Notice for issuance of proposed standards for discharge of treated sewage from Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs)

Notice for issuance of proposed standards for discharge of treated sewage from Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs).

Whereas, amongst others, under section 17 of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, one of the functions of the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Pollution Control Committees (PCCs), constituted under the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 is to plan a comprehensive programme for prevention, control or abatement of pollution of streams and wells in the State and to secure the execution thereof;

Whereas, the cities and the towns are not having adequate system for sewage collection and its treatment and thus entire waste water either falls into rivers or lakes or remains inundated on land causing potential risk to the ground water contamination.

Whereas, this Board is regularly monitoring the water quality of Water Bodies in the State of Haryana and the water quality monitoring results of rivers has indicated that water quality has been affected because of disposal of untreated or partially treated sewage into the water bodies and as a result, there is high concentration of faecal bacteria making the water body unfit for human consumption or for other uses;

Whereas, Haryana State Pollution Control Board has adopted the standard for emission or discharge of Environmental Pollutants as prescribed under Section 3 of Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 but the standards for discharge of Faecal Coliform in sewage effluent discharging from sewage treatment plants (STPs) has not been prescribed therein;

Whereas, the State Pollution Control Board under section 17 of the Water Act has been mandated with the following functions which inter-alia including;

“(f) to inspect sewage or trade effluents, works and plants for the treatment of sewage and trade effluents and to review plans, specifications or other data relating to plants set up for the treatment of water, works for the purification thereof and the system for the disposal of sewage or trade effluents or in connection with the grant of any consent as required by this Act;

(g) lay down, modify or annul effluent standards for the sewage and trade effluents and for the quality of receiving waters (not being water in an inter-State stream) resulting from the discharge of effluents and to classify waters of the State;

(h) to evolve economical and reliable methods of treatment of sewage and trade effluents, having regard to the peculiar conditions of soils, climate and water resource of different regions and more especially the prevailing flow characteristics of water in streams and wells which render it impossible to attain even the minimum degree of dilution;

(i) to evolve methods of utilization of sewage and suitable of sewage and suitable trade effluents in agriculture;

(j) to evolve efficient methods of disposal of sewage and trade effluents on land, as are necessary on account of the predominant conditions of scant stream flows that do not provide for major part of the year the minimum degree of dilution;

(k) to lay down standards of treatment of sewage and trade effluents to be discharged in to any particular stream taking into account the minimum fair weather dilution available in that stream and the tolerance limits of pollution permissible in the water or the stream, after the discharge of such effluents;

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(m) to lay down effluent standards to be complied with by persons while causing discharge of sewage or sullage or both and to lay down, modify or annul effluent standards for the sewage and trade effluents;”

Whereas, as per section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, the State Pollution Control Board can specify more stringent standards from those provided under Section 3 of Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, depending upon the quality of recipient system and after recording the reasons, therefore, in writing & there are following grounds/reasons for fixing stringent standards for discharge of faecal coliform in sewerage effluent from the STPs:

1. The quantity of flow in River Yamuna & River Ghaggar and quantity of water in various water bodies has drastically come down during the recent years and these rivers Yamuna have no flow in some stretches in known raining periods and especially in summer. The State Pollution Control Board has been given mandate under section- 17(k) of the Water Act, 1974 to lay down standards of treatment of sewage to be discharge into any stream taking into account the minimum dilution available to maintain the quality of recipient Water Bodies & Rivers as per prescribed standards the stream and accordingly, the stringent standards for as most of the STPs which are discharging sewage.

2. The Hon'ble NGT has already issued various directions and state has to maintain the water quality standards in the rivers/ water bodies.

3. The State Govt. has already submitted Yamuna Action Plan and Ghaggar Action Plan before the Hon'ble NGT in OA No. 673 of 2018 "More River Stretches are Critically Polluted now: CPCB", wherein, as per objective of the Action Plans, to achieve standards for faecal coliform in sewage discharged less than 500 MPN / 100 ml.;

Whereas, Board had fixed discharge standard for STPs vide No. HSPCB/ WC-2/2170-2199 dated 02.07.2020 and now, the Board intends and proposes to fix standards for discharge of treated sewage from the STPs for different purposes, under the powers conferred as per Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 & Section 17 of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 as under:-

*If the operating agency uses the treated wastewater of STPs entirely for irrigation purposes, then BOD of 30 mg/l and COD of 150 mg/l will be permissible, provided the treated wastewater is not discharged into drain/ nallah/ river/ any other surface water, under any circumstance.

Therefore, the above notice is issued for receiving objections/ suggestions from all the stakeholders within 15 days. So all the concerned stakeholders are requested to submit their objections/ suggestions if any along with reasons to the Chairman of Haryana State Pollution Control Board at above mentioned address so that further necessary action in this regard could be taken.

Chairman, HSPCB

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