"Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev has instructed Rosprirodnadzor to sue the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant for damages to a body of water [Lake Baikal] resulting from the unsanctioned dumping of pollutants," the ministry said in a press release.
Russia's environmental watchdog applied on Monday to the Irkutsk arbitration court with a petition to suspend the plant's operation for polluting Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake.
Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, earlier said the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant currently had no license for the use of the lake's water or contracts specifying the approved volume of wastewater discharges.
In early November, Mitvol said the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant, which had earlier failed to extend its water use license, should suspend its operations, adding that wastewater discharges by pulp and paper enterprises were among the worst in industry.
The Baikal pulp mill, which produces 200,000 metric tons of pulp and 12,000 metric tons of paper per year, is located in East Siberia. The mill is owned by the timber industrial company Continental Management (51%) and the State Property Committee of Russia (49%).
