MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's natural resources minister demanded on Thursday that the Baikal pulp mill stop dumping unpurified waste into Lake Baikal immediately, the Natural Resources Ministry said.
"During a conference, Yury Trutnev demanded that the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill management immediately stop dumping unpurified waste into Lake Baikal, and that it switch to a closed circuit water supply system," the ministry's press release said.
The mill's license to use water from Lake Baikal expired in early November. The environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor subsequently filed a lawsuit against the enterprise for damages of over 475 million rubles ($19 million) inflicted in the first ten days following its expiration. The Ministry of Natural Resources later appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office over environmental violations by the mill.
The Baikal Pulp and Paper 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%).
Trutnev ordered that Rosprirodnadzor set up a joint commission with the mill to work out a plan on purification and treatment facilities and heat supply from the mill.
The commission is due to report to the ministry in a week's time.
