KC Valley water conforms to eco norms: Govt tells HC

The state government on Wednesday submitted to the Karnataka High Court that the quality of treated water supplied under the KC Valley project meets the surface water standards prescribed under the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986.

A division bench headed by the Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari was hearing a public interest litigation challenging the KC Valley project on the ground that the treated water from Bengaluru was polluting groundwater in Kolar, causing health problems to local people.

In the last hearing, the state government had submitted the results of the laboratory analysis of water samples after secondary treatment.

The memorandum submitted by the government advocate said that on September 11, the court had permitted the government to pump the treated water from jack well 1 at KC Valley to jack well 2 (located at Bellandur Amanikere village) to enable the authorities collect the water sample for analysis. The samples were sent to lab set up by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and the Environmental Health and Safety Research and Development Centre.

The government counsel further added that the government was not releasing water for irrigation, but was only facilitating recharging of ground water. The court directed the petitioners’ counsel to submit their response to the the report submitted by the state government. The hearing was adjourned to Thursday.