The Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has served a closure notice on the sponge iron plant with an installed capacity of 400 tonnes per day and the 14 MW co-generation plant of OCL Iron & Steel Ltd operating at Lamloi, Rajgangpur in Sundergarh district for failing to comply with the consent conditions and directives issued by the board from time to time.
The closure direction was issued after the officials of the pollution board's regional office at Rourkela found non-compliance during their visit to the plant on September 2, November 3 and December 21 last year.
It may be noted that the company was earlier served a showcause notice on July 15 last year under Section 21 and 31 (A) of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and under Section 25 and 33 (A) of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
The OSPCB found that most of the non-compliances and lapses cited in the showcause notice have not been rectified fully. It came to the conclusion that there was gross negligence on the part of the company to adhere to pollution control norms and ensure compliance with the board's directives.
The pollution board has now directed OCL Iron & Steel to intimate the date of stoppage of operations of its plant failing which it will be presumed that the company has violated this direction and appropriate legal action shall be initiated without giving further notice.
In its closure direction, the OSPCB has stated that the emission of particulate matter at the outlet of electro static precipitator of kiln-II of the sponge iron plant has exceeded the prescribed limit. Moreover, profuse emission was observed from the bag filters of product house, cooler discharge and intermediate bin.Similarly, the concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) at three out of four locations was found to be far above the prescribed limit of the board as observed during monitoring on September 2 last year
