Govt wants dow to pay for detoxification

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has filed an affidavit in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur for entrusting Dow Chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide, with the entire cost of remediation efforts towards detoxifying the areas around Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) in Bhopal.

This follows the estimate put out by the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in its final report on assessment and remediation of contaminated areas in and around UCIL. The study was sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh government and the report was submitted to the ministry last week.

The ministry has already sought tenders from private parties including international firms to undertake the detoxification, decommissioning and dismantling of UCIL. The government has decided to put an outer limit of 2012 for completion of this exercise.

Officials clarified that the exercise of detoxification, remediation and decontamination would be undertaken under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment in coordination with the Madhya Pradesh government.

Till the court decided the matter, the cost of detoxification and decontamination would be borne jointly by central and state government, officials added.

Officials said this report was significant since it laid the basis for the extent of damage in the ground water and soil around UCIL and an estimate for the next course of action.

Based on this study, it is concluded that the soil, mostly within the UCIL premises, is contaminated and it needs immediate remediation with respects of hazards arising out of isomers of “hexachlorocyclohexane and mercury for groundwater protection”. It is also of the view that the groundwater in general inside the plant area is not contaminated. However isolated contaminated is observed.

As a long-term measure, the study has suggested a secured landfill technology for toxic waste treatment and the pump-and-treat method for decontamination of ground water. Besides, decontamination and decommissioning of the plant, machinery and buildings should be done prior to remediation of the contaminated soil and ground water.

The study has estimated the cost of soil remediation through secured landfill technology in the range of Rs 78 crore to Rs 117 crore.