A comprehensive action plan for cleaning up Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, will be put in place by this month, said Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Chairman S P Gautam.
“ There is contamination in the premises’ soil and ground water. Moreover, there are 390 tonnes of toxins already stored that need to be incinerated. It is scattered toxins and waste material that need to be cleaned up and we are coming up with a cleaning action plan by March,” said Gautam.
The other expert agencies are National Geophysical Research Institute, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.
The 1984 chemical disaster at Union Carbide factory in Bhopal left thousands dead and lakhs affected. Methyl isocyanate (MIC), a lethal gas, stored in tanks at the 80-acre plant escaped into the atmosphere, causing death and injuries.
Phase-1 of the clean-up action plan that involves collection and analysis of soil, water and residue samples, placing of all materials lying in bags in sheds in new bags, containers, and keeping the repacked material and covering with tarpaulin and placing it in a shed under security, is complete.
It is the second phase, i.e. tendering, that will start soon to see how far and deep is water contamination and what sort of remediation it requires. Experts, however, argue that incineration of the stored waste is not the only remediation measure.
“ The decontamination may take anywhere between five to 10 years as the entire clean up includes cleaning up of the stored waste besides the entire site. Also, solar evaporation points and ground water are to be decontaminated and that will require the government to spend huge amounts of money. Till then, we must wait for the proposals of the action plan,” said Chandra Bhushan, associate director, Centre for Science and Environment.
An expert agency will undertake these studies, besides doing the geomorphological (study of landforms), geohydrological (study of ground water in soil), edaphic (study of soil science) and other ecological evaluations.
