Chennai: City-based activists have alleged that the data presented in the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) prepared for Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd’s (TANGEDCO) 660MW proposed coal power expansion is false and shows the air quality as fine when it is toxic.
The report stated that not one of the 216 samples taken by TANGEDCO’s consultant, Ramky Enviro Engineers, registers levels of PM2.5 (particulate matter), which is highly indicative of dangerous air pollution and highly toxic respirable dust, within the permissible limit of 40 microgram/m3. As many as 216 samples were taken from nine localities in Ennore between July-September 2015 to get the clearance for proposed plant at the location.
The city-based NGO, Coastal Resource Center, in its press release, said that when they compared TANGEDCO’s EIA data with data published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for three city stations IIT, New Town, and Alandur, discrepancies were found.
While TANGEDCO claimed through its EIA data that air pollution never increased beyond 38.8mu g/m3, CPCB’s data shows 168.31mu g/m3 in IIT Madras, 1120.54 microgram/m3 in Alandur and 115.46 microgram/m3 in Manali town.
“If the EIA data is to be believed, the air in the Ennore Manali industrial cluster is cleaner than any part of the city, including IIT, Poes Garden, and Boat Club,” said Nityanand Jayaraman, Environmentalist.
Every marginal increase in the PM 2.5 increases death rates by 3 to 26 %, chances of childhood asthma by 16 %, chances of lung cancer by 36 % and heart attack by 44 %.
“There is an unusual and very suspect lack of variability in daily average pollutant levels. This is wholly inconsistent with what we know about how daily average pollutant levels vary from day to day, principally because of daily changes in cloud cover, temperature, humidity, and the wind,” said Dr. Mark Chernaik, Staff scientist at Environment Law Alliance Worldwide who reviewed the EIA.
Activists have asked the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to examine the data to see if the numbers are manipulated and set aside EIA data if found false. A public hearing is to be held tomorrow at Ennore. Prominent citizens, health officials, and environmentalists are to take part in the hearing.
