Governor M C Bhandare has asked Angul district authorities to test the water released from the ash pond of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) at Angul by Monday next to find out whether it contains any hazardous polluting material.
Bhandare gave this instruction when a kid of Sevasrama School in village Tentulei complained of release of contaminated water from the Nalco ash pond, which has polluted the water sources in the area causing diseases among the local villagers.
Governor attended a function organised at Sevasrama School which was also attended by the deaf, dumb and blind students from nearby schools.
Meanwhile, the Nalco authorities assured that they are committed to safeguard of the environment around its plant at Angul. Responding to reports in a section of the media that the company has been served notice by the pollution control authorities to implement a time-bound long term plan for disposal of ash from its Captive Power Plant (CPP) at Angul, Nalco authorities clarified that a High Power Committee had visited Angul on October 12 to study the stability and safety of Nalco’s ash ponds.
Presently, the height of ash pond dykes is being increased from 104 meters to 107.5 meters. With this, the ash slurry could safely be stored for approximately 2 more years. Moreover, there is no plan to enhance the height of dykes beyond 107.5 meters.
For future requirement, the company has been allotted a mined-out abandoned quarry of Mahanandi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Bharatpur area, which is approximately 25 kms away from Nalco’s CPP, for ash filling. After evaluating the technologies available for back-filling the void and reclamation of the land, Nalco has initiated a time-bound action plan. This is being apprised to the statutory authorities for necessary clearances.