Nalco may face action of pollution board

National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is likely to face stern action from the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) if it fails to meet the February-end deadline set by the pollution watchdog for coming out with an alternative ash pond for dumping its fly ash.

While the aluminium major had sought time till April-end, the pollution board authorities had insisted on sticking to the deadline of February-end next year to complete the third ash pond for dumping of high density slurry for its 1,200 MW captive power plant.

“We have asked Nalco specifically to make alternative arrangements for dumping of the slurry as their current ash pond is exhausted. We also refused permission they had asked for raising the wall of the ash pond to increase its capacity. Nalco owns 47 acres of land where it can dump the high density ash till their pipeline to the Talcher coal mine is completed,” said an official of SPCB.

A pollution expert, however, said that SPCB cannot close the power plant of Nalco as it would have an irreparable impact on the company's smelter plant which requires uninterrupted power supply round the clock to sustain itself.

Said a senior official of Nalco, “Nalco presently manages to utilize half of the generated slurry for other purposes and the other half is only released to ash pond. We are in advanced stage to prepare an ash pond at our acquired land near Balaramprasad village. As a long-term measure, we are also building a pipeline to dump ash in Bharatpur mines. The company meet the stipulations by the board in terms of ash management.”