The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has made it mandatory to all the industrial units in Jharkhand and other parts of the country to install mechanism for continuous online monitoring system to deal with effluents generated and discharged ill-treated into water bodies by them. The Central pollution watch dog has partnered with its counterpart in the State for rolling out the measure.
A meeting in this regard took place in Delhi on September 18 in which representative of Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board also participated. As per the direction issued, the JSPCB has sent out notices to total 170 industrial units spread across the State to set up the temper proof system for online monitoring. Through this all the concerned stakeholders can get data about the discharge generated on real time basis.
“All SPCBs including JSPCB have been given direction to inform all the industrial units functioning under their jurisdiction. The industrial units have been told to abide by the order latest by March 31, 2015 and install online monitoring system for effluent in their premises,” Sanjay Srivastava, Scientist with the JSPCB who went Delhi to represent the State informed The Pioneer.
The CPCB has kept industries into 17 categories highly polluting in nature such as pulp and paper, distillery, sugar, tanneries, power plants, cement, oil refineries, fertiliser, dye, pesticides and pharma, common bio medical waste and hazardous waste. The list covers all the big names of industry such as Bokaro Steel Plant, Tata Steel, all the existing and upcoming power plants including PTPC, TVNl and independent power producers in the State.
The mechanism being pressed into action for the first time in the country as measure to check industrial pollution would be state of the art. The measuring system cannot be tempered with and transmit the date collected at every industrial unit which would be flashed at the points of CPCB, JSPCB besides the particular unit. The surveillance system would be fitted with industrial grade IP cameras having Pan, tilt zoom with leased line real time connection for data streaming and transmission that would be maintained regularly by the industries.
Srivastava added that the industry representatives who participated there were ready to bear the cost but wanted it to be installed by the SPCBs and also some subsidy from the Government.
Underlining the logic behind the step which has intensified since the new regime has come at the Center, the CPCB in its guideline to PCBs says, “The industries are monitored randomly by the SPCBs/PCCs. However, there is a concern with regard to the reliability of the representative sampling while monitoring by the industries themselves and moreover due to the limited technical and skilled manpower available with the SPCBs, it would be difficult task for the SPCBs and PCCs to monitor all the industries or water bodies falling under the respective jurisdiction this would call for continuous online monitoring system.
“This helps in building the confidence or surrounding habitation and to inculcate habit of self-monitoring mechanism within the industries for ensuring complying the prescribed standards, there is a need for installation of online effluent and emission monitoring devises.”
