The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has apparently begun complying with the directive of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for ascertaining the extent of contamination at abandoned quarries in Mudalipalayam and Nallur villages where the Tiruppur City Municipal Corporation has been dumping wastes for several years.

Against the backdrop of the CPCB categorising the abandoned quarries as ‘suspected contamination site’ under the Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025, a team of TNPCB collected water samples from nine locations around the abandoned quarries.

Though the TNPCB usually undertakes the sampling before and after spells of rainfall, the activity this time is seen as a facilitating step for declaration of the location as a contaminated site.

The ‘contaminated site declaration process’ requires the TNPCB to undertake a preliminary site assessment for categorisation as ‘potentially contaminated site’.

The process will then move on to wait for 60 days for the Board to receive public opinion, before declaration of the location as ‘final contaminated site’.

TNPCB officials, however, maintained the sampling of water from around the quarries as a ‘routine process’.

Environmentalists who have been demanding effective steps by the district administration view the latest order of Supreme Court delegating Statutory powers under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, for enforcing Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026, as a positive development.