Bekabad plant assessed 1.63 billion soums for air pollution

According to laboratory test results, emissions in the electric arc furnace shop exceeded the standard for sulfur dioxide by 1,533 times, carbon monoxide by 20 times, and inorganic dust by 2.4 times. In the ferroalloys production shop, inorganic dust emissions were 24.9 times above the limit, carbon monoxide 23.3 times, and nitrogen dioxide 2.12 times.

Inspectors also found that the dust and gas cleaning equipment in the steelmaking shop operated inefficiently, allowing a portion of the pollutants to escape directly into the atmosphere. In addition, the enterprise did not fully comply with the requirements of the environmental impact assessment, lacked automated monitoring systems at some pollution sources, and maintained insufficient laboratory oversight.

The enterprise was assessed a compensation payment of 1,630,920,419 soums for environmental pollution. Mandatory orders were issued to the management: fully replace the filters in the cleaning equipment, ensure its efficiency is no less than 95%, strengthen laboratory control, and install automatic monitoring stations at major pollution sources. The Eco-police reported that work to improve ambient air quality is continuing.