Tondiarpet residents woke up to a strong odour on Wednesday morning caused by oil leak from a defunct underground pipeline. A thick layer of oil covered the stagnant water in a trench dug by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. on Tondiarpet High Road.
Mary, who works in a shop near the site, said she did not see any oil till about 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday night when she closed the shop. “Some work was going on at the site. They stopped the work by 4.30 p.m. after heavy rain started in the area. This morning there was a strong odour and people gathered along the site to see oil in water, on the mud and concrete,” she said.
Umachandran, a resident, said oil-contaminated water and soil was being removed from the trench. “This hardly seems to be the right way. The company and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board should check for seepage of oil in groundwater. We have been fighting a long legal battle due to the oil contamination in our area,” he said.
TNPCB takes action
TNPCB engineers visited the spot and directed the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) to scoop out the contaminated water and soil and transport it to their site for remediation. The CMRL has been told to repair the pipeline and then close the trench. Both BPCL and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. have denied that the pipeline belonged to them.
According to CMRL officials, as there was heavy rain last night, the trenches dug on Tondiarpet High Road were filled with rainwater. The residual oil began to leak from an abandoned pipeline. They said that Metro Rail work did not cause any damage to the pipeline.
The work site has three abandoned pipelines belonging to various public sector oil marketing companies. Oil leaking from pipeline is common in Tondiarpet as several underground pipelines pass through the area. Several years ago, residents moved the National Green Tribunal seeking compensation for the losses suffered by them due to leaking oil pipelines. The oil contaminated the groundwater and soil.
Following the NGT orders, under the supervision of IIT Madras experts, the remediation of soil and water was carried out by a U.S.-based company, Stratus Environmental Inc. A source associated with the remediation process said engineers had to stop work in a couple of points as the lines were damaged by the CMRL work.
