The Commercial Court of Sumy Region has ordered the Konotop Water Utility (Konotop Municipal Utility Company) to pay more than UAH 1.8 million for polluting the Yezuch River with untreated wastewater.
The company will compulsorily pay the damages caused by the violation of environmental protection legislation, the State Environmental Inspectorate in Sumy region reports on Facebook.
It is noted that environmental inspectors discovered the violations in November 2021 during an unscheduled inspection on behalf of the Prime Minister of Ukraine. They calculated UAH 1,883,094 in damages for the pollution of Yezuch.
The report said that the environmental inspectors had filed a claim with the water utility for voluntary compensation, but the company refused to do so. The inspection materials were also sent to law enforcement agencies, which opened a criminal investigation into water pollution (Article 242 of the Criminal Code).
"In connection with the violator's refusal to voluntarily indemnify the damage, the Inspectorate filed a claim with the court. The fact of violation and the fault of the business entity was proven in court and, therefore, the damages will be collected in full from the KP VUVKG of Konotop compulsorily," the message says.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in the Sumy region, an unauthorized discharge of sewage into the Psel River and the Kosivshchyna Reservoir was discovered, which could lead to an ecological disaster.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the court forced the state-owned enterprise "Dubnovodokanal", located in the Rivne region, to reimburse 1.6 million hryvnias damages for the discharge of wastewater into the Ikva River. Eco-inspectors discovered violations in February 2020, during an inspection, on behalf of the Prime Minister of Ukraine.
