Govt notifies stricter standards for sugar industry

With an aim to minimising water pollution, the Centre has notified "stricter" environmental standards for sugar industry operating in various parts of the country.
The Environment Ministry said that the revised standards will lead to improved operational performance of these industries through implementation of wastewater discharge and conservation standards and pollution control management protocol.
"The government has notified stricter environment standards for sugar industries operating in various states in the country. The primary aim of these standards is to minimise water pollution. The Environment Ministry has notified the standards on January 14, 2016 in Gazette of India," an official statement said.

Elaborating on the revised standards, the ministry said that specific wastewater discharge standards have been made stricter by limiting the discharge to '200 litre per tonne of cane crushed' against the earlier limit of '400 litre per tonne cane crushed'.
"This will ultimately result in less consumption of raw water at operational level. The final treated effluent discharge has been restricted to 100 litres per tonne of cane crushed and waste water from spray pond overflow or cooling tower blow down to be restricted to 100 litres per tonne of cane crushed.
"Only single outlet point from unit has been allowed to encourage operational efficiency and treated effluent recycling practices. Further, only one outlet or discharge point will be allowed, which will be covered as per the '24x7 online monitoring' protocol," said the statement.

The ministry has also increased the number of effluent quality parameters which is to be monitored for ascertaining compliance to six namely pH, bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS) and oil and grease (O&G).

Earlier, the notified parameters were only BOD and TSS. The ministry said that the emission limits for particulate matter from stack has been limited to 150 milligramme per normal cubic metre.
The ministry said that the revised standards will lead to
improved operational performance of sugar industries through implementation of wastewater discharge and conservation standards and pollution control management protocol.

It said that the standards will also help the CPCB and state pollution boards and committees in implementing specific measures to be adopted in sugar industries, with the aim of reducing consumption of fresh water usage, checking operational efficiency and enhancing compliance.
Elaborating further, it said that the notified standards also contain a protocol for 'Treated Effluent Irrigation' and 'Wastewater Conservation and Pollution Control Management' where treated effluent loading rates (in cubic metre per hectare per day) have been mentioned for different soil textures.
The waste water conservation and pollution control management mandates that individual units will establish cooling arrangement and polishing tank for recycling excess condensate water to process sections, utilities or allied units.

The effluent treatment plant (ETP) will also be stabilised one month prior to the start of crushing season and will continue to operate up to one month after the end of crushing season.
"The protocol has also made it obligatory for the industry to install flow-meters at all water abstraction points so that fresh water usage can be minimised.
"Further, the industrial units have been permitted to store treated effluent in a seepage proof lined pond, having 15 days holding capacity," the statement said.