Sverdlovsk Region’s First Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Galina Pakhalchak made a report on the state environmental monitoring of the region. The Ministry and the Environmental Monitoring Center inspected 1,416 businesses and organizations between March 2006 and October 2007. As a result, 924 administrative suits were filed against a number of environmental offenders.

The spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports the activity of enterprises believed to be doing particularly a lot of harm to the environment is investigated by a special governmental committee. This year, for instance, Sverdlovsk Region Railways, Reftinskaya power station, and Russian Chrome 1915 were subject to rigorous scrutiny. It was reported that legal loopholes and lack of authority on the conservational organizations’ part were some of the factors that kept hindering effective environmental protection in the region.