KARACHI: Dust emission of industrial concern high: Sepa
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 14: The concentration of dust being released by the Dadabhoy Cement Industries Limited (DCIL) is at least eight times more than the permissible limits – known as National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) in technical parlance — prescribed under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act.
According to sources, the sampling was done by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) officials during their visit to the factory in April 2007.
Meanwhile, Fazal Dadabhoy of the DCIL, in response to a story that appeared in the June 13 edition of Dawn, has said that the DCIL is registered under the SMART programme initiated by the government and is fulfilling all requirements under it. He said that Sepa had also given a certificate on June 17, 2006 saying that “no significant pollution is being released from (the) DCIL and (it) is free from pollution.”He has also released a June 17, 2004 Sepa certificate saying: “This is to certify that M/S DCIL is registered under (the) Self Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) and regularly submitting monitoring reports of air emissions and effluent every month to this office for review. As per the data available under SMART the DCIL meets (the) National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) and there is no significant negative impact on (the) surroundings of DCIL.”
Mr Dadabhoy has also given a June 17, 2006 Sepa letter to DCIL saying that “(A) Sepa team comprising deputy director (Monitoring), Assistant director (Air) with two experts of Sindh University’s Centre of Environmental Sciences visited your factory at Nooriabad and analysed from kiln exhaust your cement unit particulate matter. According to the university’s CES laboratory report the particulate matter of your factory are 267 mg/Nm3, which are less than the NEQS. …. Hence no significant pollution is being released in the effluent etc from DCIL and it is free from pollution.”
It is not clear why the DCIL chose not to mention the results of an updated test conducted by Sepa.
Officials in April 2007 found that the Dadabhoy Cement factory was releasing more amount of dust than was allowed under the NEQS. The sampling was done on April 19, 2007 and the report was prepared on April 21, 2007.
The test results prepared by the Sepa’s Environmental Monitoring Laboratory say that “dust concentration/result is 4,100 mg/Nm3, whereas the permissible limit prescribed under the NEQS is 500mg/Nm3.” The results show that the factory is releasing more than eight times the dust than is allowed under the NEQS.
The test results have been prepared by Sepa officials – S. M. Yahya (Senior Scientific Officer), Zulfiqar Ali (Senior Chemist), Jehangir Asad (Chemist), Mir Mureed Talpur (Chemist) and Ashique Ali Langah (Scientific officer).
Meanwhile, a former Sepa director, Iqbal Saeed Khan, called Dawn and wondered why the provincial environment watchdog was not sending the DCIL’s case to the Environmental Tribunal considering that the industrial concern’s emissions are more than the permissible NEQS limits.
