"Kodaikanal remediation trials a failure, say activists", 12 July 2018

The remediation efforts undertaken at a site in Kodaikanal where Hindustan Unilever (HUL) once had its thermometer factory are once again embroiled in controversy with activists claiming that the process is a “failure”. However, the company has stoutly denied the charge.

A report by the Chennai Solidarity Group has urged the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to commission a fresh Detailed Project Report (DPR) to remediate the site....[It] alleges that remediation trials carried out between September and November 2017 “were a failure, and the reporting of the data from the trials is incomplete, inconsistent and unreliable.”

HUL...denied all the charges, and said:...the data was complete, reliable and verified by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute. The Chennai Solidarity Group also said that a mercury balance prepared by it while preparing the report, found that soil washing with water converts a soil mercury problem into a water mercury problem “with the associated and heightened risk...”...The company reiterated that the remediation work would be monitored by the Scientific Experts Committee (SEC), constituted by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee and the TNPCB.

The report further said that the TNPCB had authorised the company to demolish the buildings and decontaminate machinery without evaluation of the processes or their environmental impact...To this, HUL said the buildings in which mercury was used would be demolished.