Vedanta Alumina gets violation notice
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COMMENTS 
Violations include failure to adhere to environment protection norms, unauthorised expansion of capacity to 6 million tones, and sourcing of bauxite from illegal mines. The company has until September 14 to submit its reply. An unsatisfactory explanation could result in closure of the refinery
One week after Vedanta Alumina’s application to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa was rejected, its refinery expansion project has been slapped with a show-cause notice by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. In a second notice, the ministry has asked the company to explain why the terms of reference for an environment impact assessment study for the plant’s expansion should not be withdrawn.
The plant was given environmental clearance on September 22, 2004, on condition that it did not require any forest land. Its illegal enclosure of forest land and the construction of a road using forest land invalidate the clearance. The refinery was allowed to go ahead with production even before the issue of the linked bauxite mine had been settled. The refinery has been sourcing bauxite from 14 mines, of which only one has environmental clearance; two others have been granted terms of reference to undertake an environmental impact assessment. The remaining 11 mines are illegal.
All this is a clear contravention. Additionally, the plant has not put in place the requisite groundwater quality monitoring mechanism. Its fugitive emissions in the lime and coal-handling area are not up to the mark.
The company was also taken to task for allegedly going ahead with a six-fold expansion of its refinery in Lanjigarh, even as the ministry was still appraising the project for clearance. In letters to the company the ministry asked why Vedanta’s existing 1-million-tonne-per-annum refinery should not be shut down, and its 2004 clearance revoked.
The ministry also pointed out that clearance was granted on condition that the refinery would source bauxite only from mines that had already been given clearance. However, the N C Saxena Committee, set up to investigate the project, found that at least 11 of the source mines did not have valid clearance.
Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh had, on August 24, announced a decision to issue notice to Vedanta for contravening the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The minister announced that the process of considering environmental clearance for the refinery’s expansion was being put on hold. The two notices issued by the ministry on August 31 have now put Vedanta’s Rs 14,000 crore investments under a cloud.
The company had gone in for a six-fold expansion of the refinery from a production capacity of 1 million tonnes to 6 million tonnes per annum. Vedanta filed for an application for expansion in August 2007. The terms of reference for a detailed impact assessment study were given in February 2008. The final report was submitted by the company in June 2009.
However, the environment appraisal committee asked for more details. It also undertook a site visit, which, after several postponements, took place in July 2010. The sub-committee of the expert appraisal committee found substantial construction for the expansion proposal. This was verified by the Saxena Committee in its report of August 2010. The expansion proposal is yet to be cleared by the environment appraisal committee.
Meanwhile, close on the heels of the notices from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, tension prevailed in Lanjigarh town following the retrenchment of around 3,000 workers at Vedanta’s alumina refinery.
The contract workers were appointed to complete a capacity expansion programme, part of which had been mandated to engineering major Larsen & Toubro. After the ministry raised objections about the validity of the expansion, it was stopped. The workers were protesting the sudden termination of their contracts.
Source: The Hindu, September 2, 2010
The Economic Times, September 2, 2010