New report highlights mismanagement of fly ash

A new report released Wednesday has flagged the continuous mismanagement of fly ash produced by thermal power plants in the country

A new report released Wednesday has flagged the continuous mismanagement of fly ash produced by thermal power plants in the country. Researchers analysed eight fly ash related accidents that occurred in the last two years, across five states, and found a common thread of “persistent violations” and “neglect”. Despite the scale of damage to communities and the ecology, criminal prosecution has been initiated in only one of these incidents, the authors note.

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The report has been authored and reviewed by members of three organisations -- including ASAR Social Impact Advisors, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), and Manthan Adhyayan Kendra -- on behalf of the Fly Ash Watch, “described as a collective of individuals and organisations working on the social, environmental, and human health impacts of fly ash on communities and ecosystems.”

Fly ash is a byproduct of coal combustion, which generates more than 70 percent of India’s electricity. In 2018-19, the country produced 217 million tonnes of it, up 76 percent of from

Coal ash is typically mixed with water and stored in large ash ponds, lined with dykes to hold the slurry in place. These dykes frequent collapse, flooding nearby farms, fields and even homes with toxic ash, which is known to pollute soil, air, water, damage crops, and cause cardio-pulmonary illnesses.

“Causes cited for the accidents in official reports range from substandard construction of ash dykes, hydraulic pressure induced by excessive rainfall, to ‘overflow’ in storage units. It is apparent, however, that subpar technical design and a lack of consistent monitoring and revaluation of ash storage methods and structures are the larger issues at hand,” the authors note.

Sehr Raheja, co-author, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra said, “The case studies are of structurally unstable ash ponds and leaking ash slurry pipelines that have caused the farms and areas to be covered in toxic coal ash. This can be seen across the incidents in different states.”

The report assesses eight such accidents in Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (which reported three instances in two years), and presents the aftermath of ecological damage, non-compliance with law, non-payment of dues to regulatory authorities and affected communities, poor clean-ups and environmental assessments, protracted legal proceedings conducted in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), and inadequacy of ash disposal infrastructure.

For example, on August 7, 2019, the ash pond of the Essar TPS breached, trapping six children in their homes, covering more than 100 acres of land in ash slurry, and destroying kharif crops of 500 farmers. A resident of Amelia Village in Singrauli, MP, shared that some of the fly ash is still lying in the fields while another from Sidhikala village, Singrauli, said that some wells within the vicinity of his village were still covered with ash, rendering them unfit for use. Compensation has allegedly not been disbursed in full to many of the affected people, who are now growing wheat in the ash-laden fields with reportedly lower yields.

The authors go on to prescribe deterrent and remedial actions, ranging from criminal prosecution, mandatory routine technical assessment of ash ponds, and increasing transparency and public access to information. The report exhorts civil society to hold relevant authorities to account. Medha Kapoor, co-author, ASAR said, “All the flyash breaches are strung by a common thread, which is lack of industrial will towards transparency, accountability, compliance; and a governance system with law enforcement, penalization, and monitoring that routinely fall short.”

The Union environment ministry on April 22 published the draft notification to utilise fly ash or legacy ash which is stored by thermal power stations. The notification extended the deadline for TPS’ to ensure “100% utilisation of fly ash by coal- or lignite-based thermal power plants” by 3 to 5 years and “sustainability of fly ash management system” among other provisions, and is open for public feedback for a period of two months from April 22.

Shripad Dharmadhikary, Policy Researcher, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra questioned the provision on the term utilisation in the draft notification.“The draft notification as it exists does not make any distinction between the use or utilisation of fly ash, and its disposal. It’s like dumping fly ash on low lying land and dumping ash in abandoned mine voids is called ‘utilisation’, whereas it is nothing more than mere disposal of ash,” he said, highlighting the need to have more safeguards for disposal of this type of waste.

Debi Goenka, executive trustee, Conservation Action Trust, said: “Since ash it is not treated like a raw material that can be used for manufacture of cement and concrete, it is invariably dumped in ash ponds, which are not lined to prevent seepage. As thermal power plants grow older or upgrade their capacity, the height of the dykes are raised without proper engineering because land availability becomes a problem. And even if stored in properly engineered ash ponds, shortage of water in summer results in the ash flying around for several kilometres and poisoning the environment. A better way is to mandate that dry fly ash is stored in silos and transported in air tight bulkers. This would also ensure that the fly ash can be productively used for manufacture of cement, concrete. The MoEF has to recognize that 100% utilization of ash will remain a pipe dream. Wanton dumping should result in prosecution and heavy financial penalties.”