Vasilieva: Volgograd enterprise "Plastcard" poisons the air

In Volgograd, the FSB bodies investigate the criminal case initiated against the managers of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Plastcard". The factory was disposing its Hazard Class 1 wastes as Class 3 wastes, having caused harm estimated as 370 million roubles. Ecologists assert that the main harm was rendered to human health. Defenders of the factory, on the other hand, assert that all the factory operations were coordinated with the "Rostechnadzor" (Federal Agency for Technical Supervision).

The press service of the OJSC "Kaustik" - a partner of the OJSC "Plastcard" - has placed a statement in its website, asserting that all the "Plastcard" operations are under the current legislation, upon the consent and under the control of the state agency - "Rostechnadzor".

The press service says that the FSB "has the only aim - to hamper the legitimate entrepreneurial activities of the OJSC 'Plastcard'."

At the same time, Volgograd-based ecologists assert that the investigation of this case deals only with financial issues, while the ecological safety of the people living in the immediate proximity from the factory is ignored.

Elena Vasilieva, head of the Information Centre "Volgograd-Ecopress", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the heaviest situation is in the Svetloyar District with its open sources of atmospheric pollution in the form of accumulation ponds of liquid toxic wastes.

According to Ms Vasilieva, bosses of the "Kaustik" and "Plastcard" "made steps not towards liquidation of such sources but towards concealment of ecologically-relevant data and continued to report their dangerous wastes as Class 3."

So far, the correspondent could not get any comments at the press service of the FSB for the Volgograd Region.