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Pulp mill to pay fine of 11,900 mln RUR for damage to Baikal

The court declined to grant an appeal about calling back the respective decision of the Irkutsk Region Court and the Fourth arbitrattion court of appeals

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

IRKUTSK, November 24 (Itar-Tass) — The Baikalsky pulp-and-paper mill (BPPM) will pay a fine of 11,900 million roubles for environmental damage inflicted on Lake Baikal, according to a ruling issued by the Federal arbitration court of the Eastern Siberia District on Wednesday, an official at the regional department of the Rosprirodnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Nature Resources) for Irkutsk Region told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

The court declined to grant an appeal about calling back the respective decision of the Irkutsk Region Court and the Fourth arbitrattion court of appeals. The funds enforced by the court are to be referred to the budget of Slyudyansk District of Irkutsk Region," the Rosprirodnadzor official pointed out.

In June this year, the Arbitration court of Irkutsk Region issued a ruling to levy 11,900 million roubles on BPPM under a suit filed by the Rosprirodnadzor department for Irkutsk Region. Breaches of the Federal Law on the Protection of Lake Baikal and the Russian governent's Decision 643, dated August 30, 2001, served as a legal ground for the decision to enforce the funds.

An inspection had revealed that the concentration of pollutants in the mill's effluents discharged into the Lake since May 2010 exceeded permissible norms for aluminium by 30 percent; those for suplhate ion were 1.6-5.4 times higher than the norms, suspended matter -- by a factor of 1.9-4, phenols -- 38-68 times over, turpentine -- 1.2 times over, petroleum products -- 1.1, and lignin was 3.6-15.5 times higher than the norm.

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