Bresters: We Will Come To Square Till They Close The Plant

The battery plant near Brest is preparing for the launch, but the opponents do not lose hope to close it down.

- There is hope! They have finally heard us! - with such exclamations, an initiative group of opponents of the battery plant left the building of the Brest regional executive committee.

It is now hot in Brest. Not only because of the +34 C heat and urgent preparations for the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the city in September. The situation was heated around the plant for the production of lead-rechargeable batteries, LLC “IPower”, which is preparing to be launched in Brest, writes kp.by.

The fight against the plant has been going on for almost one and a half years. Throughout this time, there have been persistent demands to hold repeated public discussions of the project, collection of signatures against the plant, correspondence with various instances, protests in the square, meetings in the large hall with the officials, specialists from the Ministry of Environment, sanitary and other departments. The activists collected a pile of documents about the Brest plant and similar industries in the world. They recorded the song “Live” about their unwillingness to be poisoned with lead, made T-shirts and balloons with protest symbols, created a website and groups in the social networks. They are constantly detained and fined for unauthorized assemblies in the square, and against one of the protesters the authorities opened a criminal case for storing ammunition - and this fact is interpreted by the activists as intimidation.

“We will come out to the square until the plant is closed,” they insist.

Representatives of the authorities and the management of the plant still urged the townspeople and the residents of the suburbs that the plant would be safe and lead emissions would be insignificant. The initiative group categorically disagreed with this, throwing new arguments into the fire, and expressing intelligent but persistent protest. In the meantime, the plant was built. They brought expensive equipment, hired employees. Now commissioning work is underway there.

“IF THERE ARE ANY LEGAL GROUNDS”

On Sunday, June 9, the protest unexpectedly gained the second wind - about 300 people who gathered in the square were invited to meet with the “mayor” of the city, Aliaksandr Rahachuk.

“There are no grounds for launching the plant at the moment,” said Aliaksandr Rahachuk.

He confirmed that the memorandum of the regional environmental committee to the regional executive committee, which hit the Internet, was not fake. It states that the “established standards for permissible emissions of pollutants into the atmospheric air” have been exceeded during commissioning.

On Wednesday, June 12, the initiative group of the opponents of the plant came to a personal reception to the “governor” Anatol Lis. He said at a briefing in March that if violations of environmental legislation were discovered, the plant would not work.

- In my opinion, the ice has broken. It was announced: if these facts are confirmed, they will have every reason to at least suspend the plant or close it altogether, - one of the leaders of the protest group, Aliaksandr Kabanau, shares his impressions.

The regional authorities intend to clarify the case in the near future.

- Chairman of the regional executive committee Anatol Lis said that we would be poisoned for another month while they are figuring things out. He assured us that until Sunday, June 16, or within the next week, he would check all the facts that we had provided and make a management decision. Of course, he said that he could not just shut down the plant on his own whim, but if there were legal grounds ... - says Raman Kislyak, the human rights activist who provides legal assistance to the activists.

"AROUND 3 KG OF LEAD"

As long as the question remains open, there is the “lead watch” on duty near the battery plant in the free economic zone outside Brest.

- The plant does not remain without supervision for five minutes, even at night. We look at what is happening here, how lead is being brought in or something is being taken out, whether smoke comes from the chimney, how trucks are trying to go somewhere - all this must be recorded,” the volunteer of the watch says.

Director of the IPower plant Siarhei Melnikovich only shrugs his shoulders - they say, he is already used to the fact that he is always in sight, and there is always someone at the fence. He is even ready to take some activists to the plant and show the equipment and cleaning systems. But only some - not those who are delegated by the protesters themselves.

He talks a lot and in great detail about equipment, production technology, cleaning systems, answers naive questions about why the grass has subsided near the plant and in every way demonstrates openness. It’s just, it seems difficult to understand this all without special knowledge.

According to the project, the plant can emit no more than 3 kg of lead per year into the environment. The plant has 38 emission sources. Two of them do not fit into the prescribed standards, both relate to lead. So far it turns out that at full load - the production of 2 million batteries per year - the plant exceeds the standard by 124 grams per year. Plant managers do not see this as a problem.

- We stick to our point of view. We are ready to confirm the design decisions. Do not say we emit 300 kg or 3 tons. We can unequivocally state that today the passport data have been confirmed, even taking into account the fact that we do not fit in with regard to two sources. Don’t say we are cornered and there are no solutions. There is a standard solution that applies to all enterprises, and we are not unique in this sense. If we do not confirm any of our project decisions, there are procedures for making changes to the project documentation. We will legalize real emissions, - explains Director of IPower Siarhei Melnikovich.

And he adds that in any case, the plant will emit “around 3 kilograms” of lead. Complex and expensive super-filters, that were made by the order, will help to achieve this. Plus own laboratory control. At the plant they say that the Belarusian standards - more stringent than in Europe - would generally allow to emit about 120 kg of lead per year. But the plant, as a socially responsible enterprise, tried to reduce emissions to only 3 kg per year. Like, why be afraid, you need to be proud.

Commissioning works are now carried out at the plant carried. In order for the acceptance certificate to be signed, the plant must confirm the design emission figures. The Republican Center for Ecological Expertise and the Brest Regional Department of State Construction Supervision have not yet concluded their opinion.

There is a rumor among the fighters against the plant that some principal representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources does not put the most important signature, and all hope is on him or her: the plant is waiting for them to say yes, and the activists expect a no. The plant management does not demonstrate any alert about this, and says that postponement of the facility’s launch is a common practice. The latest date is June 21.

The residents of the nearby villages are almost sure that the plant management is deceiving about emissions. Because, as they found out, there are no such battery plants in the world that would produce less than 100 kg of lead.

- I don’t understand why our beautiful country, where the only thing that can be effective and useful is an agricultural complex, needs to build such enterprises. Look around! There we have a farm, there are collective farm fields, there is an apple orchard, the small fruit acreages are awesome, wheat is constantly planted there. The fields stretch out to the horizon, followed by another farm. Here is the manufacturer of mushrooms, and the greenhouse plant. At 6 in the morning I ride a bike - and I meet anyone! Finches fly, bunnies run across the road. Where does it all go? Understand, I do not mind the plant in principle. But why here? - argues Siarhei, the resident of the village of Telmy, which is located 2.5 kilometers away from the plant.

Even the participants of the confrontation wonder how this epic struggle will end.