“Gavigudet” Attended the Public Deliberation on the EIA Report of “Ferro Alloys Production” LLC

Today, on August 1, the civil movement “Gavigudet” attended the public deliberation on the EIA report of “Ferro Alloys Production” LLC, held in Rustavi City Hall.

Representatives of the company, National Environment Agency and City Hall attended the meeting.

The company plans to produce ferrosilicomanganese, for which it wants to set up an agglomeration plant. The maximum power capacity of the agglomeration production is 135 tons per day and 44, 550 tons a year. For the production 15 baking plates will be arranged.

In order to prepare comments, notes and recommendations about the abovementioned EIA report, our group held a working group meeting, together with the invited trainer on July 29.

Many remarks and issues to be clarified were discovered throughout the different parts of the EIA report, starting from the quality and technical fluency of the whole report, which made it difficult for the readers to receive the relevant information about the project.

Out of 28 notes/comments, that we sent to the National Environment Agency, we are sharing the ones, we emphasized during the meeting. Those were mostly related to the atmospheric air pollution and the impact mitigation means. For example,

– the EIA report did not include “Heidelbergcement Georgia” LLC in the 500 meter radius, while calculating the cumulative impact on the air pollution, whereas the pollution source of the latter is located in 420 meters from the cadastral boundary of the project territory. “Rustavi Steel” is not also considered as the pollutant in the common area.

– Maximum allowable concentration levels are almost on the edge of the limit, still the impact on the atmospheric air is considered as “moderate”. It is unclear for us, on which basis was this evaluation made.

– The EAI report does not provide the clear information if the drainage channels are set up on the territory of the enterprise.

– The report does not include the documentation that proves the communication between the company and Rustavi City Hall about the routs and intensity of the transportation of the materials, used in the production process. There is no information about the companies, providing the necessary material.

– No information is provided if the vehicles, loaded with the products, will be cleaned from the excess dust before leaving the enterprise territory, in order to reduce the impact, caused by the spread of dust during transportation.

– The alternatives are not properly justified in terms of environmental protection, but only in terms of economic benefits.

Our movement also asked from the National Environment Agency to send all our comments to the company as well, in order to properly be taken into consideration in future administrative proceedings.

The News was prepared with the financial support of “European Endowment for Democracy” in the framework of the project “Defending Our Right to Clean Air”.