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Pulp mill near Lake Baikal to reopen in May despite protests

© RIA Novosti . Boris Klinchenko / Go to the mediabank Pulp mill near Lake Baikal to reopen in May despite protests
 Pulp mill near Lake Baikal to reopen in May despite protests - Sputnik International
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A controversial pulp mill on the shores of Lake Baikal will return to full production in May despite large-scale public protests, the Industry and Trade Ministry said on Tuesday.

A controversial pulp mill on the shores of Lake Baikal will return to full production in May despite large-scale public protests, the Industry and Trade Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill ceased commercial production 18 months ago, after its switch to a closed-water cycle to ease environmental concerns proved unprofitable.

Andrei Dementyev, a deputy minister, said Russia's environmental regulator still had some concerns regarding the plant's operation but they would be addressed and the pulp mill would reopen in May.

Environmental protests broke out after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a resolution in mid-January excluding the production of pulp, paper and cardboard from the list of operations banned in protected areas around Lake Baikal, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A public campaign to close or convert the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill built in 1966 on the shores of the world's largest freshwater lake became one of the symbols of Glasnost, the "openness" policy proclaimed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s.

It involved the nation's leading statesmen and literary figures and forced the Soviet authorities to promise to halt pulp production by 1993.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 delayed the plant's closure, and it was only in October 2008 that the plant switched over to a closed water cycle, preventing the discharge of waste into the lake.

In late December 2009, the Baikal mill started testing new equipment ahead of its expected restart of operations this year.

IRKUTSK, April 20 (RIA Novosti) 

 

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