Accumulator "King" Deceived Brest Residents

Residents of Brest are going to sue the state.

Brest Residents are discontented with the authorities’ decision to build an accumulator plant near the city. There was no room to turn in at a special meeting with representatives of local authorities and the project investor. However, Brest residents have recognized the meeting results as disdain and deceit and are going to sue the state, the television channel Belsat site writes.

Why do the people feel deceived?

They had been promised to get answers to all the questions, but when they asked what legitimate ways there were to stop the project, against which 8000 signatures had already been collected, the deputy chairman of the Brest regional executive committee announced that the meeting was over.

Last week, one of the administration representatives said, in fact, that it had been necessary to talk about the changes earlier, and that it was too late, as the procedure for public hearings was over. However, citizens’ lawyers believe that the procedure was carried out with violations.

The authorities and the investor keep saying: the residents’ fears are groundless, as the state ecological examination has recognized the project as safe.

What is the cause for the inhabitants’ distrust?

For example, the Sviatlahorsk Cellulose Combine, which, the authorities had also recognized as absolutely environmentally safe at the design stage, now, after the launch, has enveloped the surrounding villages with suffocating stench.

During the meeting, plant owner Viktar Lemiasheuski invited people to send to his office a delegation the next day, promising to show all the documents relating to the project’s ecology. But, when public representatives responded to the invitation, the company employees, who met them, refused to show all the required papers.

Another reason is Lemiasheuski's plant in Belaaziorsk

The enterprise is now involved in the criminal case on illegal discharge of lead waste on the ground near the village of Zialiony Bor. However, it’s not the plant itself which is the suspect in the offense, but the export contractor. Zialiony Bor residents are indignant that, no matter who is really to blame, for two years, the authorities have been refusing to conduct expertise and publish the results of those wastes’ impact on soil and water. The people of Brest, who live next to the accumulator plant under construction, demand to move it to a less populated place.