TNPCB proposes ₹73-crore penalty on CPCL for damages caused by Ennore oil spill
The Hindu
TNPCB estimates ₹73 crore penalty for CPCL due to Ennore oil spill; IIT-M suggests long-term prevention strategies.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has estimated a penalty of ₹73 crore for Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) for the damages caused by the Ennore oil spill that occurred during Cyclone Michaung in December 2023.
The TNPCB submitted this in a report before the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal on Thursday as part of a suo motu case on the oil spill.
According to the report, a meeting was held on September 3 to review the oil spill impact assessment and bioremediation reports for the Ennore Creek area. The technical team constituted by the State government concluded that the total amount of oil spilled could be over 400 KL, based on data such as slop oil quantities, crude receipt amounts, and cleaning frequencies.
The Indian Institute of Technology’s conservative estimate of the spill is 517 tonnes, which aligns closely with the team’s findings, the TNPCB said.
The TNPCB said, a team comprising R.Kannan, Member Secretary, TNPCB, G. Saravanan, Principal Scientist, Chennai Zonal Centre, CSIR-NEERI, H.D.Varalaxmi, Scientist-E and Regional Director, Central Pollution Control Board, V.T.Perarasu, professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Anna University computed the environmental damage and restitution costs, using a methodology from the research publication ‘Oil Spill and Cleanup Costs,’ by Cao Thi Thu Trang, Institute of Marine Environment and Resource, Vietnam.
Their calculation outlined the total clean up cost, including response costs, socioeconomic damages, and environmental costs. In this case, since CPCL conducted the clean up operations through specialised cleaning agencies, the response cost was computed to be nil.
The team arrived at a total cost of ₹73,68,00,906 (seventy-three crore sixty-eight lakh nine hundred and six), including ₹35,43,71,708 for socioeconomic damage and ₹38,24,29,198 for environmental damage due to the oil spill in December 2023.
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