Oil sludge in Mini river
Oil sludge in Mini river didn't come out of IOC: PSU to GPCB
(Courtesy: The Times of India, Vadodara, November 8, 2011)
Six days after being served notice for polluting Mini river, the IndianOil (IOC) told Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) on Tuesday that the oil sludge that caught fire was not theirs. The PSU has said there is no possibility of oil sludge coming out of their storm water drain. However, GPCB officials maintained that the sludge found in Mini river was that of IOC-owned Gujarat Refinery (GR).
The state-owned company gave a point by point reply to GPCB's notice served on November 2. The state pollution watchdog had blamed IOC for releasing oil sludge in the river and asked it to promptly clean up the area. IOC's reply states that the company treats all its effluents and only water is released in the storm water drain. "IOC's storm water drain has an outlet in Mini river. The company has a huge effluent treatment plant (ETP) that takes care of the effluents including oil sludge. The discharge that goes in storm water drain is just water," said an IOCL spokesperson.
The reply says that the company officials visited and surveyed the spot where fire occurred and that there is no possibility of IOC's oil sludge reaching the Mini river. About its immediate action of picking up all the sludge from spot, IOCL states that as a good corporate citizen it agreed to clear all the sludge to avoid any untoward incident in future. The reply also adds that some black coloured water flows in Mini river from upstream.
