Effluent discharge: Chemical unit Panoli Intermediates gets closure notice from Gujarat Pollution Control Board

The Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has issued a closure notice to a chemical manufacturing firm based in Nandesari on the outskirts of the city for discharging effluent in Mini river last month.

The environment watchdog of the state issued a closure notice to Unit-II and Unit-III of Panoli Intermediates (India) Pvt Ltd, which manufactures dye intermediate and other chemicals, on Wednesday.

"The units had discharged effluent in an open field which drained down into Mini on December 18. Our vigilance team conducted an inquiry and reached the source of the discharge after which the GPCB chairman issued closure notice to Intermediate," Rajen Trivedi, regional officer of GPCB in Vadodara, told The Indian Express.

Trivedi said the firm was required to channel the chemical waste to Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CEPT) in Nandesari but it discharged it instead in the river that passes in the area. "As a result, water in the canal had become coloured," he said, adding the quantity of the discharge could not be known.

From the CEPT in Nandesari, treated effluent is released in a channel of Effluent Canal Project, which in turn discharges it in an estuary of river Mahi in the gulf of Cambay.

The officer said the firm would be required to furnish 10 per cent of its Environment Management System (EMS) funds as bank guarantee to GPCB and a plan to take corrective measures before it is allowed to reopen the units.

Mini river had come under spotlight in 2011 when a fire started in its bed following chemical discharge from Gujarat refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited near Koyali. Panoli Intermediates has five units in Nandesari.

GPCB had also issued closure notice to Padra-based Baroda Textile Effects Ltd, a company bought by Singapore-based Huntsman Group in May last year, for chemical leakage from its captive treatment stabilisation disposal facility.

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