Concept of Facility Siting in India

Source: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre reports, Environment Protection Act, Economic Times. Aug 17, 2014.

Facility siting involves understanding the tricky balance of engineering, environmental, economic and
social concerns. High modernism has induced to tremendous technological achievements.
Infrastructure & facilities such as nuclear power plants, electric power dams, wind farms, oil
refineries, power transmission lines, railways for high speed trains, motorways, air fields large bridges
and tunnels through mountains and under water, hospitals although help positively in development
of society, dont however pass unheeded. In many cases leave considerable impact on surrounding
environment. Negative footprints such as waste products, hazardous impacts and risk of lives in
surrounding are commonly noticed scenarios. Facility siting and permitting is one of the most
important aspects of the solid waste management process. Public official are challenged to find sites
that are technically and environmentally sound & socially acceptable. Earlier facility siting is
constricted to hazardous waste, particularly radioactive waste. Now facility siting took broader range
of connotations by bounding many different technologies and different types of infrastructure having
environmental or social impact.
Facility siting can be conducted at the conceptual design phase of a project to assist with
decisions such as layout of process equipment and buildings. It can also be performed at the detailed
design phase to identify potential issues with plant layout, building locations and structural blast
resistance, and mitigation system design. This helps to evaluate consequences and provide results that
help to identify potential mitigation strategies. The broad meaning of facility siting environ issues
involving benefits of individuals and community, possible new risks or negative outcomes, trust and
legitimacy of planning and management team, compensation for negatively affected stake holders.
The two strands of Facility siting are
1. Planning is given more importance with respect to economics, geography & politics of the
particular area.
2. Taking individual opinions to ascertain how individuals receive benefits and aversions of how
they assess fairness, cost and benefits of facility siting proposals.
When creating a siting strategy, the main concerns of these large scale technological mega projects
are: Risk issues, Environmental impact assessment, Site selection issues, Stake holder management,
Political issues, Public participation. Two cases are discussed below

CASE STUDY 1 - KUDANKULAM REACTOR:

India's largest nuclear power generation complex will soon be alive at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu. It is
to generate 2,000 MW of energy - with two reactors in place and four more to come. This is a joint
Russia-India project.

Impacts:
The agitation against this nuclear plant started way back 1989 due to the disintegration of Soviet
Union into several states, and change of the Government in India. After about a decade, the
Government gave first environmental clearance in 1988-89 which prolonged the life of lease.
Generally, the validity of environmental clearance is only 5 years for industrial projects. Reports of
the site selection committee and Environmental impact appraisal given by experts and the nuclear
power project authorities were based on insufficient and improper data and are violating international
standards on nuclear safety. Public were informed but were never involved in preparation of
emergency preparedness plans & in chalking out evacuation schemes to protect public health and
environment in case of a maximum credible accident like the one which occurred at Fukushima in
Japan on March 2011 due to human failures. The public demands to make available the
environmental Impact Assessment reports including the Emergency Preparedness Reports, which
were not given. There is no scientific based mock drill for emergency preparedness and disaster
management consequent to a potential nuclear reactor explosion. Authorities are misleading both the
public; state and central Government authorities on the safety of nuclear power by violating the
environmental protection rules, regulations and guidelines issued by national Disaster Management
Authority.

CASE STUDY 2 - GAIL pipeline blast impacts:

Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), the country's largest state-owned natural gas processing and
distribution company. This disaster took place in Nagaram village in East Godavari Region Andhra
region. It is concluded that pipeline had corroded due to condensate and water that came along with
the natural gas from an Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) field. Water corroded bottom of the
pipeline, causing pores in the underground pipeline. Gas was being transported at high pressure and it
leaked along with flammable condensate leaked out to the surface and lead to a cloud of gas being
formed even as condensate sprayed on the ground. A spark, possibly from a cigarette lit by a local, led
to condensate and cloud of gas catching fire with a loud explosion. Gas should have been stripped of
waste and condensate at GAIL's Nagaram facility before being pumped into the pipeline for
transportation to a power plant. The gas sales and purchase agreement between ONGC and GAIL has
no mention about the quality of gas. ONGC believes stripping of gas was GAIL's responsibility while
the gas utility feels otherwise. GAIL has decided to put separators at gas sources in the Krishna
Godavari, Cauvery and Cambay basin and has reduced pressure at pipelines in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu and Gujarat and is carrying out thorough checks. Any pipeline which is found to have been
corroded or is more than 15 years old is being replaced. Following the accident, GAIL has suspended
officials responsible for the safety of the pipeline.
Pollution Control Acts, Rules and Notifications Issued:
There are 27 Treatment; Storage & Disposal Facilities throughout the India. The concept is for safe
isolation of hazardous waste. Generally each site should comprise of secured land fill, leachate
collection, MEE & Incinerator, long time protection/maintenance system and hazardous material
testing Lab facilities. It consume valuable land and become liability for the future generations to
protect themselves from out brake of possible risks. Further, incinerations within these sites cause
hazardous gaseous emissions, having their adverse long tracks on environment. Present scenario is to
minimize these by finding utilisation of these suitable product output to value waste to wealth.

Article By: Thiruvalluri Aswini; MBACPM; Section - B