India: Kerala anti-pollution board orders closure of insecticide unit

An endosulfan manufacturing company in Kerala had received a show cause notice on April 26 by fax and a registered letter on April 28 asking them to clean up the lagoon where it was dumping its waste.

"We replied to the showcause notice today explaining the progress of the work,"said the Manager from the Company. Even beforethe PCB has issued a closure notice, he said, adding the progress of the work was apprised to them in person on May 2. "Being a chemical factory, we have to follow normal procedure to shut down the plant. The shutting down process will take a week to 10 days," Mohan said. The Central government plant at nearby Udyogamandal, manufactures various pesticides and insecticides, including endosulfan, DDT, Mancozeb, and Dicofol. endosulfan's annual production is 1700 tonnes which is mainly exported. The PCB had today ordered the company to close down all operations in the plant with immediate effect as it had "violated" provisions under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2008. PCB said the company had failed to transfer the sludge with immediate effect from the lagoon and there was chance of seepage of toxic sludge into water bodies through the storm water.