Photo: ANI
Indore: The second round of incineration of waste from the Union Carbide factory has begun at a disposal site in Madhya Pradesh's Pithampur, with a consignment of 10 tonnes to be burned, according to an official.
On January 2, 337 tonnes of hazardous material were moved to a private company's waste disposal facility in Pithampur Industrial Area in Dhar district, approximately 250 kilometres from the state capital, as part of a plan to dispose of the waste from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, the scene of the 1984 industrial disaster.
The disposal of this material will be handled in three rounds while closely adhering to safety regulations, per a Madhya Pradesh High Court ruling. A report will be submitted to the HC on March 27.
"The second round of trial incineration of Union Carbide factory waste has started (late Wednesday night) at the Pithampur waste disposal plant," State Pollution Control Board regional officer Srinivas Dwivedi told reporters.
"Before dumping the waste in an incinerator, it will be run empty for about 12 hours and brought to a pre-set temperature," the official explained on Wednesday, TNIE reported.
During the second round of trials, 180 kg of waste will be thrown into the incinerator every hour. He stated that the second phase will burn a total of 10 tonnes of waste.
The first round of incineration of 10 tonnes of Union Carbide manufacturing waste began on February 28 and was completed on March 3, according to Dwivedi. The initial round of trials lasted approximately 75 hours, with 135 kg of waste thrown into the plant's incinerator every hour.
According to the State Pollution Control Board, the first round of waste disposal found the emission of particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, and total organic carbon from the disposal facility to be within acceptable limits.
The state administration said that the waste from the Union Carbide factory contained soil from the defunct unit's premises, reactor residue, sevin (pesticide) residue, and naphthalene. This includes waste and "semi-processed" waste. The board stated that scientific research has demonstrated that the effect of substances such as sevin and naphthal in waste has now become "almost negligible".
The waste currently has no trace of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas and no radioactive particles, according to the board. On the intervening nights of December 2 and 3, 1984, highly hazardous MIC gas leaked from Union Carbide's insecticide plant. The world's greatest industrial accident claimed the lives of at least 5,479 people and left others with physical disabilities.
After the waste from the factory was carried to Pithampur, protests erupted in the industrial town, with residents voicing concerns about the waste's impact on the human population and the surrounding environment. However, the state government has allayed their concerns, claiming that enough measures have been established for the safe disposal of industrial waste in Pithampur.