So I come across this list of worst polluted sites in Forbes. The list is based of a study conducted by U.S.-based Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental group, in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland

The 2007 worst polluted sites are unranked and listed alphabetically, by country

Sumgayit, Azerbaijan;

Linfen, China;

Tianying, China;

Sukinda, India;

Vapi, India;

La Oroya, Peru;

Dzerzhinsk, Russia;

Norilsk, Russia;

Chernobyl, Ukraine;

Kabwe, Zambia.

And before today, I have never heard of Sukinda. Vapi, yes I have heard of the name and never would I have thought that these places would make it to the most polluted site.

A bit of googling and I found these,

• Vapi has the second largest industrial area in Asia and the industrial area is dominated by small-scale chemical plants.
• The Common Effluent Treatment Plant (or CETP) in Vapi, is the largest of its kind in Asia treating the pollutants from the industrial units before being released into the Daman Ganga River. The CETP is run by Vapi Waste & Effluent Management Company, promoted by the Vapi Industries Association.
• Vapi and the Ankleshwar area were declared “critically polluted” by the Central Pollution Control Board of India (CPCB) in 1994.
• Local produce has been found to contain up to 60 times more heavy metals. And more environmental data of interest to the environmental engineer.
• Sukinda Valley, in the State of Orissa, contains 97% of India’s chromite ore deposits and one of the largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world.
• Mines continue to operate without any environmental management plans and over 30 million tons of waste rocks are spread over the surrounding areas and the Brahmani riverbanks.
• In Sukinda, no decisive plans to provide for effective health monitoring and abatement programs are in place till date.

In my knowledge of Indian Environmental Laws, there is nothing much about clean-up of such heavily contaminated sites (Please correct me if I am wrong). Might be something similar to the Superfund Law (CERCLA) to protect people, families, communities and others from heavily contaminated sites is needed in India asap!

And as I sit here typing this, thinking about the work on hand – modeling a landfill in California, I wonder when I can use my modeling skills and apply them to India and use my technical expertise in the land I love. Does anyone know any NGO’s or environmental groups in India that could use the help of a modeler with experience in developing finite-difference models for contaminant sites?