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Guidelines for development of location specific stringent standards

The existing legislation though covers adequate provision empowering the State Boards to prescribe stringent emission/ discharge standards while issuing the consent under the Water Act/Air Act, the judgments presently made by the SPCBs appear to be based on their respective experiences in qualitative terms for specifying stringent standards on a case to case basis. This appears to be based primarily on immediate impact of release of pollutants rather than the ultimate impact on the ambient water/air quality in terms of their long term effects. There is therefore, a strong need to have guidelines that can enable SPCBs to: identify areas where there is a need for prescribing location-specific stringent standards; understand the sources of pollution and their impacts using the available input data and relevant air/water quality models; study the means of controlling pollution; and evolve location specific standards for a sustained compliance to the ambient water/air quality of the area. This has been done on the basis of the report submitted by EPTRI, the requirements of the various Acts, a review of the Air Quality Water Models with respect to selection of those which could be suitable to most of the situations in the country and the approach to be taken by the State Boards to evolve location specific stringent standards. The details of all the above exercise/information including the guidelines for development of location specific stringent standards have been compiled and presented in this document.

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