Chennai: Another pipeline leak at Ennore power plant – Times of India

Leakage of raw effluents from the aging pipelines of Tangedco’s North Chennai Thermal Power Plant (NCTPS) in Ennore, 30km from the city, has been a recurring issue. On Tuesday, there was another massive leak in the pipelines carrying coal ash slurry near Seppakkam village in Tiruvallur district.
The North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS) was commissioned in 1994, and over the years, the power plant has altered the landscape of the region for the worse. Coal ash slurry refers to the waste sent through pipelines to a dyke after the coal is crushed and fed to the boiler in the thermal power plant. This ash slurry in the dykes, after it dries, is sold to buyers, mostly cement manufacturing plants.

When TOI visited Seppakkam on Tuesday, leaks were spotted in at least five points.
“The pipelines are almost 30 years old and the contractors hired for maintenance do patchworks and repaint them, which makes the issue recurring,” said a retired Tangedco official who had worked in NCTPS.

At Seppakkam, dilapidated structures a few metres from the pipeline are evidence of the lives and livelihoods affected over the years. “There is ash dust in the food we eat, in our bodies. This region used to have farmlands and salt pans. The pipeline leaks and the slurry seeping into the ground have made the land arid. Our groundwater is polluted,” said 43-year-old E Karthikeyan of Athipattu.
As many as 20,000 residents are affected on a daily basis because of the inefficiency of the government authorities. Several have left seeking a livelihood in far-off places. “Around 1,000 families lived in Seppakkam, there are just around 100 now. Respiratory troubles are common among residents here,” said Karthikeyan.
With a new government in power, residents of Athipattu, Seppakkam, and other affected villages hope for a visible change. Less than a year ago, when there was a massive leak, DMK MP Kanimozhi had tweeted, “Thermal power plant is endangering lives of people and ash pond is a disaster waiting to happen. Tangedco is unresponsive.”
Officials from Tangedco were unavailable for comment.
Apart from environmental concerns, experts have said retiring old coal power plants such as the NCTPS can save the cash-strapped Tangedco more than ?35,000 crore over five years.
A report by Climate Risk Horizons, a Bengaluru-based NGO and think tank, earlier this year pointed out that plants more than 20 years old are not on track to meet the 2022 deadline for compliance with the Union environment ministry’s goals to reduce air pollution. Rather than incurring ?1,600 crore or more on retrofits, it is more economic to retire them, the report stated.