‘The results of the state environmental examination of Reftinskaya plant’s proposed upgrade might not be one hundred percent true from the start,’ the coordinator of Ecozashchita international environmental group Olga Podosenova said to UrBC.

Reftinskaya state district power plant (Enel OGK-5) actually conducted public hearings on the plant’s proposed ash handling system upgrade in the village of Reftinskiy, Sverdlovsk Region this January. The plant claims the upgrade is actually expected to reduce the damage done by the ash dumps to nature. Environmentalists, however, are very skeptical about the project and insist that the introduction of a new system will result in deforestation and damage to all other kinds of vegetation within ten to fifteen kilometers of the site. What is more, they believe the operation of the system will be detrimental to the local dwellers’ health.

‘There were many cases when an independent examination was conducted following the state one and it turned out that a project would have a very bad environmental impact. I see nothing wrong in conducting an independent environmental examination of the plant’s proposed upgrade project alongside with the state one,’ Podosenova added.