Despite uranium traces, green body recommends nod to waste plant

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, January 18

The state-level environment impact assessment authority of the Ministry of Environment and Forests has recommended its expert appraisal committee to grant environmental clearance to the Municipal Council, Ferozepur, for establishing an integrated municipal solid waste management facility at plant at Bir Chahal village in the Faridkot district.

The recommendation was made despite the fact that uranium traces in groundwater at the proposed site have been found beyond permissible limit.

The monitoring of groundwater with respect of uranium has been done and as per the results, the concentration of uranium has been found to be 155 parts per billion (ppb) against the permissible limit of 60 ppb. The sample of groundwater was drawn from the bore-well of a nearby the site in September, 2014. A total of 25 KLD groundwater is needed to establish the plant.

The plant will consist of an engineered sanitary landfill facility, a RDF plant and a compost plant. It can decompose 350 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day and cater to 19 municipal areas falling in Moga, Faridkot, Muktsar, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts producing 281 tonnes of waste per day. The plant will operate for 330 days in a year.

The Ferozepur local body, the executing agency, has proposed to set-up the plant on 18 acres, which, as per the figures submitted by them, is adequate only up to 2019 keeping in view of the pace of growing population. It will expand the plant in its second phase on another 19 acres, for which, it has requested the secretary of the local bodies department to allot additional land.