Yevhenii Medvedovskyi on inspections in Irshansk: "What matters to us is the actual result, not paperwork"

Earlier the enterprise was already caught polluting the Irsha River with untreated wastewater, for which the state assessed losses in the millions, and the police opened a criminal case. Now environmental inspectors have returned to the site with new checks and lab technicians to take water samples. Have utility workers started protecting the local nature — read on.

Old sins and multimillion penalties for utility workers

The story began when environmental inspectors arrived for an unscheduled check at the Irshan Municipal Utility Company and were shocked by the state of the local treatment facilities. They found that the company was clearly violating standards and discharging harmful substances into the Irsha River.

The consequences at that time turned out to be very serious:

The environmental inspection billed the state losses at 1 million 641 thousand hryvnias and issued an official claim to the enterprise.

A separate demand was sent to the Irshanske Village Council as the owner of the municipal enterprise, demanding immediate fixes.

In addition, the collected materials were forwarded to the police, which opened a criminal proceeding.

Why environmental inspectors returned to the Irsha River

Now inspectors have arrived at the enterprise again to verify whether it has complied with their previous directive. The main goal is to understand whether the utility workers have really plugged the holes in their work and stopped damaging the environment.

Special attention is given to the operation of the treatment facilities. To avoid taking the company’s word for it, lab technicians from the Instrumental-Laboratory Control Department were brought in: they collected water samples from the river, which are now undergoing thorough analysis.