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Company mooted for tannery waste disposal

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, March 19

THE Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. T.R. Baalu, has asked the leather tanneries of Vellore district to start a company specially for the purpose of evacuating the treated effluents to the sea through a pipeline laid along the Palar River bed.

Speaking at a meeting held at the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) here, he said that once the tanneries were set up and the capital funding was organised then his Ministry would give the environmental clearance for the project. He said this in response to the statement made by Mr. M.M. Hashim, Chairman, Council for Leather Exports (CLE), that despite the leather industry coming forward to find the resources for the Rs. 180 crores, there was no State Government agency willing to own it.

Mr. Hashim said that the tanneries of Tamil Nadu were keen on finding a solution to the problem of high total dissolved solids in the effluents. The industry was implementing reverse osmosis and the high rate transpiration system (HRTS) on pilot scale.

Further, to find a solution, the industry was suggesting the relocation of the beamhouse process to a selected site near the coast, or the project for evacuation through a pipeline along the river bed, he said.

According to him, the leather industry in Tamil Nadu is being targeted for criticism despite it having taken many steps to clean up its act. It has even resulted in an increase of five to 10 per cent on the cost of production.

The CLRI Director, Dr. T. Ramasami, said the target was to minimise environmental risk for the tannery sector to near zero by 2005. For this, an action plan was prepared by a committee headed by the Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board, which was accepted by MoEF in January.

He said the problem was to get the value of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the treated effluent water to the level of 2,100 ppm. The value that is being obtained is between 7,000 and 8,000 ppm. Even if salt is not used in the tanning process it is diffi cult to get TDS below 4,000 ppm.

The workable option to sort this problem is to have the pipeline project, he suggested. Across the world tannery effluents is mixed with sewage to treat and dispose.