Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities for the environment detected an instance of polluting the River Chusovaya with toxic substances; the culprit is Russian Chrome 1915.

‘The company has been using obsolete filtering equipment that cannot cope with the amount of waste discharge, which means it’s doing harm to the environment,’ the prosecution authorities say.

The investigation revealed that the company, which happens to be a water consumer, has been dumping inadequately filtered waste water from its neutralization station into the River Pakhotka. The waste water’s chrome content exceeded the permissible discharge limit by 20 times, the iron content was 46 times the maximum. What is more, the enterprise was detected crossly to violate the water use regulations by exceeding its waste water permissible discharge limits last year.

The old filtering facilities were actually launched as early as 1987 and are simply unfit for today’s amount of harmful wastes.

Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities for the environment placed a claim against Russian Chrome 1915 with the court. The authorities want the defendant to elaborate a filtering facilities reconstruction project and to implement this project to make sure the waste water is only discharged into the rivers in accordance with the existing regulations.

The authorities also took administrative action, with charges based on Article 7.6 of the Russian Administrative Offense Code (non-compliance with the existing regulations for operating a body of water) and Article 8.14 (Part 1) of the Russian Administrative Offense Code (violation of water use regulations).

The sanctions prescribed in the Code provide for some fines and a halt on the company’s activity.