(TH)
Residents of Kadiramangalam in Thanjavur district, along with environmental activists, countered the claims made by ONGC regarding the June 30 oil spill in their village at a meeting here on Wednesday. Challenging ONGC’s claim on the promptness with which they plugged the leak, the residents presented lab study results of contaminated soil and water drawn from the spill site on July 9 and July 15 to show how a large proportion of hydrocarbon residue remained in the soil and water there, and the site had not been fully remediated.
Conducted by CVR Laboratories, a government-certified lab in Chennai, the analysis of soil samples drawn from the oil spill site in Kadiramangalam showed 1,118 mg/kg of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) in soil. About 50 feet away from the site of spillage, the soil showed 438 mg/kg of TPH. Similarly, surface water samples drawn from the site of spillage showed 33.9 mg/Lt of TPH, while 50 ft. away, mingled with rain water, surface water showed contamination of 2.4 mg/lt. The activists also tested two soil samples from a 10-year-old ONGC oil spill site in Thirupunjai, Thiruvarur district, to show hydrocarbon contamination of 1,760 mg/kg and 2,983 mg/kg respectively. According to the Environment Protection Agency, U.S., the permissible TPH limit for remediated soil is 5mg/kg.
