Opposition mounts for new power plant in Ennore

The public hearing conducted by the district administration and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) ahead of TANGEDCO’s 660mw super critical power plant, which is proposed as a replacement for the recently decommissioned 450mw plant in Ennore Thermal Power Station, saw stiff opposition from the public. 

The public opposed the move, citing that the already polluted region of Ennore cannot handle the load of yet another power plant. TANGEDCO and NTECL operate about 3,300mw of coal power plants while an additional 6,600mw is proposed to be set up in the vicinity. In addition, the fishing community opposed the plant, as recent violations by other power plants in the region had polluted the Kosasthalaiyar River, the estuary and the sea, resulting in a fall in catch and affecting the livelihoods of hundreds of fishermen. 

At the hearing presided by the Tiruvallur District Collector, E Sundaravalli, and Vasudevan, District Environmental Engineer, Tiruvallur, TNPCB, D Selvarajan, Office-bearer of the Kattukuppam Fishing Village Association, recalled a time when the Ennore  creek was 10-feet wide. The 70-year-old reminisced, “I used to go fishing with my father and back then, the Ennore creek was around 10 feet wide. We used to get into the water, which was clean. Today, the size of the creek has shrunk to 1.5 feet. Once the power plants came here, they have been using water from the sea and discharging it back, without cooling, into the river. The fish resources in the river has rapidly declined and many commercially valuable species such as mud-crab have been lost. Livelihoods have been destroyed because of this. We want the officials to clean our creek and river, to restore our livelihoods, instead of setting up another plant that will only diminish our resources.” Nityanandam, a fisherman from Nettukuppam, said, “During the three odd months of fishing season, it’s hard to earn due to poor quantity of catch. How do we make a living?” 

Donald A, a resident in Ennore, who doesn’t belong to the fishing community, corroborates this fact. “Over the last 40 years, I have seen the degradation of this locality, which was earlier a beautiful place with quaint fishing hamlets. The groundwater has been extracted for  constructing these plants and now, one must go to 50-60 feet depth to get water. The water has high iron content and hard to consume,” he added. 

Environmentalist Saravannan K, who hails from the fishing community, said that the existing power plants are flouting environmental norms, every single day. “These power plants should cool the water before releasing it into the waterbody. But every day, hot water is released, wrecking the environment. There is an ash pond near the creek, which is a violation. The pipelines carrying the fly ash slurry are badly maintained and in the leaky areas, this toxic substance falls into the river. Instead of checking the already existing violations and remedying them, there is a proposal for yet another power plant in an area, which cannot sustain any more such structures,” he pointed out. 

Arun Selvam, a member of community environmental monitoring committee, said that a cumulative environmental impact assessment should be done, before proceeding with this power plant. “Ennore is already overloaded with industries and power plants. A cumulative environmental impact assessment, which studies the carrying capacity of a locality, should be done, before giving clearance for this project,” he concluded.  

Environmentalists and scientific experts pointed out that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) not only fudged the air quality data, but also omitted various critical factors including technical details, socio-economic and health impact on the local communities.

K Vishnu Mohan Rao, a member of Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), pointed out that the EIA does not provide a detailed breakup of the environment management plan (EMP). “The EMP is the core component of any power plant, since it gives the public details on how they will prevent pollution of the environment. The EIA mentions that 10 per cent of the project cost, which works out to Rs 48 crore per year, will be used for EMP but there is no detailed plan. Technical details too are hazy – the EIA mentions the use of previous ash pond, which catered to the 440mw power plant. But with the proposed power plant being of 660mw, will they extend the ash pond or what will be done to accommodate the extra load?” he questioned. 

Environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman said that there is no plan for disposal of decommissioned power plant. “Since this is a replacement power plant project, how will the hazardous materials be handled or disposed? The EIA doesn’t even take into consideration the impact of the plant on the fishermen and their livelihoods,” he added.