India’s Coromandel International Ltd. has been ordered by the Tamil Nadu state government to pay Rs59.2 million (approximately $713,000 at current exchange rates) in environmental compensation after an ammonia leak at the company’s Ennore fertilizer production site near Chennai on Dec. 26 led to at least 57 people being hospitalized (GM Jan. 5, p. 25).
A total of 18 technical and safety recommendations were made for the plant, according to the New Indian Express, and Coromandel was also directed to submit periodic reports to regulatory bodies, including the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
According to the committee’s findings, as cited by the report, the ammonia leak occurred close to shore from Coromandel’s undersea pipeline used to transport ammonia from ships to the Ennore production site. The report noted that “the significant relocation of heavy granite boulders around the pipeline” due to Cyclone Michaung in early December “could have caused damage to the pipeline, which resulted in the ammonia leak.”
Nearly 68 mt of ammonia leaked in 15 minutes during the rupture, and none of the 19 ammonia sensors installed at the plant detected the leak, according to the TNPCB report. A former environment official noted if the leaked ammonia had discharged in the air instead of the sea, there would have been “devastating consequences.”
The recommendations to be undertaken at the plant include the replacement of the existing offshore pipeline to Coromandel’s fertilizer site with a new pipeline with state-of-the-art monitoring, automatic control, and accident prevention systems.
Coromandel’s Ennore plant produces ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizers. Ennore residents are demanding the permanent closure of the production site.