With just 30 out of the 130 chemical and pharmaceutical industrial units registered with the Central Treatment Storage Disposal Facility (TDSF), in response to the order to transfer the hazardous wastes to the landfill at Dindugal, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) is planning to issue warning notices to the defaulters.

APPCB is expected to announce May 15 as the deadline for the companies to transfer their stored wastes to the landfill. Failing to do so will invite closure notices from the department, warns, Trishya Chatterjee, member secretary, APPCB.

Opened five months back, TDSF, considered as India's largest chemical waste disposal facility, has so far attracted 16,000 tonnes of waste from about 30 companies functioning in the major chemical industrial zones of the state. The PCB is targeting another 4,000 tonnes of waste more to reach the landfill within a month from now, as the landfill has to be closed for monsoon. The required quantity of waste with which TSDF can seal the first layer is expected to be 25,000 tonnes and the agency expects to attain the target by the end of December 2002. The landfill will remain closed throughout monsoon season, as there is a risk of seepage of hazardous chemicals into the ground water.

Chatterjee disclosed that APPCB has traced 60,000 tonnes of hazardous waste material dumped by the industry within the factory premises alone. He points out that there is also a recurring generation of 50,000 tonnes of waste per annum. The quantity of waste that has reached the landfill is less than half of the total stored waste and the agency is trying to ensure that all the waste is transferred to the landfill within another year

"Thirty units are now transporting their wastes into the landfill. Totally we have identified 60,000 tonnes located in the premises of about 130 industries. Our immediate objective will be to take out 50% of the stored waste from the industries to the landfill," he said.

"We are giving May 15 deadline to the industries. Closure notices are to be issued to the units who are not keeping up with the deadline," he adds.

Chatterjee informed that TSDF has received Rs 2 crore Central Government grant a couple of weeks ago for setting up incinerator facilities in TSDF. A fuel blending facility is to be part of TSDF soon. While the total project cost is Rs 10 crore, government contribution would meet the expenses towards the civil works, land clearance, fencing etc for setting up the facility. The Rs 20 crore TSDF, constructed on a 200-acre land, is the country's biggest industrial waste disposal and hazardous waste treatment facility. The landfill, which is part of the facility, can handle the entire hazardous waste generated by the major chemical industrial zones of the state.

Chatterjee said that the waste would be converted into fuels, which will be sold to kilns. "All types of hazardous industrial wastes could be handled here. The total cost of the project will be about Rs.10 crores. Rest of the amount, in addition to the government share, will have to be raised by the company through loans. Within another year, TSDF will functioning in a full-fledged manner," he said. .

Out of the 200 acres of land, the operative area for the present is only seven acres on which a massive pit was dug with the bottom covered by one-metre-thick compressed clay. A 2-mm thick sheet of high-density polythylene covers the clay and a pipeline net lying underneath will immediately squeeze the rainwater and fluids in the waste and send out into a treatment plant side by. The fluids are solidified and dumped into the landfill.

Set up by a private firm Ramky Enviro Engineers Private Limited on BOT basis, TSDF has an annual capacity to handle 48,000 tonnes of industrial waste.

Chatterjee said that the TSDF is giving a considerate view of the industry's complaint about the high costs involved in associating with the project. He felt that TSDF would become economically viable only when it starts getting around 35000 tonnes of waste a year. The rates charged by the company will have to be on the higher unless it becomes a viable project, he said. It is known that the company is charging Rs 800 to Rs.1,300 per tonne of waste.

The entire land needed for the project was given on long-term lease to the company by the government. The transaction was carried out through Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).

TSDF is going to be extremely useful for the chemical industries located the districts of Medak, Rangareddy, Hyderabad, Nalgonda and Mahboobnagar.