RIGA - The Environment Ministry has rejected Baltic Pulp's claim against a ban on a chlorine-dioxide bleaching method at a pulp mill designed for southeastern Latvia.
Didzis Jonovs, adviser to Environment Minister Raimonds Vejonis, said that the ministry rejected the claims on the basis that the environmental impact assessment bureau had the right to ban - in part of in full - certain industrial methods if they affected the environment.
The bureau previously ruled against Baltic Pulp using the bleaching method as drain water from the mill would end up in the Daugava River, a major source of Riga's drinking water.
The bureau reported that the mill would add a number of pollutants to the river, including chloro-organic compounds. If these entered Riga's drinking water treatment system, additional dioxins could develop and contaminate people's food and water. The mill is also expected to impact fish resources, as the Daugava's oxygen content has already hit a critically low level.
Baltic Pulp, however, said that in failing to examine all the evidence provided the bureau had taken a biased verdict. It said that the chlorine-dioxide bleaching method was officially considered one of the best available pulp-producing procedures in the EU.
The ministry also said that Latvian legislation required at least two technological solutions and two proposed locations for any plant like this to be assessed by the bureau, while Baltic Pulp offered only one location, located on Ozolsala Island near Jekabpils.
Despite a number of technological solutions offered, Baltic Pulp insisted on using the chlorine-dioxide method. "As the bureau has in its report detected a significant impact on the environment, including a possible impact on drinking water, the respective EU regulations have not been breached," stated the ministry.
Baltic Pulp could appeal the ministry's decision within a month at the regional administrative court. The final decision, however, will have to be made by the Latvian government.
The environment minister's adviser said that Vejonis would not be supporting construction of the Ozolsala mill. Pulp mill representatives said that the project was developed thoroughly, and that the ministry's conclusion would probably be vague.
Total investments for the Baltic Pulp project are estimated at around 900 million euros, which would make it the biggest investment project in Latvia and possibly the Baltics. The plant is to produce 600,000 tons of pulp a year and employ 350 people. Most of the timber used for producing the pulp should come from Latvia, Belarus and Russia.
Finland's Metsaliitto owns 67 percent of the project and is expected to take up the 33 percent still owned by the state.
