Kerala State Pollution Control Board

Air Pollution Control

The Board issues consent to industries with conditions to regulate the quality and quantity of emission and stipulates the frequency for monitoring the emissions. Under the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 consent of the Board is mandatory for making emissions to the atmosphere. The consent is extended only if there is compliance to consent conditions during the previous period. The air pollution load has been got reduced by about 50% from the 1984 levels. 

Consent to Establish/Operate

Integrated Clearance System
As all environmental segments are interrelated, environmental pollution control has to be done in an integrated and comprehensive manner. Conversion of one form of pollution into another form does not yield a holistic solution. For example, if a company installs a scrubber to comply with consent under the Air Act, the slurry waste must be considered in the consent under the Water Act and if there is an oil trap to comply with consent under Water Act, the disposal of the oil recovered has to be considered in the authorisation under the Hazardous Wastes Rules. The different consents/authorisation for effluent, emission and solid wastes need therefore be integrated to achieve overall compliance in all segments of environmental pollution control. 

The Board decided to have integrated clearance procedure and proposed to the State Government necessary amendments to the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Rules and the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Rules. The State Govt. accepted the proposal and amended the Water Rules and the Air Rules vide notifications no. 43799/G3/05/H&FWD dated 9/6/2006 (SRO No. 435/2006 & 436/2006). The integrated application is of 5 types to cater to the following sources of pollution. 

• Industries / Establishments
• Health Care Establishments
• Hotels / Offices / Commercial Establishments / Residential Apartments
• Houseboat / Passenger boat
• Stationary Diesel Generators

The Integrated Application is for the following clearances

• Consent under Water Act
• Consent under Air Act
• Authorisation under Hazardous Wastes Rules
• Authorisation under Bio Medical Wastes Rules and
• Registration under Plastics MS&U Rules

The new procedure provides for combined application form for obtaining consents, registration and authorisation and include aspects of water pollution, air pollution, bio medical waste management, manufacture of plastic carry bags and hazardous waste handling and management.The application form for Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate is Form IVA / IA, Form IVB / IB, Form IVC / IC, Form IVD / ID or Form IV E / 1E. The consents/authorisation/registration shall be issued only after overall compliance on all facets of environment.

Consent to Establish

Consent to Establish is to be obtained prior to carrying out any work at the site proposed for the project. Before commissioning such a unit, the applicant should obtain Consent to Operate under the Water Act and/or the Air Act. The application is to be submitted through the website krocmms.nic.in. The consent fee is payable online. However Consent to Establish is issued even if construction work of the unit has been started provided: 

• the site is suitable;
• the application for consent to establish is accompanied by consent fee including penalty of 50% for late submission of application;
• the required pollution control measures are provided.

The validity of Consent to Establish is three years. Consent to Establish should be renewed if the unit is not commissioned by then. If renewal is not sought within the validity period, fresh application has to be made to the Board.

Applying for Consent to Establish

For Consent to Establish site plan and lay out plan need not necessarily be elaborate. It is sufficient to submit detailed line sketch, preferably in A4 size. The anticipated effluent/emission quality, effluent/emission quantity and probable pollutants are to be submitted. Data from similar industries can be used if source and justification for projecting such data is provided. 
The applicant should indicate whether the outlet is located on land owned by the occupier. In case of only access to the land then consent of the owner of the land is to be produced. 
The design details of effluent / emission control measures are to be furnished along with details of treatability studies conducted. The applicant should also submit an undertaking to install all the proposed control measures before commencement of production. 

Consent to Discharge/Operate and Renewal

The applicant should obtain Consent to Operate under the Water Act. The application is to be submitted through the website https://krocmms.nic.in. The consent fee is payable online at the respective District Office. Consent shall be for a period of 5 years .However in case of Orange category, Consent upto a maximum period of 10 years and in case of green category consent upto a maximum period of 15 years shall be given if fee for these years are remitted. Application for renewal of Consent to Operate is to be submitted at least 3 months before the expiry of the consent. 25% of the prescribed consent fee is charged as penalty if application for renewal is submitted during the last three months of the validity period. If application is made after expiry of the validity period, a fine of 50% of the consent fee is to be paid. The application for renewal of Consent is also Form IVA / IA, Form IVB / IB, Form IVC / IC, Form IVD / ID or Form IVE / IE. The application is to be submitted through the website krocmms.nic.in. The consent fee is payable online. 

Online Consent Management and Monitoring System

The Board had introduced Online Consent Management and Monitoring System with effect from June 2014. This system allows the industries for online submission of application for integrated consent to establish/ operate, renewal of consents, knowing the status of applications, online submission of clarifications/ documents, fees, periodical returns etc. The industry user shall register through New Industry Registration link of the website krocmms.nic.in. The user on successful registration will be given a user id and temporary password. The temporary password has to be reset on first login. After resetting the password the user can login to the account for submission of online application.

While processing the application, the Board may call for clarification/information or return the application for correction. The industry will receive the notification regarding return of application, clarification raised etc via email and sms. On receipt of such notification the industry user shall check their registered user account. The corrections can be made by selecting the application number of the returned application. Click edit to make changes and resubmit as complete to the KSPCB account. The Board has set up Kiosk at each District Office to assist micro and small scale industries.