Why Bhopal Remains Toxic 40 Years on

40 years since the tragedy that killed thousands, the Indian government has moved forward plans to incinerate the packaged waste in Bhopal. Aniqah Majid talks to industry experts concerned that this will only lead to widespread contamination

TOXIC waste remains at the abandoned Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India – more than 700,000 t of it. Dozens of contamination studies have been conducted since the 1984 gas leak of methyl isocyanate, with dangerous levels of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the soil and the groundwater, including mercury, lead, chromium, and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and a host of other hazardous chemicals found in the groundwater and on the surface.¹

Exposure to heavy metals and POPs is associated with neurological and behavioural disorders, cancers and adverse reproductive outcomes, including birth defects, while high levels of HCB has been linked to liver and kidney cancer.

Remediating the site, which is owned by the state of Madhya Pradesh, is a huge task which has been hampered by years of legal challenges, further complicated by Dow Chemical Company’s purchase of the Union Carbide Corporation in 2001.

The state of Madhya Pradesh has been pushing incineration of the packaged hazardous waste as a disposal solution for more than two decades. Now, backed with a ₹126bn (US$15m) package from the Government of India, the state government plans to incinerate around 337 t of Bhopal waste at a facility in the city of Pithampur, 217 km away.

However, industry experts have expressed concerns over the plan, saying that instead of reducing waste, incineration would only release more toxic chemicals and spread the problem.

Warranted concerns

In late November, the international environmental group, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), along with a team of scientists and technical experts, sent a letter to the Government of India urging them to “abandon” the incineration and perform a comprehensive site assessment.²

The letter echoes concerns from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, which represents the survivors and residents of the city, who are also demanding the state government scrap its incineration plan.

“Incineration is bad for a number of reasons,” says Brex Arevalo, a climate and anti-incineration campaigner at GAIA Asia Pacific.

“You may reduce the overall volume of waste by maybe 70%, but you have around 30% leftover which is ash, which is also toxic and hazardous.”

The contaminated soil and groundwater contain several organic pollutants, including hexachlorobenzene, aldrin, and dieldrin, which are difficult to destroy and can survive past incineration.

Arevalo said: “It is important to point out that number one, we’ve been hearing reports that the facility they want to burn waste in is substandard.”

Robust regulations

The India Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has robust standards for hazardous waste incinerators, with rules on the processing of solid waste and pollution control.

Specifically for chemicals like dioxins, which can be produced during the incineration process, the CPCB states that steps should be taken to prevent reformation of dioxins by rapidly lowering the flue gas temperatures, from 500°C to less than 220°C.

The CPCB’s stack monitoring test measures the level of pollutants entering the atmosphere, with data collected from the volume, velocity, flow rate, and moisture content of released gaseous pollutants.

Seven stack tests were conducted at the Pithampur incineration facility. According to a National Green Tribunal Joint Committee report, the facility failed six.³

The pollutants found to go above the permissible amount included hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, dioxins, and furans.