Online Monitoring of Pollution

 India has a number of laws and rules to protect the environment and control pollution, including the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Water Act, 1974, and the Air Act, 1981: 

Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

This act gives the central government the power to take action to protect the environment, including making rules and preventing pollution. The act also includes penalties for violating its provisions, such as imprisonment for up to five years and a fine of up to 100,000 rupees. 

Water Act, 1974

This act is used to take action against industries that do not comply with water pollution standards. 

Air Act, 1981

This act is used to take action against industries that do not comply with air pollution standards. 

Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986

These rules include standards for emissions and discharges, prohibitions and restrictions on the location of industries, and procedures for submitting samples for analysis. 

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) inspects 17 categories of highly polluting industries based on SMS alerts that indicate violations of emission and effluent standards.

Online Monitoring of Pollution

Posted On: 04 APR 2022 3:38PM by PIB Delhi

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued direction under Section 18(1)(b) of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 to all State Pollution Control Board (SPCBs)/ Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) to further direct industries for installation of online monitoring system in highly polluting 17 categories of industries/Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs)/ Biomedical facility/common hazardous waste facility.

Further, under section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, CPCB has also issued directions to all the industries falling under 17 categories of highly polluting industries to install online continuous emission/effluent monitoring system and ensure connectivity of data to SPCBs/PCCs and CPCB servers.

CPCB directed SPCBs/PCCs to issue closure directions to existing industries falling under 17 categories of industries and common treatment facilities, commissioned on or before 28.02.2017 if found operating without installation and connectivity of OCEMS. SPCBs/PCCs were also directed to incorporate a specific condition of installing and connecting OCEMS before start of operation in the Consent Order (CTO) of a newly established industry falling under 17 categories of industries and common treatment facilities, commissioned after 28.02.2017.

During 2014-2022, out of 4247 industrial units, 3535 industries have installed and connected OCEMS to CPCB and SPCB server. The closure directions for remaining 712 industries are still in-force. The purpose of the direction was to create self-regulation and monitoring by the industries themselves for complying with the stipulated standards. Sector-wise status regarding connectivity of OCEMS is attached at Annexure-I.

From these OCEMS, real-time values of environmental pollutants of trade effluent and emissions from industrial units are transmitted online to the server of CPCB and concerned SPCB/PCC on 24x7 basis. Central software processes the data and in case of value of pollutant parameter exceeds prescribed environmental norms, an automatic SMS alert is generated and sent to industrial unit, SPCB and CPCB, so that corrective measures can be taken by the industry immediately and appropriate action can be taken by concerned SPCB/PCC.

There are total 4,433 highly polluting 17-categories of industries in the country. Appropriate actions are taken against non-complying units. State-wise status of 17 categories of highly polluting industries is given at Annexure-II.

Government has taken various initiatives towards control of pollution caused by industrial sector which are as follow:

Notification of industry-specific discharge standards under Schedule-I: ‘Standards for Emission or Discharge of Environmental Pollutants from various Industries’ of Environment Protection Act, 1986. SPCB and PCCs are mandated to ensure the compliance of these standards. So far, industry specific environmental standards, for about 80 industrial sectors, have been notified.  

The SPCBs/PCCs issue consent to establish/ consent to operate and authorization to the industries in the States. Also, the SPCBs/PCCs monitor the compliance of industrial emissions/effluent discharges and other operational activities according to the prescribed standards.

Since 2016, CPCB has started inspection of 17 categories of highly polluting industries on the basis of SMS alerts generated on violation of effluent and emission standards. In case of non-compliance, action against industry is taken under provisions of Water Act, 1974, Air Act, 1981 and Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

The criteria for categorization of industries has been revised and directed all SPCBs/PCCs to adopt the same. 254 industrial sectors are categorized into red (61), orange (90), green (65) and white (38) categories.