[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

Kazatomprom subsidiary in East Kazakhstan region fined for violating environmental code requirements, 1 May 2024

...Representatives of the East Kazakhstan Department of Ecology visited the Ulba Metallurgical Plant joint-stock company as part of the approved schedule of inspections for compliance with the requirements for the subject of control in the field of environmental protection for 2024...

"During the study of industrial environmental control reports for the 4th quarter of 2022, a number of violations were identified. The requirements of paragraph 24 of the Rules for the development of an industrial environmental control program for facilities of categories 1 and 2, maintaining internal records, forming and submitting periodic reports based on the results of industrial environmental control, Article 182, Article 184, Article 185, Article 187 of the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan were violated. Also, under the IEC program, the analysis of monitoring of emissions into the environment is improperly carried out. Based on the results of the inspection, two administrative offense protocols were initiated at the enterprise with the imposition of an administrative fine in the total amount of 738,400 tenge with the possibility of payment in the order of shortened proceedings (-50%)," the department reported.

The environmentalists also noted that for the 3rd quarter of 2023, the discharge standards for pollutants were exceeded, that is, the requirements of another article of the Environmental Code were violated, which formed the composition of an administrative offense under Part 1 of Article 328 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses. This article provides for a fine in the amount of one thousand percent of the rate of payment for emissions into the environment for the exceeded volume of emissions, carried out by a calculation method for which there is no shortened proceedings. Based on the results of the calculation, a fine of 7,042,143 tenge was imposed...