Bhopal site rehabilitation and assets recovery project, Union Carbide, 1989

August 20, 1989

There is no precedent in India of a plant site, at which operations for manufacturing chemicals were carried out, rehabilitated to a condition safe for use as light industrial site. This entails thorough investigation of soil and ground water for possible contamination in addition to inspection of all pipelines, reaction vessels and storage tanks and finally to develop suitable mitigating remedial actions. 

This process gets further complicated due to set standards not being available for decontaminating soil and ground water; These are normally developed in a 'US' Situation by first conducting a risk assessment study followed by series of dicussions with environment pollution control authorities to develop mutually acceptable set of standards. In view of the above, it would be necessary to seek assistance and advice of an expert organisation having first-hand experience in this field. Since no Indian organisation has had similar exposure, it has been decided to appoint M/s A D Little & Co. of USA which has considerable experience in this field. In addition to above, it is necessary to carryout detailed investigations entailing sampling, analysis of samples, defining of permissible limits and carrying out risk assessment where necessary and finally to prepare an Environmental management Plan. At the instance of M.P. State Govt, it is proposed to appoint National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) f0r carrying out the above investigation under the overall guidance of M/s A D Little & Co.