Chennai: The Tamil Nadu State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) had on June 21 rejected Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's application that sought environmental clearance for the proposed drilling of 10 exploratory wells in the Ariyalur district, the Central part of the state.
An announcement to this effect was made by Industries minister Thangam Thennarasu in the state Assembly on Tuesday.
The SEIAA has also explained why it rejected ONGC's application citing that the project proponent failed to furnish necessary documents and study reports.
In its explanation, the SEIAA has clearly mentioned that the project proponent, ONGC, had on June 17 applied for Environmental Clearance for exploration drilling and production of 10 wells in the Ariyalur district. "On preliminary scrutiny of these applications by SEIAA, it is noticed that this application is deficient and suffers from infirmities', said the officials in their reply.
Further, the proponent filed an application under Schedule 1(b)of EIA, 2006 for "offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration, development and production" whereas such projects come under category A, which should be cleared by the Government of India, explained the SEIAA.
The concerned proponent should have submitted a study report relating to groundwater quality and table. However, no such study report was done by the ONGCC. "Details on the timeline of rehabilitation and compensation of agricultural lands for farmers including wells, graze fields for domestic animals, habitations, restoration of green belt and socio-economic aspects have not been furnished" noted the assessment body.
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The SEIAA sought data from Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) regarding the aquifer details at different depths and the groundwater profile around each core holes, which the proponent miserably failed to furnish. "Moreover, the SEIAA has not received any study report pertaining to the projection model for impact around 10 km radius in regard to drilling activities and continuous extraction of hydrocarbon operation for the next 10 years," said the authority.
The officials in SEIAA pointed out that details on treatment of effluent arising from the extraction operation and analysis on the possibility of groundwater depletion in the area around 10 km radius in comparison with baseline data had not been submitted by the project proponent.
Considering these significant deficiencies and infirmities, the application was rejected by SEIAA.
