Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2023

[16th May 2023]

Whereas, the draft Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2022 were published, as required under sub-rule (3) of rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, vide notification of the Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, number G.S.R. 477 (E), dated the 27th June, 2022, in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), inviting objections and suggestions from the persons likely to be affected thereby on or after expiry of a period of sixty days from the date on which copies of the Official Gazette containing the said notification were made available to the public;

And, whereas, copies of the Official Gazette containing the said notification were made available to the public on the 27th June, 2022;

And, whereas, objections and suggestions received from all persons in response to the said notification have been duly considered;

Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 6 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, namely: -

Rule - 1. Short title and commencement

(1)     These rules may be called the Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2023.

(2)     They shall come into force on expiry of period of two years from the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette.

Rule - 2.

In the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, in Schedule-l,-

(a)      for serial number 70 and entries relating thereto, the following shall be substituted, namely:-

Notes:

(i)       Minimum stack height (in meter) shall be as per the formula, namely:-

H=14Q0.3 (where Q is SO2 emission rate in kg/hr); or

H=74Q0.27 (where Q is PM emission rate in tonne/hr), whichever is more.

However, in no case the stack height shall be less than 11 m for boilers of 2 ton/hour steam generation capacity and 30 m for boilers of higher steam generation capacity.

(ii)      Measured values of PM, SO2 and NOx to be normalised at 6% O2 for solid fuels and at 3% O2 for liquid fuels, on dry basis, for comparing with above standards, as below, namely:-

Normalized value = Measured value × [ (21- Ref O2 at 6 or 3 %) / (21 - measured O2 in %)]

(iii)     These standards are for industrial boilers using coal or lignite, pet coke, bagasse or agro-fuels, and Furnace Oil or Light Diesel Oil or Low Sulphur Heavy Stock, boilers of bagasse or agro-fuels based power plants, and also for Thermic Fluid Heater (TFH) and Hot Air Generator (HAG) on equivalent fuel consumption basis.

Whereas, for boilers of coal or lignite based power plants the emission standards notified for thermal power plants, vide notification no S.O. 3305 (E), dated 7th December, 2015 shall be applicable";

(b)      Serial number 59 shall be omitted;

(c)      Serial number 37 shall be omitted.