EcoPolitic has gathered for its readers the 5 most significant cases of environmental damage reported by the press services of prosecutors' offices and units of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine during the week of November 30-December 6.
1. Prosecutors of the Znamiansk District Prosecutor's Office served a notice of suspicion to the director of a utility company in Kropyvnytskyi district over the pollution and damage to land by substances and waste that posed a danger to human life and health and the environment (Part 1 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
From 2018 to 2023, a company engaged in garbage collection and landscaping systematically littered and polluted the land on which it was located.
The expert examination found that the land plot of 61717 square meters was contaminated with sulfates, phosphorus, chlorides, ammonium and nitrates, and the environment was damaged in the amount of over UAH 180 million.
2. Specialists of the Environmental Inspectorate of the Capital District calculated the damages and filed a claim against the Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve for more than UAH 5.6 million for haying on the territory of the Rassokhiv Environmental Research Department of the Reserve.
3. Environmental inspectors of the Central District calculated damages due to illegal fishing by unidentified persons in the waters of the Kremenchuk Reservoir within the Sulynskyi Nature Reserve in Poltava Oblast. They amounted to almost UAH 2.5 million.
4. In the Ternopil region, the municipal enterprise “Miskvodhosp” of the Kremenets City Council received a claim from the environmental inspection for more than UAH 1.3 million for excessive discharges of pollutants into the Ikva River in excess of the established maximum permissible discharge standards.
5. Prosecutors in Prykarpattia handed over to court the case of a deputy from the village of Verkhovyna, who is accused of polluting the lands on more than 500 thousand UAH.
The character is the head of a utility company. He gave orders to his subordinates to periodically store waste on a plot of land on the territory of the enterprise. This led to its contamination with harmful substances – barium, nickel, arsenic, chromium, manganese, sulfates and nitrates.
At the same time, the defendant did not take the necessary measures to eliminate these violations. Local residents complained that the illegal landfill spreads a terrible stench, and toxic substances from it get into the Black Cheremosh River.
To recap, you can read information about the most significant environmental violations of the previous week in our digest for November 23-29.