7 April 2001
A Brest based company imported tons of industrial wastes in Belarus
According to the Brest branch of Belarus' Committee for State Security (KGB) as much as 288,156 kilograms of industrial wastes falsely marked as "organic solvent" have been imported to Belarus by a Brest-based company.
The activity was in progress from August 1998 to September 1999 under contracts with German and Swiss companies, the KGB branch's press office told BelaPAN. The Germans reportedly mixed alcohol with ammonia and exported it as organic solvent. The mixture was then converted back into alcohol, supposedly in Poland. The residues went to Belarus for final disposal.
The Brest company, called Kvarta Plus, knew what they were importing but cannot be charged because Belarus' Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has failed to identify the liquid as industrial wastes for lack of proper facilities.
Authorities in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave banned imports of the same substance as hazardous back in May 1998, and that was when Kvarta Plus came in, the KGB said. A total of 111 metric tons of the stuff reportedly remains in storages in Minsk and the Brest region. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has recommended taking it out of Belarus.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news3.html