Data Recorded by The Electronic Self-monitoring System
Data Recorded by The Electronic Self-monitoring System
As you already know, industrial facilities are obliged to continuously determine their emissions using a self-monitoring tool from June 1, 2021. Self-monitoring data is directly reflected in the Ministry’s electronic database. In order to find out how the electronic self-monitoring system works, on June 2 this year, our team requested the data recorded by the system during 2022 for one of the first three enterprises that began to fulfill this obligation. These are: “MN Chemical Georgia” LLC, “Heidelberg Cement Georgia” LLC and “Geosteel” LLC.
Self-monitoring data is requested for each pollutant with reference to permissible norms. First of all, we were interested in whether the self-monitoring system detected an excess of the concentration of any pollutant from any enterprise, and what was the responsive measure taken by the Ministry.
As it is clear from the response of the Ministry on June 30, one of the emission sources of “MN Chemical Georgia” LLC was found to have exceeded the norm of air-dust mixture temperature (t0C), and on January 30, 2023, an authorized employee of the department drew up a protocol on an administrative offense, pursuant to Article 79[1] of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia. The materials were sent for review to Rustavi City Court. By the resolution of April 19, 2023, the court terminated the criminal proceedings.
In addition, based on the response received on June 30, which included tables showing the data recorded in the Ministry’s database, we sent another clarifying letter. In the table sent by the ministry, it appeared that a significant excess of CO was recorded from one of the “Heidelberg Cement” LLC emission sources. Accordingly, we got interested if the department had taken appropriate measures.
As it is clear from the response of the Ministry on July 28, an authorized person of the Department of Environmental Supervision issued a protocol on July 26, 2023, on an administrative offense against “Heidelberg Cement Georgia” LLC, which was sent to the Rustavi City Court for review by the department’s letter dated July 27, 2023.
In addition, on June 16, 2023, an authorized person of the Department of Environmental Supervision drew up an administrative offense protocol against “Geosteel” LLC for the offense of the Article 798, Part 2, Sub-paragraphs “a” and “b” of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia. By letter dated June 20, it was forwarded to the Rustavi City Court for review.
As you can see, despite the fact that these enterprises have been retooled, in certain cases excesses of a specific pollutants are still recorded, therefore it is important to control the norms of self-monitoring and to ensure maximum compliance of these norms by the enterprises.
[1] https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/28216?publication=532