The State Ecological Inspectorate of the Prydniprovsky District has sent a letter demanding an unscheduled inspection of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih to find out the full list of reasons that led to the accidental release of coke oven gas into the air on Sunday, June 23.
This was reported by Olena Kryvoruchkina, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, on Facebook.
She emphasized that an unscheduled inspection is possible only in agreement with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine and personally with Minister Ruslan Strilets, and the efficiency and objectivity of such an inspection is exclusively in his area of responsibility.
The deputy also said that the previous version of the causes of the accident was confirmed: there was a sudden blackout of production facilities from DTEK. Due to excessively high temperatures of red-hot coke and coke gas, the equipment of coke plant No. 1 caught fire. Coke chemical workers were forced to resort to a number of crisis technological actions, which led to a sudden release of coke gas and its dangerous compounds into the atmosphere. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the fire was extinguished.
Olena Kryvoruchkina reported that on the day of the accident, the concentration of harmful substances in the air of the city significantly exceeded the permissible values, but at 7:40 a.m. they returned to normal. Therefore, there is currently no threat to the life and health of local residents related to Sunday's accident at the enterprise.
The deputy head of the eco-committee recalled that the Ministry of Environment gave permission for the emission of polluting substances to coke-chemical production.
"That's why it's important to objectively find out whether such a crazy emission is caused solely by the shutdown of production and the freelance situation, or were there other reasons that the Ministry of Environment turned a blind eye to when issuing the license?", she emphasized.
As EcoPolitic already reported, on Sunday, June 23, Kryvyi Rih and surrounding communities were covered with thick smoke due to an accident on the AMKR.
