A breach in the embankment of Slurry Pond No. 5 at Central Coalfields Limited’s Kathara Washery in Bokaro has sent coal waste towards the Damodar river after heavy rain, prompting repairs and a pollution assessment by authorities.
The breach occurred on Wednesday evening after part of the embankment gave way, according to a report by the Times of India. Rainwater carried slurry out of the pond over the following two to three days. The incident has raised concerns about possible contamination of the river, which receives water from the surrounding coal-mining and industrial region.
Vivek Kujur, regional officer of the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board’s Dhanbad region, said the board was looking into the matter. The statement indicates that an official assessment is underway, although the supplied report does not provide results from water-quality sampling or confirm the extent of any pollution in the Damodar.
Around 30,000 tonnes of slurry coal was stored in the pond, which was the last such pond at the Kathara Washery. Slurry and water discharged from the washery are collected there. The material had accumulated over several years after private firms stopped using the pond to produce briquette coal around 2010, according to CCL sources cited in the report.
Workers said the water level in the pond had been rising and that seepage beneath the embankment had been noticed in the days before the breach. Continuous heavy rainfall is believed to have increased pressure on the structure. The supplied report does not establish whether the seepage had been formally recorded or whether a preventive intervention was ordered before the failure.
CCL officials went to the site after receiving information about the breach. CCL Kathara area general manager AKB Singh inspected the location and directed project officials to plug the damaged section immediately and stop further discharge. Singh did not comment on the incident, according to the report.
Repair work began on Thursday morning. OBR stones were being placed in the damaged stretch and compacted with dozers to rebuild the embankment. Officials said their immediate priority was to seal the breach and prevent additional slurry and water from reaching the river.
The incident brings together two operational risks at coal-washing facilities: the long-term storage of accumulated waste and the ability of containment structures to withstand intense rainfall. In this case, the pond had reportedly remained in use for collecting slurry and washery water despite the earlier end of briquette production, while the material stored inside had not been cleared for years.
The next confirmed steps are the completion of the embankment repair and the Pollution Control Board’s examination of the matter. The available report does not state whether the pond will be emptied, whether stored slurry will be removed, or whether a detailed investigation into the embankment’s condition will follow.
