EMISSIONS FROM ALAVERDI COPPER SMELTING COMPLEX MUST BE REDUCED BY 70% BY 2009
Noyan Tapan
Mar 05 2007
YEREVAN, MARCH 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Sulphur dioxide emissions from the
Alaverdi Copper Smelting Complex amount to 24 thousand tons annually,
for which Armenian Copper Program (ACP) CJSC makes an environmental
protection payment of 120 mln drams (about 288 thousand USD) every
year. NT correspondent was informed from Marzpet Kamalian, Deputy
Head of the State Environmental Protection Inspection of the RA
Ministry of Nature Protection that these emissions exceed 4-8fold the
permissible norm. According to him, in 2005 ACP company presented a
5-year program of environmental protection measures, under which in
2008 the complex’s emissions shall be reduced by 10%, while starting
from January 2009 – by 70%. M. Kamalian said that if the program
obligations are not fulfilled in time, the environmemtal payment to
be made by the company will be increased several times, as a result
of which the complex will either close or be declared bankrupt. ACP
Director Gagik Arzumanian noted that the most widespread method of
reducing exhaust gases is to produce sulphuric acid from them.
However, according to him, there are no prospects of sulphuric acid
production in Armenia now because such production can be organized only
in conditions of a stable and reliable sale market. That is why the
company tries to find other solutions to this problem. In the words
of Samvel Jamalian, a resident of the city of Alaverdi, the complex
does not use titanium filters and a dam to prevent arsenic from being
poured into the Debed River. "Filters were cut and sold, while the
dam is dilapidated and nobody builds a new one," he said, adding that
in recent year cases of congenital defects and various diseases have
become frequent in Alaverdi. The ACP director explained that no filter
or other similar equipment was dismantled and sold from the enterprise
which was re-launched in late 1997. At the same time, G. Arzumanian
noted that filters do not reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide: their
main function is to clean gases of dust in order to process them. As
for the dam, according to G. Arzumanian, unlike previously, now copper
is not refined at the plant so dangerous elements, including arsenic,
remain in concentrate. That is, the company sells unrefined black
copper. "The "arsenik graveyard" in Alaverdi belongs to the former
factory and has no relation to ACP company," G. Arzumanian noted.