EPA to seize low-grade fuel from factories

LAHORE:For the first time in its history, Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab has decided to confiscate, remove and destroy substandard fuel recovered from industrial units across the province.

Sources in EPD said that the department has decided that every industrial unit that will be sealed for using substandard fuel, EPD in collaboration with Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) will confiscate and destroy the substandard fuel from the factories.

Sources added that it was also decided that the owners of the factories will also pay charges to the LWMC for removing and destroying the substandard fuel on the basis of the weight of the substandard fuel, which will be apart from the sealing and fine.

Earlier, the EPD had no system to effectively remove the fuel, which allowed violators to burn the fuel even after paying fines. Under this new model, LWMC will remove substandard fuel and the cost of this service will have to be borne by violators in addition to fines. This model not only ensures proper disposal of hazardous fuels but also imposes an additional financial burden to promote compliance. This model will also be followed in the rest of the districts of Punjab and instructions have been issued to the field officers by DG Environment Punjab Imran Hamid Shaikh to involve the district admin concerned in this regard.

As per the order issued by the EPA DG, under Rule 3(c), 4(b) and 5(c) of the Punjab Environmental Protection (Smog Prevention and Control) Rules 2023, the use of sub-standard fuel was prohibited.

The order stated that it was extremely necessary to remove such sub-standard fuel and discard/dispose it of in an environmentally sound manner to protect environment from its adverse environmental impacts.

EPD’s spokesperson said that the order was implemented with immediate effect in the territorial jurisdiction of District Lahore while in other districts mutatis mutandis. Meanwhile, the EPA DG also issued another order dated September 16, 2024, in which he announced testing of vehicular emissions of motor vehicle at their manufacturing/assembling sites to ensure enforcement of the standards of the EPA.

In this order, the EPA DG stated that Environmental Protection Agency was striving hard to combat the devastating impacts of smog that was likely to prevail from Oct-Dec, 2024. He said preemptive measures against all the sources of air pollution have already been started by the EPA as well as other concerned departments.

In the order, he said that the environmental approval will only be given to the motor vehicle manufacturing and assembling units who shall submit monthly monitoring reports of vehicular emission and test conducted upon the assembled/manufactured motor vehicles to EPA Field of ce. He further directed that the EPA's laboratories shall also conduct vehicular emission testing of manufactured/assembled vehicles ready to be sold, randomly at the manufacturing/assembling sites and the project proponent shall be bound to assist EPA Staff in the said testing process at any stage of the project.

It was further ordered that the above-mentioned clauses shall be deemed to be part of environmental approvals already issued to manufacturing/assembling units of motor vehicles and any contravention to this order shall be dealt with strictly as per relevant legal framework.