Environment Minister inspects storage facilities for hazardous pesticides

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment on August 27 is checking pesticides storage facilities in the village of Yavorovo, near Chirpan, south central Bulgaria. Minister of Environment, Emil Dimitrov and Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Dessislava Pironeva are on-site. The inspection was ordered by the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office for improper storage of pesticides.

The warehouses are posing a risk, because they have been storing old pesticides since 1982. They are leftovers from the former cooperative farm in the village. There are about 3 tonnes of pesticides, which contain hazardous and poisonous substances that may go into the soil, from where animals drink water, graze grass, and hence may go in human food.

A French team also arrived at the warehouse and began testing the samples and preparing them for transportation to France, as they will not be destroyed in Bulgaria.

Emil Dimitrov, Minister of Environment and Water: We found two places where waste is buried, where there is no roof, the rain falls on them and they go into the soil. These were also the concerns of the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office, which instructed us to look for all places in Bulgaria, where such substances are stored and to make a risk assessment, identify the ones of highest risk and the timeframes for disposal. In this place, the pesticides will only be collected, packed and transported. They will not be burnt in Bulgaria, we are not allowed to burn. We have no such intentions; no one will be poisoned in any way.

In addition to the two warehouses with hazardous pesticides on the territory of Stara Zagora, there is another one near the village of Elhovo. Disposing will start in the next days.