Over 6,500 kg of Union Carbide waste incinerated under Phase-3 of trial

Indore, Mar 11 (PTI) More than 6,500 kilograms of toxic waste from Bhopal's defunct Union Carbide factory has been incinerated under the third phase of its trial incineration in Pithampur industrial area of Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district, officials said on Tuesday.

As part of the plan to dispose of a total of 337 tonnes of waste from Union Carbide factory, the site of the 1984 industrial disaster, the hazardous material was on January 2 transported to a waste disposal plant operated by a private company in Pithampur, about 250 km from the state capital.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed for the trial incineration of this waste to be conducted in three rounds in strict adherence to the safety norms. It had also asked the authorities to present a report on it on March 27.

Giving details of the third trial, an official said, "The feeding of Union Carbide waste (into the incinerator) began at 7.41 pm on March 10 at the feed rate of 270 kilograms per hour. By 8 pm on March 11, a total of 6,570 kilograms of waste was incinerated." Emissions during the incineration are being monitored through Online Continuous Emission Monitoring System (OCEMS), which are within the prescribed standards, he said.

The air quality has been found to be within the prescribed standards in Tarpura, Chirakhan and Bajrangpura villages, the official said.

The first round of incineration of 10 tonnes of the factory waste began at the disposal site on February 28 and ended on March 3. The first round of trial lasted for about 75 hours, during which 135 kg of waste was dumped in the plant's incinerator every hour, he said.

In the second round of the trial, the waste was disposed of at a rate of 180 kg per hour. The second round ended on March 8.

On the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, highly toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide's pesticide factory.

At least 5,479 people were killed and thousands of others suffered physical disabilities in the world's worst industrial disaster.

After the waste from the factory was brought to Pithampur, protests broke out in the industrial town. Protesters expressed apprehensions of damage to the human population and the local environment due to the waste disposal.

However, the state government has allayed their fears and asserted adequate arrangements have been made for safe disposal of the industrial waste in Pithampur.