Water Pollution Control
Water pollution control is achieved through administering conditions imposed in consent issued under the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act,, 1974. These conditions regulate the quality and quantity of effluent, the location of discharge and the frequency of monitoring of effluents.
Large and medium scale industries and a number of small scale units have put up effluent treatment plants. Through persuasion and, in extreme cases, coercion, the water pollution load from industries has been got reduced to about 40% of the 1974 levels. The surface and ground water monitoring conducted by the Board indicates that the water quality has improved over the years and that it is now, in general, reasonably good except for sewage contamination in the lower stretches of the rivers.
Air Pollution Control
The Board issues consent to air polluting industries with conditions to regulate the quality and quantity of emission and stipulates the frequency for monitoring the emissions. Under the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1984 consent of the Board is mandatory for making emissions to the atmosphere. The consent is extended only if there is compliance to consent conditions during the previous period. The air pollution load has been got reduced by about 50% from the 1984 levels.
Consent
to Establish/Operate
Integrated Clearance System
As all environmental segments are interrelated, environmental pollution control has to be done in an integrated and comprehensive manner. Conversion of one form of pollution into another form does not yield a holistic solution. For example, if a company installs a scrubber to comply with consent under the Air Act, the slurry waste must be considered in the consent under the Water Act and if there is an oil trap to comply with consent under Water Act, the disposal of the oil recovered has to be considered in the authorisation under the Hazardous Wastes Rules. The different consents/authorisation for effluent, emission and solid wastes need therefore be integrated to achieve overall compliance in all segments of environmental pollution control.
The Board in its 149th meeting decided to have integrated clearance procedure and proposed to the State Government necessary amendments to the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Rules and the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Rules. The State Govt. accepted the proposal of the Board and amended the Water Rules and the Air Rules vide notifications no. 43799/G3/05/H&FWD dated 9/6/2006 (SRO No. 435/2006 & 436/2006). The integrated application is of 5 types to cater to the following sources of pollution.
The above application forms are numbered as Form IVA, IVB, IVC, IVD & IVE under the Water Rules and the same forms have been notified under the Air Rules also but numbered as Form IA, IB, IC, ID & IE.
The applicant is at liberty to apply for consent in form in IV series or I series but has to mention therein which all clearances are being applied for. The Integrated Application is for the following clearances
The new procedure provides for combined application form for obtaining consents, registration and authorisation and include aspects of water pollution, air pollution, bio medical waste management, manufacture of plastic carry bags and hazardous waste handling and management.
Instead of separate application forms for obtaining consents (to establish and to operate) under the Air and Water Acts, authorisation under the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, registration under Plastic Rules and authorisation under the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, the industrial units will now require one integrated application form for clearance. For authorisations under the HW / BMW Rules and registration under the PM&U Rules, the Forms I under the HW Rules, BMW Rules, MSW Rules and PM&U Rules prescribed by the MoEF may be used and may be annexed and made part of the integrated application. Information required in Form/s I under HW, BMW Rules, MSW Rules and PM&U Rules need not be given there if the same information is already included in the integrated application. But Form 1 under the above Rules must be signed by the applicant. In respect of units which do not fall under the purview of HW, BMW, MSW Rules or PM&U Rules, it is not necessary to obtain those authorisation or Registration as the case may be.
The consents/authorisation/registration shall be issued only after overall compliance on all facets of environment.
The fees are payable in form of Demand Draft on any Nationalized bank at respective District office or Regional Office along with the filled up application form. Consent shall normally be for a period of three years. However, in case of Orange category, consent up to maximum period of six years and in case of Green category, consent up to maximum period of nine years shall be given if fees for those many years are remitted.
All industries / establishments including those who are having valid clearances are required to apply in the new form within 3 months for getting integrated clearance and integrated clearance can be issued to those who are having valid clearance after collecting application and balance fee.
To establish an industry with potential for water pollution prior consent (Consent to Establish) under the Water Act is to be obtained. If it also has air pollution potential, then Consent to Establish is to be obtained under the Air Act as well.
Before commissioning such a plant the industry should obtain Consent to Operate under the Water Act and/or the Air Act. The application form for Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate is Form IVA / IA, Form IVB / IB, Form IVC / IC, Form IVD / ID or Form IV E / 1E.
The application is to be submitted in triplicate through the Regional/District offices of the Board or through the Single Window Clearance Board along with the consent fee payable.
The application form is available at all offices of the Board and can also be downloaded from this site. The fee is to be remitted as DD in favour of Kerala State Pollution Control Board
Consent
to Establish
Consent to Establish is to be obtained prior to carrying out any work at the site proposed for the project. However Consent to Establish is issued even if construction work of the unit has been started provided:
The validity of Consent to Establish is two years. Consent to Establish should be renewed if the unit is not commissioned by then. If renewal is not sought within the validity period, fresh application has to be made to the Board.
Renewal
of Consent to Discharge/Operate
Validity of Consent to operate is for a minimum period of three years. Application for renewal of consent to Operate is to be submitted in the 4th month before the expiry of the consent. 25% of the prescribed consent fee is charged as penalty if application for renewal is submitted during the last three months of the validity period. If application is made after expiry of the validity period a fine of 50% of the consent fee is charged.
The application for renewal of Consent is Form IVA / IA, Form IVB / IB, Form IVC / IC, Form IVD / ID or Form IVE / IE. The forms are available for download from this site. The application shall be submitted along with the consent fee payable.
While scrutinizing the application the Board may call for clarification/information and all such applications will be deemed to have been made only from the date on which such clarification / information is received by the Board.
| Applying
for Consent to Establish For Consent to Establish site plan and lay out plan need not necessarily be elaborate. It is sufficient to submit detailed line sketch, preferably in A4 size. The anticipated effluent/emission quality, effluent/emission quantity and probable pollutants are to be submitted. Data from similar industries can be used if source and justification for projecting such data is provided. The applicant should indicate whether the outlet is located on land owned by the occupier. In case of only access to the land then consent of the owner of the land is to be produced.
|
