High fly ash levels in the emissions by Mahagenco plants
5 Feb, 2013The reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that Mahagenco power plants in Maharashtra don’t use good quality coal which leads to emission of high percentage of fly ash which is way higher than maximum permissible limit.
In the reply to the application, Mahagenco has provided the fly ash content of the coal at two stages- when it arrives at the plant (air dry basis) and when it is put into the boiler (fired basis). The data has been provided for Nasik and Paras plants and those pertaining to Koradi and Khaparkheda plants are still awaited.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) prescribe the maximum permissible limit of fly ash content in coal as 34%. However, the ash content, many times, even becomes higher than 50%.
The applicant has alleged that the pollution control equipment of Mahagenco is in poor condition which aggravates the problem and that the company also discharges sludge with high ash content into streams.,