BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) on Monday came down heavily on the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) for not adhering to the pollution control norms and ordered closure of two process units. The Board asked the RSP management to stop operation of the Sintering Plant-I forthwith. Besides, it also directed immediate shutting down of the operation of the Medium Pressure (MP) Boiler No. 3. Besides, all the six High Pressure (HP) boilers would have to use mix gas as fuel for operation. Under no circumstances, coal shall be used as fuel in any of the HP boilers. Similarly, MP Boiler-I and II, which use coal and gas as fuel, have to keep the suspended particulate matter emission below 100 mg/Nm3, the Board’s order said. The boilers generate power and steam to run the blast furnace in a steel plant. The Board further directed RSP to operate the LD convertors No. 4 and 5 at reduced load while optimising the capacity of the existing Gas Cleaning Plant. The rest of the process units of RSP have been granted consent to operate up to March 31, 2012. The RSP has undertaken modernisation in a big way. But it has been functioning for the last two years without consent from the OSPCB. “The Board had been refusing to grant consent to operate to the RSP and its Captive Power Plant-I (CPP-I) since those did not meet the requisite pollution control stipulations. We have been constantly persuading them to adhere to the norms,’’ Member-Secretary Sidhanta Das said. The above units, he said, have been operating without valid consent since April 1, 2010 and April 1, 2008 respectively. The Board had slapped show-cause on the RSP earlier on August 2. Later in the month, RSP replied to the notice following which the Board carried out a verification of the claims made by the SAIL unit. Since the claims were not satisfactory, the OSPCB sent its the observations made during the inspection in October. RSP was given an opportunity of personal hearing on October 29 where all major issues on environmental management and pollution control were discussed threadbare. However, after making a fresh assessment of the present status of compliance, due to inadequacy of certain pollution control measures and chronic non-compliance at certain process areas, the Board ordered the closure and restrictions on Monday.APPEAL PLEA: The RSP, on its part, said, it is filing an appeal for reconsideration of closure of the MP Boiler in CPP-I since it has begun using premium quality coal which meets the OSPCB stipulation. A spokesperson said the Sintering Plant -I, which has been ordered for shutdown, will be closed for upgradation. There are two Sintering Plants in RSP while a third one, constructed as part of modernisation, is ready for commissioning in June 2012. “Our production will not be greatly affected,” the spokesperson added.
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