Inaction over sludge removal hits Ranipet leather units

This follows the Centre informing the Vellore district Small and Tiny Industries Association to this effect three years ago. “Repeated entreaties that the present leather units were not to blame as all were attached to common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) failed to move the Centre,” said association president R Amirthakatesan. As the units were converting semi-finished leather to finished leather, there was not much effluent release as the CETPs follow the ZLD (Zero Liquid Discharge) concept, he added. 

“Any sludge resulting from the process is landfilled at a TN Pollution Control Board-approved premises in Gummidipoondi managed by the TN Waste Management Limited company” he added. 

However, enquiries revealed that the culprit was the state-owned TN Chemicals and Chromates which was launched in 1975 and closed 20 years later for various reasons. The unit was started to provide leather units sodium bichromate, chromium sulphate and sodium sulphate for processing leather. 

The unit’s closure resulted in 2.27 lakh MT sludge heaped in four hectares in the premises which released nearly 3,500 varieties of chemicals into the ground as discovered by an American Environment Department analysis in 2006. In 2014, a private company which visited the site for sludge removal said it would cost Rs 100 crore and take three years for total sludge removal. So, the onus was not on the leather units for the condition of the soil or the contamination of water sources in Ranipet, Amirthakatesan claimed.