23.01.2020 The Federation Council of the Russian Federation discussed measures to eliminate the consequences of the negative impact of wastes accumulated as a result of the activities of a number of enterprises
The Federation Council hosted a meeting "On measures to eliminate the consequences of the negative impact of wastes accumulated as a result of the activities of "Usoliekhimprom" and "Usolye-Sibirskiy silicone".
Opening the meeting, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management Alexei Mayorov emphasized that the event is being held in pursuance of the instructions of the Chairman of the Federation Council.
“We pay attention to the problematic issues of ensuring the environmental safety of the industrial site in order to eliminate the negative impact on the environment of hazardous wastes disposed at these facilities,” said Aleksey Mayorov.
Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee Elena Zlenko said that the Chairman of the Federation Council received an appeal from the director of the N.N. Vorozhtsov Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Elena Bagryanskaya on the elimination of the consequences of the negative impact of waste accumulated as a result of the activities of "Usoliekhimprom" and "Usolye-Siberian Silicon".
According to the senator, in order to solve this problem, there are a number of circumstances which should be taken into account. A legal framework already formed is currently aimed at eliminating the accumulated harm to the environment. Amendments to the Federal Law “On Environmental Protection” had been adopted, so that it had been supplemented by the special chapter “Elimination of Accumulated Environmental Damage”. A procedure had been established for identifying, assessing and recording objects of accumulated environmental damage, as well as the procedure for organizing work to eliminate it.
Elena Zlenko drew attention to the fact that until recently there had been no special legal regulation for the handling of extremely hazardous (1st hazardous class) and highly hazardous (2nd hazardous class) wastes, which did not allow the state to exercise control over the safe collection, accumulation, transportation, processing and disposal of such wastes. Attention was drawn to this problem at the State Council of the Russian Federation, held on December 27, 2016 http://kremlin.ru/acts/assignments/orders/53775.
The Federal Law "On Amendments to the Federal Law "On Production and Consumption of Wastes" and the Federal Law "On the State Atomic Energy Corporation "Rosatom" filled this gap.
The legislation provides for the creation of a federal scheme for the management of wastes of 1st and 2nd hazardous classes
The legislation provides for the creation of a federal scheme for the management of wastes of 1st and 2nd hazardous classes, the observance of which is a prerequisite for the implementation of activities for the management of such hazardous waste for all participants in the management of such waste. The federal scheme includes, inter alia, information on the generation and handling of hazardous waste, information on operators, information on facilities where hazardous waste is processed, utilized, neutralized and placed, including a flow diagram of such waste from its sources to the specified objects.
In addition, a federal operator for handling such wastes is determined. The features of hazardous waste management are introduced. It is established that individual entrepreneurs and legal entities, as a result of whose activities such wastes are generated, handle them independently or transfer them to a federal operator.
The senator pointed out that within the framework of the national project "Ecology", the federal project "Creation of infrastructure ensuring the safe handling of wastes of 1st and 2nd hazardous classes" information system for accounting and control over the management of such waste. The parliamentarian emphasized, that the implementation of this project and existing legal norms will allow to avoid the formation of new hazardous waste accumulation sites, to reduce the accumulated harm to the environment.