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Management Irresponsibility plus weak monitoring by MoEF&CC: Committee, Vizag gas leak

The Committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal, pointed out the liability of LG Polymers and the shortcomings of the Pollution Control Boards as well as lacunae in regulatory framework of the GOI ministry on environment and climate change

NGTImage Courtesy:newindianexpress.com

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on May 8, took suo moto cognizance of the styrene gas leak that occurred on May 7 in Vizag’s LG Polymers plant located in R.R. Venkatpuram village. The gas leak claimed more than 10 lives and affected over 1000 persons in the vicinity. The NGT bench headed by Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel with two other members, Justice SK Singh and Dr. Nagin Nanda, identified the damage this may have caused to the environment and habitat and imposed strict liability of the incident on LG Polymers.

The order dated May 8 of the Tribunal constituted a 6 member committee headed by Justice B. Seshasayana Reddy, former judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court and further comprising of V Rama Chandra Murthy, Former Vice Chancellor, Andhra University; Pulipati King, Head of Chemical Engineering Department, Andhra University; Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB); Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and Head of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Vizag.

The Committee’s findings are a sharp indictment on the management as also the statutory monitoring mechanisms. Specifically, the Committee recommends that Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) along with CPCB and states PCBs need to revamp monitoring mechanisms and need to prioritise the projects where potential environmental degradation is high on account of nature of activity as well as area being ecologically sensitive. Monitoring must be twice a year and not once in four-five years. Inadequate compliance mechanisms defeat environmental principle of sustainable development says the Committee in its findings.

The District magistrate, Vishakhapatnam, and Regional Office, Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (PCB) were directed to provide logistical support to the Committee to enable their fact-finding and reporting. The Committee was directed to specifically report on the following:

a. The sequence of events;

b. Causes of failure and persons and authorities responsible therefor;

c. Extent of damage to life, human and non-human; public health; and environment – including, water, soil, air;

d. Steps to be taken for compensation of victims and restitution of the damaged property and environment, and the cost involved;

e. Remedial measures to prevent recurrence

f. Any other incidental or allied issues found relevant.

The committee, filed an interim report on May 17 in which it opined that, “the Company did not take proper care of the storage tank resulting in auto polymerization of styrene releasing excess heat which escaped from the goose-neck and dip hatch in the form of vapour. It is also mentioned that the unit was operating without the requisite EC. The State Pollution Control Board (PCB) had no clarity in the matter while granting the statutory consents without EC.”

The Committee observed that there is rampant violation of Environmental Clearance (EC) conditions and that in absence of adequate mechanisms such violations are bound to continue defeating the environmental principle of precautionary and sustainable development. The Committee further noted the observations of Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Environmental Clearance and Post Clearance Monitoring 2016 in which reasons for shortfalls in monitoring of environmental parameters were attributed to inadequate staff, inadequate database, not assigning clear responsibility for post EC monitoring, absence of monitoring at regular intervals particularly for critically polluted areas.

Cause of incident

Further, the report stated that the Committee was of the view that the leakage was cause due to the following reasons:

1. Insufficient Tertiary Butyl Catechol (IBC, used as inhibitor to ureic/polymerization at lower temperatures) concentration in styrene tank due to unavailability of IBC in the plant.

2. There is no monitoring system for dissolved oxygen in the vapour space which might have fallen down below 6%.

3. The tank has no provision of monitoring temperatures at lop layers of the storage.

4. Refrigeration system was not being operated fir 24 hours.

5. Gross human failure and negligence of the Person in-charge of the plant and maintenance personnel of the storage tanks.

Cause of failures on part of LG Polymers

The report also narrates the shockingly irresponsible decision of the management of the industrial unit which, after being closed on March 24 due to the nationwide lockdown, decided to resume operations on May 7, without due precautions being taken (“Causes of failures and authorities responsible thereof”. The leakage started in early hours of May 7.

The Committee pointed out step by step, how the leakage was caused due to chemical reactions in the tank and established the liability of the industry, which is reflected in the following points, which are extracts from the report:

The leaked tank does not have any provision for measuring the vapour space temperature. Due to this, building-up of temperatures in top surface could not noticed by the industry. This reflects the clear cut case of negligence on Industry part.

The unit’s inability to access personnel protective equipment in a timely manner, safety response preparedness of the site had impact in the early stages of safety operations.

The public siren system also could not be activated as it was manual and in an area rendered inaccessible by the vapour cloud else people in surrounding areas could have been alerted quickly and lives saved.

Mitigation of the impact could have been more effective had the chillers servicing Tank M6 been running.

There was also no automated sprinkler arrangement for vapour loss as this had never been anticipated; the fire water sprinklers had to be manually activated.

With the experience world over of Styrene, it takes considerable amount of idle time to have polymerization inside tank if effective inhibition and chilling is maintained. The unit failed to assess this situation due lack in handling experience by trained man-power

The report concluded that the root cause of the leakage to be lack of experience of LG Polymers India and their Korean principal. LG Chem, in monitoring and maintaining full tanks of styrene that were idled for a long period of several weeks without operation.

Further, the Committee also pointed out the “accountability for lapses on part of the Industry (LG Polymers), which rest with Managing Director of the unit, Certified Safety Officer, Safety Department, and Production Department. The role of issuing necessary safety certificate to the industry, the periodic inspections is the primary responsibility of Department of Industries, Factories and Boilers.”

Recommendations

It is Statutory Bodies that need to follow due dillgence. Have they ? NEERI has been asked to conduct an inquiry to calculate the actual cost for environmental damage and restoration so the same may be recovered from the industry. Further the Committee also suggested that the government, apart from the Rs. 1 crore compensation announced for the families of the deceased, should also compensate victims on ventilator support with Rs. 10 lakhs, and victims hospitalized but not on life-support with Rs. 1 lakh each and this will be in addition to the entire expenses of their hospitalization, critical care and recovery, which will be borne by the government.

The report further gave a long comprehensive list of recommendations for remedial measures to avoid recurrence which included hazard identification and evaluation in the community, Preparation of Guiding Principles for Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response for onsite and offsite emergency plans, detailed study of the risk assessment and disaster management studies and so on.

Further the Committee also conducted a public consultation meeting with NGOs and residents of affected villages and the some pertinent suggestions were also incorporated in the report. Some of these suggestions include:

  • Compensation to be paid by both company and government
  • Company to conduct local public awareness campaigns about Do’s/ Don’ts during emergency
  • Material auditing, safety inspection reports shall be made online for public
  • All the affected families should be given identity cards and Health cards by the Government and the expenditure on medical bills shall be borne by the unit.
  • The L.G. Polymers company management should be prosecuted under relevant sections Cr.P.C.
  • All companies should have Public Addressing system, so that the public can be warned during the Disaster
  • All factories should have mitigation plans for gas leakage solvent fire and should have emergency ward with medical staff for treatment

Responsibility of Ministry and government agencies

The report also highlights how the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) along with CPCB and states PCBs need to revamp monitoring mechanisms and need to prioritise the projects where potential environmental degradation is high on account of nature of activity as well as area being ecologically sensitive; whereby monitoring will have to be more intensive and at higher frequency. The Committee stated that the present scenario of monitoring once in 4.5 years and planned modification resulting in monitoring in 2.5 years is farce and does not meet the requirement   of law by any standards.

The Committee also stated in the report that MoEF&CC even failed tomention the percentage of compliance since there is no such data available with them. The Committee viewed these remedial actions as inalienable constitutional obligations. The report stressed upon, over and over against, on the importance of strong compliance mechanisms for EC which is a precautionary principle in tandem with right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. “We place on record our disapproval for the present sorry state-of-affairs and expect meaningful improvement,” said the report. The Committee recommended that all Category A projects be monitored at least twice a year and the rest be monitored at least once a year.

The observations of the Bench

On the hearing held on June 1, the bench took this report on record and observed that the company operated without Environmental Clearance (EC) and the State PCB on account of its ignorance of law or otherwise gave ‘Consent to Establish’ and ‘Consent to Operate’ in violation of law. It further observed that burden of proof is on the company to show that it has no liability, since overwhelming material point towards its liability.

While stressing on remedial measures, the bench took the view that there is need for rehabilitation plan utilizing the interim and further compensation and “regulatory framework needs to be reviewed and strengthened, apart from identifying steps to ensure compliance of laid down safety norms and laying down further norms and procedure to avoid recurrence of such failures in future”.

The bench gave further directions as follows:

  • The amount of Rs. 50 crores deposited by the Company with the District Magistrate, Vishakhapatnam will stand appropriated towards part liability and interim compensation to be spent for restoration of the environment and compensation for victims in accordance with the restoration plan to be prepared.
  • Restoration plan may be prepared by a Committee comprising two representatives each of MoEF&CC, CPCB and three representatives of State Government to be named by the Chief Secretary within two months from today
  • Final compensation to be assessed by Committee comprising representatives of MoEF&CC, CPCB and NEERI, which shall be constituted within 2 weeks and it shall give its report within 2 months.
  • The Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh may identify and take appropriate action against persons responsible for failure of law in permitting the Company to operate without statutory clearances within two months and give a report to this Tribunal
  • If the Company decides to recommence operations, the same shall be brought to the notice of the Tribunal
  • The MoEF&CC may also constitute an Expert Committee to suggest ways and means to revamp monitoring mechanism to check and prevent violation of environmental norms and preventing any such recurrence in future in any of the establishments dealing with hazardous chemicals; an Action Taken Report to be submitted in this regard within 3 months.

The next hearing in the case is now on November 3.

The complete order can be read here.

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