Despite widespread publicity and an official appeal from environmental activists, the State Environmental Inspectorate (SEI) has not responded to the fact that Turiansky Wind Park LLC is building wind turbines in the Runa valley without a positive environmental impact assessment (EIA).
This was reported by the NGO Ukrainian Nature Protection Group (UPG).
The activists simultaneously sent an appeal regarding the illegal, in their opinion, construction of the wind farm to the State Environmental Inspectorate and the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Development (SIAU).
SEI's reaction to the construction of the wind farm
The members of the UPG have not received any response from this inspection. And this is despite the fact that the head of the SEI, Ihor Zubovych, recently claimed that the supervisory authority he heads is open to the public. The CSO noted that the environmental inspectorate should have applied to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine for permission to conduct an unscheduled inspection long ago, but did not do so.
SIAU response
This inspectorate considered the activists' complaint at a meeting of the commission for consideration of appeals in the field of urban planning. A representative of the developer, Turiansky Wind Park LLC, was invited to attend. He did not deny the fact that work was already underway on the Runa meadow. The representative said that there was a foundation there and its height was 0 m, but argued that the construction of foundations for wind turbines was not a part of wind farm construction at all, and therefore they did not need an environmental impact assessment. That is, the developer considers the foundation separately from the wind turbines.
When asked by the commission members who was the customer of the EIA report, the developer's representative did not answer, saying that it needed to be clarified. In response, the activists reminded that the customer was Turiansky Wind Park LLC.
The SIAI commission is to announce its decision within a month. The UPG hopes that it will be in favor of nature.
What outraged the activists
The UPG emphasized that such an approach, when the foundation is considered separately from the wind turbine, is very questionable, because the word “foundation” is mentioned 290 times in the EIA report: first as a component of construction work, then when assessing the impact of wind farm construction on environmental components: air, soil, flora, etc.
“By this logic, can the foundation of, for example, a nuclear power plant be built without an EIA procedure?” asked the environmental activists.
In their opinion, in this way, the developer is trying to avoid responsibility for illegal work.
The other day, EcoPolitic wrote that a court in Zakarpattia refused to protect the Runa valley from illegal windmill development.
