Environmentalists blacklisted the Tolochin Cannery
Environmentalists have included the RUP "Tolochin Cannery" in the blacklist of malicious violators of environmental legislation, BELTA reports with reference to the official website of the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.
In 2012, the Tolochin District Inspectorate for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection drew up 12 protocols against the Tolochin Cannery for violating water protection legislation, including two against company officials, for a total amount of Br29.7 million.
Among the most significant violations by the enterprise is the discharge of industrial wastewater from the starch production workshop, which led to the death of 11.5 thousand fish of various species in the ponds on the Rogachevka River. The cannery violated the rules for operating water management structures and devices that prevent water pollution. The Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection conducted a monitoring of the starch production workshop. As a result, it was established that the mechanical treatment facilities, consisting of four settling tanks and receiving wastewater from potato washing with discharge into the river, are in unsatisfactory condition. The treatment system, which should operate as a circulating water supply without discharging wastewater into the Rogachevka, is not functioning.
Contrary to the resolution of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the cannery does not conduct local environmental monitoring, the object of which is the discharge of wastewater from mechanical treatment facilities into a water body. The biological treatment facilities, built in 1976, were completely destroyed at the time of the monitoring. Industrial and washing wastewater from the starch production workshop flows into biological ponds, which are filled with wastewater by 100%. Four sludge fields and a slag pad are also filled. The enterprise has not developed water consumption and wastewater discharge standards in accordance with the requirements of the Water Code of Belarus.
Based on the monitoring results, recommendations were sent to the Tolochin Cannery to eliminate the identified violations.
The Tolochin Cannery became the third enterprise on the blacklist of Vitebsk ecologists. Prior to this, the list included the unitary enterprise of housing and communal services of the Rossony district and the closed joint-stock company "Vitebskagroproduct".