to 250 milligram per litre about eight months ago.”

“Regarding noise pollution,we are taking utmost care. However,our industry is situated in residential area,on the outskirts of Piraman. We have declared ourselves a full-fledged industrial unit,but we are located in a residential area. The noise levels are going to be high keeping in mind the standards followed in residential areas,” he said .

NCTL’s FETP,as Desai claims,is the only plant in Asia that dumps the treated effluent into marine zone,about 10 kilometres into the Gulf of Khambat,through a pipeline. “While seeking environmental clearance from the MoEF,we were asked to follow the coastal dumping norms for effluents. However,in this case,we are dumping the effluents in the marine zone. As the dilution level experienced in the Gulf of Khambat,the coastal dumping norms cannot be applicable to marine dumping norms. We have found there are no marine dumping norms,but only coastal dumping norms,” Desai said.

Interestingly,GPCB has reportedly found 12 breaches in the effluent pipeline that starts at NCTL and ends at the Gulf of Khambat.