Romania must close 22 non-conforming landfills by July
Date: 18-03-2010
Romania must close 22 non-conforming landfills by July 16 if it wants to avoid a fresh warning from the European Union, chief commissioner of the National Environmental Inspectors Silvian Ionescu told Agerpres on Friday.'The closure of the municipal waste deposits is in full swing. The European Union's deadlines are set on each July 16 of each year by 2017. We have to get our landfills fully in line by then. For the moment, we must have 22 non-conforming landfills closed on July 16, 2010 in order to avoid a fresh warning letter from Brussels. We, the Environmental Inspectors, will see to it that these landfills are closed by the deadline set', Ionescu stressed.
The most recent statistic figures released by the Inspectors in early February show that the environmental commissioners last year carried out 43,283 controlling operations on environmental protection, natural habitats, biodiversity and protected areas; they gave 3,097 fines totalling 49.276 million lei (1 euro=4,09 lei).
Furthermore, as many as 24 criminal protocols were issued, of which 20 were for facilities illegally digging stones for ballast, i.e. without having an environmental permit. Tax evasion in this area totals nearly one billion euros a year, with some 60 percent of the ballast-digging facilities operating illegally by last mid-year, Ionescu said.
As many as 685 rural landfills and 11 urban landfills were operational in last September; the deadline for their closure due to non-conformity was July 16. The National Environmental Inspectors will have 830 staff this year, nearly double from 2005, when there were less than 400 environmental commissioners.
