The Public Chamber opposed the construction of an oil waste storage site near Samara

As reported in the administration of the urban settlement of Novosemeikino, on Thursday, April 25, a visiting meeting of the Public Chamber of the Samara Region commission on ecology, environmental management and environmental protection was held, and the Public Chamber of the Samara Region fully supported the residents of the village in their reluctance to see a site for storage, processing and disposal of oil-containing waste and oil drilling waste on the territory of the settlement.

Social activists arrived in Novosemeykino and, together with their colleagues from the district public chamber, representatives of the administration of the village and the Krasnoyarsk region, as well as local activists, discussed the issue of monitoring the placement of a technological site for the storage, processing and disposal of oil-containing waste and waste from drilling oil sludge by the Perm company “Mercury” .

Olga Gorshkova, a member of the Public Council of the urban settlement of Novosemeikino, reported to the meeting participants on the current situation regarding the activities of Mercury in the settlement and on violations when issuing a license to the company for waste disposal.

The head of the urban settlement of Novosemeykino, Vladimir Lopatin, in turn, informed those present that in order to carry out the activities declared by Mercury on the site designated by them, it is necessary to hold public hearings to change the type of permitted use of the land plot.

The Chairman of the Public Chamber Commission on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Oksana Kovnir, after all the discussions, said that the Public Chamber of the Samara Region supports the residents of Novosemeikino, she emphasized that the activities of Mercury should be carried out exclusively in accordance with the law.

Let us remind you that the scandal surrounding the construction of the site in Novosemeikino broke out in April 2023. Local residents, while holding a cleanup day, quite by chance discovered unusual activity literally a few hundred meters from the nearest residential buildings: construction equipment, large-scale excavation work.

Representatives of the Mercury company, leading the work, met with residents of the urban settlement, trying to convince them that the construction of a site for the disposal of oily waste and drilling waste does not pose any environmental risks.

Literally a few days later, a deputy of the assembly of representatives of Novosemeikino, Tatyana Shentseva, who participated in the meeting with Mercury, published on her VKontakte page an official statement addressed directly to the district police, the district and regional prosecutor’s office, the Ministry of Forestry and Rosprirodnadzor, indicating that the land plot, where construction is taking place, no waste-related activities are envisaged at all according to the land use and development rules of Novosemeikino.

This began a protest of the local population, unprecedented in scale, which reached a fundamentally new level in February 2024. In the fight for our right to environmental well-being Residents of Novosemeykino demanded the creation of a protected natural area close to their homes.

IN March 2024 in Novosemeykino took place universal suffrage in the form of a meeting of residents. There were two questions on the agenda: do residents agree that a storage and disposal site for drilling waste and oil sludge should appear near the village, and whether they want to create a specially protected natural zone instead.

34.6% of eligible residents of Novosemeykino, or 3,116 people, took part in the voting. On the first question, the overwhelming majority of voting participants spoke “against” – 3105. There were only 11 people “for”. On the second question, the absolute majority of Novosemeykino residents voted “for”. Now a specially protected natural “Vodino Minerals” should appear near the village of Novosemeikino.

— Marina Yartseva