Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), which will submit its response to the showcause notice of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on Wednesday, would contest the ministry's ambiguous stance on grant of environmental clearance to projects.
The MoEF in its latest circular dated August 19, 2010 has stated that a number of project proponents have started work on the capacity expansion of their existing projects without prior environmental clearance. The ministry has asserted that all projects need to have prior environmental clearance for undertaking capacity expansion work.
VAL is sore over this latest circular of MoEF and has pointed out that it contradicts the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.
"According to EIA notification of 2006, any project proponent who wishes to undertake capacity expansion work without any change in process or technology does not require environmental clearance and the same applies to VAL as the company is using the same technology and processes for our capacity expansion work. We will raise this point in our response to the MoEF showcause notice which we will submit to the ministry on Wednesday”, Mukesh Kumar, chief operating officer (Lanjigarh), VAL told Business Standard.
The MoEF had slapped the showcause notice on VAL on August 31 wherein it had also stated that 11 out of 14 mines in Jharkhand supplying bauxite to the company were without environmental clearance. In this case too, VAL stated that the ministry was not acting in conformity with its circular dated July 2, 2010 according to which all mines which are in existence for over 20 years do not need environmental clearance and only need renewal of mining leases.
"The mines in Jharkhand which are supplying bauxite to us have been in operations before 1994 and hence they do not need any environmental clearance. Four of these mines are working under deemed extension. Apart from VAL, these mines are also supplying bauxite to Hindalco Industries and many other refractory and cement units”, said Kumar.
VAL has already invested Rs 9000 crore so far on its refinery project at Lanjigarh. It has firmed up a plan to source bauxite from Gujarat and will be signing a pact with the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) within a day or two for supply of 0.5 million tonnes of bauxite over the next 3-4 months to VAL's Lanjigarh plant.
In its showcause notice to the company dated August 31, the MoEF had questioned as to why the environmental clerance accorded to the company's refinery project on September 22, 2004 should not be revoked and direction for closure of the one mtpa refinery should not be issued.
The ministry has served the showcause notice on the company for proceeding on the construction activity for the expansion of the refinery from one mtpa to six mtpa and that of its Captive Power Plant from 75 MW to 300 MW without obtaining prior environmental clearance. It had asked the company to respond to the showcause notice within 15 days.
The notice apprehended that the unregulated expansion of the refinery could cause long-term ecological and environmental impacts due to fugitive emissions which included mercury and generation of red mud beyond the approved activities.
The construction of new projects or undertaking expansion or modernization of existing projects shall be undertaken only after the prior environmental clearance from the Centre or from the State Level Impact Assessment Authority duly constituted by the Central government as per the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006.
