Imminent Violation

It is necessary to change consent conditions for upcoming coal-based power plants to ensure that they do not violate new pollution control norms.

- Soundaram Ramanathan

ON JANUARY 1, 2017, all upcoming coal-based power plants in the country became subject to new environmental norms announced by the Union environment ministry. In a move to curb pollution from the coal-based power sector, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (moef&cc) had announced new emission limits for power stations, both existing and upcoming. For upcoming power stations, the new emission limits are: 30 milligrams per normal cubic metre (mg/Nm3) for particulate matter, 100 mg/Nm3 for both sulphur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and 0.03 mg/Nm 3 for mercury (Hg). The new environmental norms, announced in December 2015, are to be followed by existing power stations by January 1, 2018, and upcoming power stations—with a total capacity of 73 GW— starting this year.

But while responding to a query in the Lok Sabha on March 28 on the status of implementation of the new norms, environment minister Anil Madhav Dave said, “Analysis on the level of implementation will be carried by the ministry only after the norms come into force.” The statement not only ignores the fact that the norms are already in force, but also indicates a lack of serious effort on the part of the ministry to ensure enforcement. This has already led to widespread violation of the norms.