Yet another EIA Amendment !!

PIB Press Release

Press Information Bureau
Government of India

Friday, January 16, 2009
Prime Minister's Office

PROMOTERS TO MAKE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION STATUS OF PROJECT: DRAFT NOTIFICATION PROPOSES SIMPLIFICATION OF PROCEDURE AND SOCIETAL VIGIL FOR ENFORCEMENT
16:22 IST

Government of India has initiated the process of further rationalizing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2006 with the issue of a draft notification inviting comments. These revisions have been made in view of experience gained in the last two years. The proposed changes seek to make the notification more comprehensive, simplify procedure where required and also enhance powers of states with respect to certain types of clearances.

For the first time it proposes to proactively provide for increasing societal vigil on environmental projects by making it compulsory for project proponents to make public the terms of the environmental clearance. The draft notification provides for the project proponent to compulsorily make public at their cost the terms of the environmental clearances obtained by them by advertising in two local newspapers of the district/state where the project is located. In addition, copies of the environmental clearances will also have to be made available by the sanctioning authorities to the local bodies whether panchayats or municipal bodies where the project is located and to relevant government offices at the local level. The Central and State authorities would also place the environment clearances on their websites.

These steps are intended to ensure that the conditions of environmental clearances are strictly complied with by the project proponents and in case of any lapse, this could be brought to notice by the local population or its representatives. This is expected to remedy situations where the enforcement is dependent on enforcement authorities on whom citizens cannot mount any pressure in the absence of their knowledge of the provisions of the environmental clearances. It is also expected that this will move the environmental protection agenda into the public domain and would be in keeping with the spirit of disclosure involved in the Right to Information Act.

Adoption of non-polluting technologies and processes which do not increase the pollution load and conservation of natural resources is sought to be promoted by liberalising existing provisions. Projects for modernisation and expansion using such technologies and processes are exempted from the purview of the EIA Notification. Biomass based power plants up to 50MW capacity and prospecting of minerals are proposed to be exempted from the purview of the notification. Further, in view of the delay being caused to expansion and modernisation projects due to several states not having constituted their EIA authorities yet, it is proposed to exempt a certain category of projects from scoping for three years.

JSW not to cancel order to Maytas

JSW not to cancel order to Maytas - Software-Infotech-The Economic Times

JSW not to cancel order to Maytas
15 Jan 2009, 0014 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group is not planning to cancel the Rs 100-crore order given to Maytas Infrastructure, run by promoters of
fraud-hit Satyam Computers, as it is “happy” with the progress made by the firm on construction of two township projects.

“We are happy with the work undertaken by Maytas. We are not looking to cancel the order unless the company defaults on the contract,” JSW Group CFO Seshagiri Rao said.

About 35% of the work has been completed in Vijayanagar, where JSW Steel is expanding the capacity of its unit to about 7 mtpa, he said and added that construction activity at the Ratnagiri site, where the group has a 1,200 MW power project, has recently started.

JSW Group, which is predominantly interested in steel and the power sector, had given the Rs 53.60 crore order to build a township at Vijaynagar in Karnataka in September 2007, by way of competitive bidding to the infrastructure company promoted by the kin B Ramalinga Raju, the disgraced former Satyam chairman.

Maytas infrastructure bagged another order worth Rs 42.91 crore to construct the township in Ratnagiri in August 2008.

“We had also given the second order through competitive bidding to Maytas. They had past experience in setting up townships and we had reviewed its work on the Vijaynagar project also. They were technically qualified for our project,” he added.

Moreover, the group downplayed the appointment of former senior executive of Satyam, Sailesh Shah, as the JSW Group president (strategy), saying, he was “well” qualified for the post.

MSEB officials (Real beneficiaries of our TPPs) under probe

Electricity board officials under probe-Mumbai-Cities-The Times of India

Printed from

Electricity board officials under probe
11 Jan 2009, 0000 hrs IST, TNN


MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) has ordered a high-level probe against some of its senior officials who are accused of accepting bribes.

According to agency reports, Mario Cavinom, a senior executive of a valve manufacturing company in the US bribed MSEB officials to bag lucrative contracts between March 2003 and 2007. Covino pleaded guilty before a US district court judge to the charges of making corrupt payments to the tune of US $ 1,000,000 to officials of several state-owned entities worldwide, including MSEB.

MSEB director Ajoy Mehta confirmed that an inquiry has been ordered. "We will study the case, particularly on if we have a treaty with the US in such cases. We will also take up the case with the state and the Centre to obtain specific documents from the US court. Once we get the documents, we will decide the course of action,'' Mehta said.

According to official records, A M Ambhore was a member of the technical staff and A S Pophale was MSEB director when the board had purchased the valves from the US-based company. "We will seek information from these officials,'' a senior MSEB official said.

According to reports, MSEB had ordered high pressure valves from a US-based company for the expansion of the board's thermal power station in Nagpur. "Owing to a row over the purchase, further orders were stalled and an agreement was signed with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for supply of valves,'' the official said.

Suryachaktra Power arm to set up solar power unit

The Hindu Business Line :
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, January 9, 2009

MUMBAI - Suryachakra Power Corporation Ltd has informed BSE that Sri Panchajanya Power Pvt. Ltd is one of subsidiary companies of the company is already in setting up of 10 MW biomass power project at MIDC, Hingoli, Maharashtra.

In addition to this, Sri Panchajanya Power Pvt. Ltd has signed power purchase agreement with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd on January 7 for setting up of 5 MW concentrated solar thermal power project at Hingoli, Maharashtra and t he company has already submitted required papers with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for registration to get generating subsidiary.

Coal Ash Spill Reveals Risks, Lapses in Waste Regulation

Jan 08 - McClatchy Washington Bureau

The coal ash spill in Tennessee last month is putting a spotlight on whether the ash from 450 other power plants around the country could be contaminating the nation's drinking water supplies.

Some coal ash is recycled into products such as cement or placed in secure landfills, but much of it ends up in gravel pits, abandoned mines and unlined landfills - or in ponds like the one that burst in Kingston, Tenn., on Dec. 22. In the Tennessee incident, 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge laced with arsenic and other toxic materials poured over 300 acres - making it one of the nation's worst environmental spills.

The EPA in 2000 decided that coal ash wasn't hazardous waste and left regulation up to the states. Now, however, environmental activists say the Tennessee spill shows the need for federal standards for how coal waste is handled at the coal-fired power plants around the nation.

"It's an insanely dangerous scenario that's been allowed to develop, but it's all under the radar screen," said Jeffrey Stant of the Environmental Integrity Project, a group formed by former EPA enforcement attorneys that's compiling data on coal ash disposal sites.

Stant said most states have lax regulations and that much of the monitoring is done on a voluntary basis by the utilities that own the plants that burn the coal.

He and other activists want the EPA to start with banning the common practice of sluicing coal waste into ponds and storing it there.

"When you put it along a river in an unlined lagoon, you threaten to contaminate the shallow alluvial aquifer that's right under the river," which provides drinking water, Stant said. He said he had no faith in the scientific evidence produced by the utility companies.

The Tennessee Valley Authority says tests show Kingston's drinking water is safe.

"We're not doing anything different than other utilities that have coal plants," said TVA spokesman Gil Francis. About half of the TVA coal waste is put in wet ponds like the one at Kingston, and the rest is compacted in dry ponds. TVA inspects the ponds annually, the state checks them quarterly, and TVA employees look at them daily, he said.

TVA, a corporation owned by the federal government, operates the plant at Kingston where spill occurred. The Kingston Fossil Plant was the largest coal-burning power plant in the world when it began operating in 1955. The plant normally consumes about 14,000 tons of coal a day.

TVA is the largest U.S. public power company, providing electricity to 9 million people in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia. It produces 60 percent of that electricity from coal at 11 plants completed mostly in the 1950s. The newest came online in the mid-1960s.

The House Committee on Natural Resources this week started considering whether to propose a law that would impose federal regulations on coal ash waste stored in ponds such as the one in Tennessee, said committee chief of staff Jim Zoia.

Steve Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said that states have tended to defer to utility companies to take care of the waste, and the EPA has depended on industry to fill out voluntary surveys.

"It's clearly been neglected for the past eight or nine years but it's a problem that's only going to get worse as we do a better job of controlling air pollution," he said. "As you clean coal up, you can't just make the dirty stuff disappear. It's got to go somewhere."

Smith said he wants "some federal leadership to properly characterize this problem and get aggressive in setting up regulatory standards that people have some confidence in."

EPA spokeswoman Tisha Petteway said the American Coal Ash Association, which is made up of coal-fired power utilities and others that produce coal combustion waste, is the source of information about how much coal ash is generated in the country each year. EPA also measures toxic releases from individual plants.

Petteway said the latest data, an EPA and Energy Department survey from 1993, estimated there are about 300 surface ponds at electric power plants like the one in Tennessee.

"The majority of states" require controls on the site, liners in landfills and groundwater monitoring, Petteway said. The effectiveness of the protection, however, depends on whether states use the authority they have, she said in a written response to questions.

States are regulating coal ash more as new plants are added, she said.

Jim Roewer of the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, a lobby group devoted to keeping the non-hazardous status of coal combustion waste, said he expects the Tennessee spill will be used in a new discussion of what national standards might be imposed, but his group believes they're not needed because state regulation works.

"Utilities are working to manage the ash responsibly," he said.

Roewer said there are about 600 coal ash disposal sites - about 45 percent of them surface ponds, and the rest landfills.

Lisa Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice, a law firm, said it's easier to say which state does a good job of regulation - Wisconsin - than to list the many who handle it poorly.

Nationally, coal combustion waste is estimated at more than 129 million tons a year, she said. The problem, she said, is that because of a lack of federal oversight, "we don't know where it goes."

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Ultra-mega thermal plants & the Ultra-Mega fly-ash menace

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Science Tribune

Ultra-mega thermal plants; Mega flyash problems

Dr G.S. Dhillon

A recent report datelined Bathinda, filed by TNS correspondent S.P. Sharma appeared in The Tribune dated October 31 describing the situation at Bathinda City: “It flyash all the way in Bathinda” along with a photograph of a scooterist virtually sailing through a cloud of flyash.

This has made many of us ponder what would be the state of affairs once the two proposed “ultra-mega thermal plants” of Talwandi Sabo and Gidderbaha start operating.
Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bathinda: Flyash is everywhere.
Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bathinda: Flyash is everywhere. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

An attempt has been made in this article to consider the problem.

At the present stage, the thermal plants installed in Punjab have the capacity of 2120 MW, with 1260 MW Super Plant at Ropar, 440 MW Plant at Bathinda and 420 MW at Lehra Mohabat.

The annual production of solid waste in the form of flyash (containing 20 per cent furnace bottom ash) from all the above listed TPs is around 20 lakh tons.

The new thermal plants planned would add an additional generation capacity of 6480MW:

l 1980 MW from the Talwandi Sabo Ultra-Mega Thermal Plant.

l 2640 MW from the Gidderbaha Ultra-Mega Thermal Plant,

l 1320 MW from the Rajpura Mega Thermal Plant

l 540 MW from the Goindwal Thermal Plant.

At that stage, the total thermal power generation capacity would be 8600 MW and the annual flyash production requiring proper handling would be above 80 lakh tonnes.

The regulations issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF), Government of India, require that “all the thermal plants will have to ensure 100 per cent utilisation of the solid waste (flyash plus furnace bottom ash) within the prescribed period, which is nine years after their commissioning in the case of new TPs to be set up. In the case of the older existing plants, the time limit to achieve the 100 per cent utilisation target is “by the year 2015” i.e. within the next seven years.

Flyash is fine powdery material and its particles are spherical in shape and of glassy nature. The flyash contains a reactive material which reacts with “lime” in the presence of water, to form calcium silicate hydrate, which acts as a binding material.

This property of flyash is utilised for part replacement of cement in the case of cement concrete using OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement). Also PPC (Portland Puzzolana Cement) is obtained by mixing flyash with burnt clinker before grinding. The proportion of flyash, conforming to IS: 3812 (Part I-1) may vary between 15 per cent to 35 per cent.

l Flyash can be used to form a “flowable fill” which pours freely and get set quickly and provide strength equal to that of “compacted soil”. So flyash in this form can be used to fill up trenches, cuts, abandoned mine etc.

l Flyash can be used for building embankments for road construction.

l Flyash can be used as “filler” in the manufacture of plastic components replacing “plastic resin”.

Roller compacted concrete using flyash has been found to possess many merits and used in many situations. In case of the Ghatgar pumped storage scheme, the roller compacted concrete using flyash was used for construction of the Saddle Dam and the Upper Dam.

Flyash has been beneficially used for “soil conditioning” of agricultural soils in Maharashtra and flyash has also been used to provide “fertiliser capability”. For this purpose it should be used in the “wet” form

For burnt clay bricks, a 25 per cent replacement of soil with flyash is now a must for brickkilns located within 100 km. radius of TPs as per orders from the MOEF.

Building blocks using upto 88 per cent of flyash: furnace bottom ash (in equal proportion) and 12 per cent lime have been produced by PMET, who has obtained a patent for the same. The blocks are “cured” in an auto-clave for six hours at steam pressure of 200 psi and 370 degree F temperature. The product thus obtained is called “BRIXX”.

In case of the Ropar super thermal plant, the ash ponds were found to pollute groundwater and objections were raised the Punjab Pollution control Board and the PSEB was asked to take necessary steps’ to check this menace.

Also, the air pollution has been found to be acute around the Ropar thermal plant area and so it has been decided to raise the chimney height by 200 ft to correct the situation by dispersing the pollutants over a wider area so as to minimise their intensity.

Farmers in the areas surrounding the Ropar TP have complained of reduction in crop yields on account of ground water as well as atmospheric pollutants. This aspect needs to be studied by agencies like the PAU.

This scenario is true for all thermal plants, though the intensity of the problem could vary. For the new Ultra-Mega Thermal Plants coming up, one can only hope that all the necessary environmental clearances are obtained and implemented in letter and spirit to avoid an environmental catastrophe.

While Punjab enters the “Ultra-Mega Thermal” era to tackle its rising power needs, we should also plan ahead for disposal and utilisation of the mega-quantities of the solid wastes that would be obtained (flyash & FBA), so that environmental degradation is not obtained in the area of influence around these Ultra-Mega Thermal Plants.

Progress and growth at the cost of the environment is not an acceptable trade-off. Keeping in mind that the binding 100 per cent flyash usage regulations are still 7-9 years away from implementation, we hope that we can avoid the Bathinda scooterist’s plight being repeated in other cities and villages of Punjab — the green state.

Mauda Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) - Nagpur, in the making

BHEL bags Rs 2,100 cr power plant order from NTPC

BHEL bags Rs 2,100 cr power plant order from NTPC
BS Reporter / Mumbai December 24, 2008, 13:40 IST

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has bagged two orders for the supply and installation of the main plant equipment for Mauda Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) in Maharashtra in an international competitive bidding. Cumulatively valued at around Rs 2,100 cr, the contracts have been placed on BHEL by NTPC for setting up the 1000 mega watt steam generator and steam turbine generator packages at Mauda STPP, located in Nagpur. These units will add 24 mn units every day to the grid on commissioning.

"The orders were won by BHEL under international bidding, as its offers were found techno-economically the best. With these orders, NTPC has once again reposed confidence in BHEL's proven technological excellence and capability in executing projects of this magnitude," said the company in a statement.

BHEL’s scope of work in the contracts involves design, engineering, manufacture, supply and erection and commissioning of Steam Generators and Turbine Generators along with Associated Auxiliaries, Electrostatic Precipitators and state-of-the-art Controls and Instrumentation. The key equipment for the contracts will be manufactured at BHEL’s Haridwar, Trichy, Ranipet, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhopal and Jhansi Plants. The company’s Power Sector – Western Region will undertake erection and commissioning of the equipment.

BHEL manufactured sets are already operating at NTPC’s other projects in Singrauli, Korba, Ramagundam, Farakka, Vindhyachal, Simahadri, Rihand, Sipat, Kahalgaon, Talcher and Unchahar, said the company.