VATIS UPDATE Article

The Government of India has notified stricter environment standards for sugar industries operating in various states in the country. The primary aim of these standards is to minimise water pollution. Specific wastewater discharge standards have been made stricter, by limiting the same to 200 litre per tonne of cane crushed, as against the earlier limit of 400 litre per tonne cane crushed. This will ultimately result in less consumption of raw water at operational level.

The final treated effluent discharge has been restricted to 100 litre per tonne of cane crushed and waste water from spray pond overflow, or cooling tower blow down to be restricted to 100 litre per tonne of cane crushed. Only single outlet point from unit has been allowed to encourage operational efficiency and treated effluent recycling practices. Further, only one outlet/discharge point will be allowed, which will be covered as per the 24x7 online monitoring protocol.

The number of effluent quality parameters to be monitored for ascertaining compliance have now been increased to six (6) i.e. pH, Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Oil & Grease (O&G). Earlier, the notified parameters were only BOD & TSS. The emission limits for particulate matter from stack has been limited to 150milligramme per normal cubic metre.