A round table on “Discharge Standards” was organized by the Indian Environmental Association (IEA)on September 30, 2023, in Mumbai. The round table was attended by sixty participants. The participants at the round table included regulators, municipalities, industries, environmentalists, scientists, academia, and other stakeholders – who expressed their opinions, experiences and recommendations.
Madhukar. Naik, President, IEA gave a brief overview of IEA and its activities. He invited everyone to become a member of IEA and participate in programs and activities of IEA including a forthcoming annual conference, EnviroVision.
Dr. Deepak Kantawala, a pioneer of the environmental engineering profession in India, gave a very encouraging and inspiring speech. Yogen Parikh explained how and why the idea of a round table on Discharge Standards originated and how much hard work was put in by IEA members in preparing IEA Position Paper and in organising the event.
Professor Shyam Asolekar, IIT Bombay, started the technical session and presented a position paper on “New Discharge Standards for Treated Sewage: The Challenges and Opportunities for Municipalities and Industries”. He eloquently presented the history of discharge standards in India including their enforcement and implementation. The purpose of the Round Table was to understand the NGT order of 2019 specifying more stringent standards than the prevailing standards.
He explained the evolution of “Discharge Standards” and presented the specified discharge standards prior to 2017, the Draft Standards proposed in November 2015, the notified alterations as per the October 2017 Notification, and the latest (revised) standards as per the NGT Order as given below.
| Sr. No. | Parameter | MoEF&CC General Standards. (Updated up to 2009 and were valid till Oct. 2017) |
MoEF&CC Draft Norms proposed in November 2015 | MoEF&CC Norms as per Notification dated October 2017 | NGT Order dated 30 April 2019
Case 1069/2018 |
| 1 | pH | 5.5 – 9.0 | 6.5 – 9.0 | 6.5 – 9.0 | 5.5 – 9.0 |
| 2a | Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5 at 20oC) mg/L | <30 | |||
| 2b | Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD3 at 27oC) mg/L | <30 & <20 (metro cities) | 10 | ||
| 2c | Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) mg/L | <10 | |||
| 3 | Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) mg/L | <250 | 50 | No limit | 50 |
| 4 | Total Suspended Solids (TSS) mg/L | <100 | <20 | <100 & <50 (metro cities) | 20 |
| 5 | Total Nitrogen mg/L | <100 | <10 | No limit | 10 |
| 6 | Ammoniacal Nitrogen mg/L | <50 | <5 | No limit | Not Specified |
| 7 | Total Phosphorus mg/L | No limit | No limit | No limit | 1 |
| 8 | Faecal Coliform (MPN/100 mL) | No limit | <100 | <1,000 | Desirable 100, Permissible 230 |
Note: adapted from a Table given in the NGT Order, Case 1069/2018, dated April 30, 2019,
The details of the Supreme Court case, the reasoning and arguments in the court, related court cases and court orders, etc. are included in the Position Paper handed out to the participants. The challenges and opportunities resulting from the court order specifying NGT standards were also presented. The session was interactive with participants expressing their views and asking questions.
The presentation was followed by intense deliberations with the participants that brought to the table their rich experiences and enlightened opinions on the subject. At the end of the session, the following recommendations and conclusions were discussed and agreed to by the participants.
- The nature of the “prevailing conventional wastewater treatment technologies” is not likely to reach the levels of “treated water standards” deemed suitable for discharging as prescribed by the NGT Order dated April 30, 2019. The real limitation, however, is the scales of treatment and one may have to present a detailed analysis of the so-called technological readiness for a variety of scales and sources of wastewaters. A Report on technological readiness for a variety of scales and sources of wastewater should be prepared.
- The municipal bodies will possibly be able to comply with the new NGT standards, provided they are given the required funds to rise to the occasion.
- Municipalities should be given a reasonable time to comply with the new stringent standards; commensurate with their track records of compliance with the regulations.
- Small and medium-scale industries could have a similar issue related to the availability of funds. Therefore, there is a case in favour of strengthening the “CETP Programme” in India and facilitating a collective solution to enhance the reuse water supply to industries.
- A Report based on a detailed study of the adequacy of the prevailing methods, equipment and trained manpower required for monitoring the performance of STPs and ETPs in a credible manner should be prepared. The Report should recommend the way forward for ascertaining the consistent performance of treatment plants. Training programs (by organizations like National Skill Development Corporation-NSDC-operated by GOI, Ministry of labour.) with well-defined curriculum for the operation and maintenance of sewage treatment plants and/or effluent treatment plants as well as for laboratory analysis and test methods should be devised and implemented.
- A “business model” and enabling mechanisms should be developed to provide “reuse water” to industries and industrial clusters by treating effluents and sewage. It can be a sunrise business idea for an individual business or it could be a cooperative venture of member industries.
- In the interim period, industries having a small workforce may be permitted to continue to treat their effluents and sewages in ETP. Similarly, small hamlets, smaller housing societies and farmhouses may also be permitted to employ Natural Treatment systems (also referred to as Nature-based Solutions) and enhance grey-water use in their properties. There should be separate discharge standards for small hamlets, villages, and educational institutes, based on achievable quality from the low-cost treatment technology applied. Application of 2017 discharge standards for such cases may be considered.
- Similar to carbon credits, water credit guidelines are available. Since the NGT standards will produce reused water, water credits should be used to encourage the implementation of these standards. More awareness, information and “push” for water credits need to be introduced in the public domain for the water sector.
- How sewage recycling and reuse will improve the surface water (rivers, lakes and streams) quality and reduce groundwater depletion should be publicised to encourage recycling and reuse. Modelling and simulation studies may be undertaken for a few case studies to quantify the benefits. This will create a positive image for the reuse of treated sewage/wastewater as a part of the sustainable development agenda.
- Apart from improvement in surface water quality, there could be an impact on water flow in streams and rivers if sewage is not discharged depriving downstream users of water. In such specific cases, treated sewage meeting the standards can be discharged.
- Since as per IS, even drinking (potable) water has an allowance for statistical variation for bacteriological parameters, should not the treated sewage/wastewater parameters also provide for a similar statistical variation for its bacteriological parameters (in this case-faecal coliforms).
- Large (Mega) Municipal Corporations like Mumbai(MCGM) expressed the difficulties faced by them, as tender specifications were finalized, orders finalized, work started and the new standards were made applicable also for running projects. This will result in huge delays and increased costs. This is true for all ongoing projects of sewage treatment plants.
- There was a mixed response to the NGT order. While the delegates understood the need for stringent standards, they were concerned about their application for all sewage treatment plants regardless of the capacity(even for standalone properties and small communities). Another concern is about immediate application without providing any time for implementation.
