Almost 2,385 tonnes of waste oil in 133 containers have been sitting in Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva Port for five years. The oil contains polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a cocktail of globally banned cancer-causing chemicals. It has taken no less than the Supreme Court to intervene to start incinerating this massive toxic pile. Last month, the court was told that 40% of the lot has been disposed.

But worse lies ahead. Another lot of 209 containers—each container has 98 oil drums—sits in the same port, having arrived in 2000, the same year as the earlier 133. These were sent for tests only this January to the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa. Of these, 190 containers were found to contain waste oil. The list of importers has been submitted to the court only last month. Result: the clean-up of this lot hasn’t even begun.

The more the delay, the more difficult and expensive the job gets.

Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) officers had a narrow escape when some of the drums they were about to test burst open.

‘‘The contents are in precarious and hazardous condition. Many drums have become distended due to expansion of gases. Many are leaking. In some cases, waste oil erupts or spurts from the barrel as soon as the cap is opened. There is a strong smell of sulphide in the supplies, indicating contamination of serious nature,’’ says the report submitted by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee to the Supreme Court.

Another question is who pays for the incineration, a costly process? The court is trying to recover money from those who imported this waste. The Government of India will have to spend Rs 2.86 crore for the entire cargo. It has since managed to recover Rs 1.2 crore from 10 importers for the 133 containers. The remaining five importers are facing contempt of court charges.

In case of one party, the Eleven Star Esscon, where Customs seized the consignment, it was Customs which had to pay almost Rs 27 lakh for the incineration. This money is yet to be recovered.

The delay has another serious fall-out. According to law, these consignments have to be re-exported, if permissible, or destroyed. In India, the Customs department takes notice of a consignment only if it remains “unclaimed” for 45 days. Even after that, it has to hand out notices before it can check the cargo. So the delay in taking a decision meant that the option of sending it back to the importing country was closed. For, according to Basel Convention, it has to be done within 30 days. It was then left to the Supreme Court to order the incineration.

(Tomorrow: Why it takes 5 years to begin clean-up?)