When modernizing, environmental requirements must be taken into account as much as possible
Vitebsk environmentalists intend to demand compliance with environmental requirements during the modernization of enterprises, said Ruslan Vinokurov, Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, to journalists today, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
"The current year will be a year of large-scale modernization in industry and the agro-industrial sector in the Vitebsk region. Therefore, the task of environmentalists is to ensure that environmental requirements are taken into account as much as possible during modernization," the committee chairman said.
In 2012, measures were implemented in the region to optimize technological equipment, eliminating 14 emission sources. Six units of equipment, which were morally and technically obsolete, were put into operation, and 15 technological lines and equipment units were reconstructed and modernized. As a result of technical re-equipment, emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere have been reduced by more than 140 tons per year. 31 environmentally hazardous objects were removed from water protection zones and coastal strips.
At the same time, according to Ruslan Vinokurov, there are many problems in the region concerning the protection of atmospheric air, water and land resources. Last year, environmentalists inspected almost 20,000 territories of various facilities. As a result of the inspections, almost 5.6 thousand violations of environmental legislation were identified. Committee specialists identified and eliminated 1.1 thousand unauthorized landfills. According to the results of analytical control, exceedances of permissible discharge standards were established in 41 cases at 21 enterprises, and 4 cases of violation of wastewater discharge conditions into municipal sewage systems were detected. According to environmentalists, insufficient modernization and replacement of refrigeration equipment at dairy farms in some districts of the region leads to the greatest use of ozone-depleting substances in the total volume.