President of the Professional Association of Ecologists of Ukraine (PAEU) Lyudmila Tsyganok said that the Association can provide expert assistance and join the compilation of the List of measurement methods for, among other things, recovery of damage caused by the war.
Currently, such a list is not available in the regulatory legal acts of the Ministry of Natural Resources or in the regulatory documents that are referenced in the regulatory legal acts of the Ministry, reports ECOBUSINESS.
The material noted that Ukraine will initiate the creation of a Global Platform for the development of international methodologies for assessing environmental damage from military operations and has developed new methods for calculating environmental damage as a result of war. For this, the Cabinet of Ministers on September 30, 2022 expanded the powers State Ecological Inspectorate.
The PAEU emphasized that the issues of methodology and application of instrumental and laboratory methods of control are quite debatable, both regarding the powers of the State Environmental Inspectorate in the exercise of state supervision (control) in the usual mode, and military aggression, military, terrorist or other criminal acts, including from the beginning acts of the legal regime of martial law.
The discussion is about:
- according to part 1 of Art. 3 of the Law of Ukraine "On Metrology and Metrological Activities" environmental control refers to the field of legally regulated metrology, in relation to which, in order to ensure the uniformity of measurements and traceability, state regulation is carried out regarding measurements, units of measurement and measuring equipment;
- according to part 3 of Art. 7 of this Law, measurement methods in the field of legally regulated metrology, mandatory for use, are determined in regulatory legal acts or in regulatory documents, to which there are appropriate references in regulatory legal acts.
“Requirements for technical competence and independence, which must be met by enterprises, institutions and organizations related to the management of the State Environmental Inspectorate, authorized or authorized to carry out measurements not related to the assessment of the conformity of products, processes and services in the field of legally regulated metrology and the procedure for such authorization, approved by order of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine on October 18, 2018 No. 363, provide for the use of methods that fall under the scope of legally regulated metrology,” the material says.
PAEU applied to the Ministry of Natural Resources with a request to clarify questions on the methods:
- determination of gas and dust flow parameters and concentrations of pollutants in the atmospheric air and emissions from organized stationary and mobile sources;
- determination of the composition and properties of water, concentrations of pollutants, hydrobiological and toxicological indicators;
- determination of the composition and properties of soils, concentrations of pollutants in the soil.
In the general response of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the State Environmental Inspectorate, officials explained that at present there is no list of measurement methods.
After holding consultative meetings of the Ministry of Natural Resources with representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Development, the draft order "On approval of the List of measurement methods that are mandatory for use by authorized enterprises, institutions and organizations related to the management of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, when conducting measurements in the field of legally regulated metrology, the time of monitoring the state of the environment was withdrawn.
Ecologists noted that in the context of the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On Metrology and Metrological Activities", the failure to resolve the issue of the Ministry of Natural Resources on the approval of the List of measurement methods that are mandatory for use when making measurements in the field of legally regulated metrology while monitoring the state of the environment, and the absence of such methods puts under doubt the results of the instrumental and laboratory methods of control of the State Environmental Inspectorate, the amount of damage caused to the environment, calculated on the basis of this method, and the possibility of their recovery.
"The PAEU, realizing the need for uniformity of measurements, including in the international plane, and data verification, prevention of negative impact on the environment of Ukraine and recovery of damage caused by the aggressor, are ready to provide expert assistance and join the compilation of the List of measurement methods mandatory for use in carrying out measurements in the field of legally regulated metrology while monitoring the state of the environment," Tsyganok said.
As EcoPolitic reported before, Professional Association of Ecologists of Ukraine (PAEU) criticized the Ministry of Circulation for not considering 7 proposals business to the new draft law "On Environmental Impact Assessment".
