Participants of protest action in Volgograd oppose activity of "Tekhoil"

Today, in Volgograd, 17 ecologists and residents of the village of Dar-Gora held a protest action, demanding to stop the activities of the enterprise "Tekhoil". According to the City Mayoralty, complaints about pollution of environment by the refinery enterprise "Tekhoil" are not confirmed.

Protest action against the activities of the "Tekhoil". Photo report of Vyacheslav Yaschenko, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The rally in the centre of Volgograd was held today at 02: 00-04:00 p.m., the picketers were supported by the information centre "Volgograd-Ecopress" and the territorial public self-administration "Divnogorskiy". The activists were holding in their hands posters reading: "We cannot be suffocated any longer!", "Officials, who will stop lawlessness of 'Tekhoil'?", "Rosprirodnadzor (Russian Federal Agency for Supervising the Nature), take measures against 'Tekhoil'! They suffocate us!", "By giving permission to 'Tekhoil', you destroy us".

According to the participants of the protest action, the enterprise 'Tekhoil' continues its work at nights and on weekends without the permit. According to the laboratory "Centre for Ecological Control", the oil products content in the soil exceeded the background rates by 133-1722 times. This was reported by Elena Vasilieva, Director of the information centre "Volgograd-Ecopress".

In his turn, Igor Kaltyrin, Chief of Ecological Safety Division of the Department of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of the Volgograd administration, has noted that complaints on environmental pollution are not confirmed.

Dmitry Kichev, Director of the Municipal Enterprise "City Administration of analytical operational monitoring of environment", also confirmed the absence of excess of maximum allowable concentration of air pollutants caused by the refinery "Tekhoil".

In his telephone conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, Igor Priymachev, Director of the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Tekhoil", has reported that his enterprise is not working. "Our company is not working. We cannot pollute the environment," he stated.