Now, submit complaint for remediation of areas hit by toxic substances

Bengaluru: People can now submit complaints to the local government body or the district administration about the contamination of the environment by hazardous activities like mining or dumping of radioactive waste and seek remediation of the same, as per the new rules notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

The Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules issued via notification dated July 25, applies to four types of activities that damage the environment. Radioactive waste, mining operations, pollution of the sea by oil or oily substance and solid waste from dump sites (unscientific dumpyards and landfills).

The contaminated sites can be identified by the local body or district administration on its own or on receipt of a complaint from the public. Under the law the jurisdictional local bodies have to list all such areas as suspected contaminated sites on a centralised online portal. The updated list of such sites should be sent to the respective state pollution control board (SPCB).

Information available through enforcement of the existing laws, studies done by government agencies, factors like proximity of a place to activities that increase the risk of contamination and other factors that the authority considers appropriate.

The SPCB, besides getting the list of contaminated sites from the local bodies and district administrations, will look into the contaminated sites in the industrial premises through consent monitoring mechanism. "The state board on its own or through a reference organisation, undertakes preliminary site assessment of the suspected contaminated site by sampling and analysis within 90 days from the date of receipt of such list," as per the new rules.

The SPCB will have 30 days to list the site as a 'probable' contaminated site or delist it from the list of 'suspected' sites.

"The state board shall furnish such list of probable contaminated sites and investigated sites to the central board on the centralised online portal, within 30 days from the date of completion of the preliminary site assessment," the rule says.

Remediation work has to begin three months from the publication of the contaminated lists. During this time, the person responsible for the contamination has to be identified. The person will have six months to submit a plan for remediation.

The preliminary and detailed assessment meets will be funded through the Environment Protection Fund. It will be recovered from the person responsible later.