ArmInfo. The Armenian government approved the procedure for monitoring and publication of results by subsoil users at a meeting on February 22 to reduce environmental losses.
As the Minister of Nature Protection of Armenia Artsvik Minasyan stated, according to the changes in the "RA Code" of November 2017, subsoil users are obliged to monitor all the indicators related to surface and groundwaters, soil and air and wild objects. Further, they were obliged to publish monitoring data on the official site of a particular company. A similar duty also lies with the authorized body.
As the minister noted, it is very important that the law was established, and this document confirmed that the sample taken to control soil contamination and assess the quality of natural and disturbed addition must undergo laboratory analysis exclusively in certified laboratories with the appropriate license. This measure, as Minasyan explained, is aimed at ensuring an impartial and objective evaluation of the results.
It is also important that the decision will oblige all subsoil users, in the event of deviations from the established values of the indicator, to take measures to prevent negative consequences that may result from the exploitation of subsoil resources. At the same time, subsoil users will have to introduce new approaches every five years to reduce the negative impact on the environment.
As stated in the rationale for the document, the purpose of the decision is to regulate the implementation of routine monitoring aimed at reducing environmental losses caused by subsoil use. Based on the results of its implementation, it is expected to create a legal basis for the formation of a more coherent and informative database on the state of the environment. According to the decision, when extracting metals, the subsoil user submits a quarterly report to the authorized body by the 20th day of the month following each quarter. The annual report should be submitted no later than February 20. After receiving the data, within 10 days they are published by the authorized body.