Vijayawada power plant pollutes water, soil

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Alarmingly, people living within a radius of 10 km from the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station are exposed to highly radioactive isotopes of Radon (R226), Thorium (Th228), Potassium (K40) and heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium.

Latest research on ground water and soil samples from habitations as far away as 10 km from the fly ash pond of the thermal power station, showed that a cocktail of dangerous radionuclides and heavy metals has seeped into the soil and the ground water table.

The Krishna river, which flows in the vicinity, carries a part of these harmful substances downstream. The VTPS is now in search of a new pond to pump in fly ash as the existing one is almost filled to the brim. Harmful substances like sodium, sulphates, arsenic, selenium, molybdenum, chromium
and lead are found in higher quantities in areas affected by fly ash pollution.

Some of these substances exceed the safe upper limit prescribed by World Health Organisation. Leaching of zinc, lead and iron from the VTPS ash pond into the ground water has been observed. The problem gets worse during the rainy season when the leaching of ions is relatively higher due to ground water recharge.

“Water samples at a distance of 10 km around the thermal power plant showed an increase in total dissolved solids, hard calcium, magnesium, chlorides and alkalinity.

These substances also made their way to plants through a process called bio- accumulation,” points out a research study conducted by the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

The energy and wetlands research group of CES conducted studies on various thermal power plants in the country, including VTPS.

The CES researchers said leachate from fly ash ponds into the ground water table has genotoxic potential and may lead to adverse effects on vegetation and on the health of exposed human beings. They damage the delicate DNA in the blood cells. Damage to DNA was also observed in plants.

Studies near the VTPS fly ash dump sites showed that contamination increased in the case of toxic ions with the passage of time.