Epress.am News from Armenia
ArmOil company, the official representative of Lubrex in Armenia, is constructing a petroleum processing plant in the town of Yeghvard in Armenia’s Kotayk province, EcoLur.org reports, stressing that the construction works are being carried out without any environmental impact expert assessment.
EcoLur points out that petroleum processing production is subject to environmental expertise and, according to the Armenian law On Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise, is considered under the riskiest ‘A’ category.
“As Environmental Impact Assessment Expertise Center SNCO told EcoLur, ArmOil company hasn’t submitted any project for assessment and, consequently, it doesn’t have any environmental impact assessment opinion,” the website writes, adding that the plant construction has caused a big uproar in Yeghvard, where locals are convinced ArmOil’s future activities could result in an “environmental disaster” for the town.
Earlier Armtimes.com posted a video in which residents of the Nati district in Yeghvard – nearly 80 families – in particular complain about the construction as it is being conducted mere 50 meters from their homes.
“They started construction last year. No one, including the local residents, was told about their plans. If oil production is planned, the locals should have been made aware of that. People, children live here, and oil is flammable,” Nati resident Artur Tumasyan says.
The locals, he continues, do not have any concrete information about the owners of the company: “We can’t claim this information is completely reliable, but back when the plant stopped operating, we learned that Gagik Tsarukyan had invested 50% in this business, and that’s when the construction continued.”