“Very large” exceedances of pollutants in Ploiesti. The Minister of the Environment announces the publication of the data submitted by the refineries

The Minister of the Environment, Diana Buzoianu, warns that official monitoring shows excesses “very big” of pollutants in Ploiesti, a situation confirmed weekly by the measuring stations. It points out that while refineries are required to monitor air quality and submit the data to the Environmental Protection Agencies, they are not required to publish this information.

The Minister of the Environment, Diana Buzoianu. PHOTO: gov.ro

“From the stations we have, it is very clear that there are frequent exceedances, very large exceedances, we already have this data that confirms us every week. The next step, from my point of view, is transparency”Diana Buzoianu said on Thursday.

To ensure public access to this information, the minister announces the preparation of an order by which the data received from the refineries will be published online.

“In the next period, I will prepare an order for all the data that is given to the APMs to be uploaded on the websites and then we will put them, transparently, on the website – most likely of the Ministry of the Environment, if not, on the ANMAP website. Anyway, in a form where everyone can have access. I repeat, the data already shows that there are very large excesses, but the next step is to be transparent, so that people know”. the minister also specified.

Diana Buzoianu states that the objective is not to close the industry, but to modernize it, so that refineries and other polluting companies in Romania adopt technologies similar to those used in Western European countries.

“I don't want to talk about closing the industry, but about adopting the same technologies that have been adopted in other European countries”, said the minister, giving as an example a refinery in operation right in Vienna.