Union Carbide waste incineration: 2nd round of trial run likely to start on March 5

Indore: The second round of the trial incineration of the waste linked to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district is likely to begin from Wednesday, officials said.

Preparations for the second round continued on Tuesday.

As part of the plan to dispose of 337 tonnes of waste from the defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, it was transported to the disposal plant run by a private company in Pithampur, about 250 km from the state capital, on January 2.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court had ordered that trials for the disposal of this waste be conducted in three rounds with adherence to all safety norms, and also directed that reports of all three tests are to be presented before the court on March 27.

Srinivas Dwivedi, regional officer of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), told PTI, "The first round of incineration of 10 tonnes of Union Carbide factory waste at the Pithampur waste disposal plant began on February 28 and ended on March 3 (Monday). The plant's incinerator and other equipment are being cleaned in preparation for the second round of trial." After the cleaning process gets over, the second round of trial can begin from Wednesday (March 5), under which another batch of 10 tonnes of Union Carbide factory waste will be incinerated, he said.

The first round of trials lasted for about 75 hours, and during this time 135 kg of waste was dumped in the plant's incinerator every hour, he said, adding that during the second round of trial, 180 kg of waste will be dumped in the incinerator every hour.

According to the State Pollution Control Board, in the first round of waste disposal, the emissions of particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and total organic carbon from this plant were found to be within the standard limits.

According to the state government, the waste from the Union Carbide factory includes soil from the premises of this closed unit, reactor residues, Sevin (pesticide) residues, naphthal residues and "semi-processed" residues.

The SPCB says that as per the scientific evidence, the effect of Sevin and naphthal chemicals in this waste has now become "almost negligible".

According to the board, at present there is no presence of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas in this waste and it also does not contain any kind of radioactive particles.

On the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, a highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. At least 5,479 people were killed and thousands were crippled. It is considered as one of the world's biggest industrial disasters.

After the waste from the factory responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy was brought to Pithampur, there have been several protests in this industrial area. The protesters have expressed fears of harm to humans and the environment due to the disposal of this waste, which the state government has completely rejected.

The government says that there are adequate arrangements for safe disposal of Union Carbide factory waste in the disposal unit at Pithampur.