Tehran Province's office of the Department of Environment is planning to enhance overnight monitoring of polluting industries in the Iranian capital in the new year that began on March 21.
Last year, following the dramatic rise in air pollutants in Tehran, overnight patrolling of industries commenced from late December and continued till the end of the Iranian year in March.
In addition to monitoring air pollutant emissions at night, DOE this year will expand its scope to include methods by which industries dispose of solid waste and wastewater, ISNA reported.
"Plans for daily and nightly monitoring of the units have been made and intensive environmental supervisions will continue this year," said Nasser Mehrdadi, the head of Tehran's DOE office.
It has been reported that to increase production capacity and reduce running costs, many industries turn off their filtration systems after work hours, thinking that the monitoring is either lax or nonexistent after daytime. The DOE chief, Massoumeh Ebtekar, has therefore "stressed the importance of overnight monitoring of industries to ensure 24-hour compliance with environmental regulations", Merhdadi said.
"The process will be carried out regularly and more strictly this yea. The DOE office will try to monitor as many industrial units as possible with the resources at its disposal."
Merhdadi noted that polluting industries that have already been surveyed and received warnings will also be monitored.
"In the monitoring process, wastewater outlets, filtration systems, online monitoring systems and the methods of waste removal will be controlled and any violation, including turning off of filtration systems, will be dealt with according to the law," he said.
