The Titan Usje cement factory and its CEO are facing criminal charges for heavily polluting the air in Skopje, city officials said Wednesday.
According to a City of Skopje press release, the Titan Usje cement factory and its CEO Boris Hrisafov have been charged with particulate pollution, nitrogen oxide pollution, and violating the environmental permit issued by the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning.
“The cement factory was discharging a significantly higher concentration of PM10 from its heating boilers that used crude oil instead of natural gas,” the release says.
During an inspection in Jan. 3 and 4, the factory was found to be discharging 121 micrograms per cubic meter of respirable particulate matter instead of the PM10 limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter.
Titan Usje was also emitting at least twice the legal limit on poisonous nitrogen oxides.
Instead of the allowed 350 milligrams per cubic meter, the cement factory was spewing 711 milligrams per cubic meter every hour of every day of the year, environmental inspectors found.
“Because of this, at the initiative of Skopje Mayor Danela Arsovska, criminal charges were filed today against the Titan Usje cement factory and its executive Boris Hrisafov in line with Article 234 of the Criminal Code citing serious crimes against the environment and nature as relates to the same law’s Article 218 on environmental pollution. These crimes are punishable by prison time,” the release says.
Urging the Primary Prosecutor’s Office in Skopje to thoroughly investigate the allegations, the City of Skopje release points out “it is unacceptable for Skopje citizens to be victimized by the profiteering interests of a few who have been poisoning us for decades.”
Polluters, the release adds, “cannot be amnestied from their responsibility for the environmental pollution that has made thousands of citizens suffer from numerous diseases.”
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