Report on oil spill at Chandrapura Thermal Power Station, 29/09/2020
Inspection report of M/s Chandrapura Thermal Power Station (CTPS), Chandrapura, Jharkhand in the matter of Original Application 18/2020/EZ (Praveen Kumar Singh Vs Damodar Valley Corporation & Others). In compliance with the NGT order, a team was constituted to assess the extent of oil leakage and assessment of environmental damage caused by the oil spill.
The incident of oil leakage occurred on October 15, 2019. Oil was being unloaded at CTPS site and the connecting hume pipe developed crack and oil leaked from hume pipe and ingressed into the nearby drainage system which was constructed to collect the storm water and finally drains into river Damodar.
The spilled oil was collected from the drainage channel and river and stored in oil drums. Fly ash was also used to soak spilled oil to control spillage of oil. The Committee visited the affected areas and has said that there was hardly any sign of released hydrocarbon. Also there was no sign of environmental damages to the nearby agricultural field. The report stated that fuel oil was considered to be less toxic and the long term effects needs an extended in-depth study.