Wastewater date: fines for citizens for polluting water bodies may double in the fall

Fines for polluting water bodies by citizens will be doubled. As Izvestia found out, the State Duma plans to consider the draft law of the Republic of Crimea in the first reading in September, it is supported by the government and the Accounting Chamber. Currently, the maximum penalty reaches 2 thousand rubles, and, according to the authors of the initiative, such a fine does not stop citizens who continue to pollute reservoirs. The lower house of parliament supports the initiative, while noting that agricultural and industrial enterprises are the main pollutants of water bodies.

Why do they want to increase fines for water pollution

Fines for pollution of reservoirs with sewage and garbage for citizens will double. Such a draft law of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea with amendments to art. 8.13 of the Administrative Code ("Violation of the rules of protection of water bodies") The State Duma intends to consider it in September. Izvestia was informed about this in the relevant committee on state construction and legislation, whose deputies included the initiative in the program of legislative work of the parliament.

Currently, the minimum penalty for individuals is from 500 to 1 thousand rubles, and the maximum is from 1.5 to 2 thousand rubles. According to the authors of the bill, such a fine does not stop citizens who, according to the explanatory note to the bill, are the main violators.

"Anthropogenic factors affecting the quality of drinking water in the Republic of Crimea are, among other things, the discharge of sewage by citizens into water bodies used as sources of drinking and domestic water use," the document says.

As an example, it provides statistics from the Federal Water Resources Agency on the annual increase in the volume of such effluents. So, if in 2022 it was 36.18 billion cubic meters, then in 2023 it was already 37.47 billion cubic meters.

According to the authors of the bill, in Crimea, unauthorized discharge of sewage by citizens was recorded in Alushta, Yalta, Feodosia, Sudak, Simferopol, as well as in Simferopol, Bakhchisarai, Kirovsky and Nizhnegorsky districts. In addition to dirty drains, according to the developers of the initiative, violations have been identified that can lead to pollution, clogging with garbage and depletion of reservoirs.

"However, administrative fines for citizens, established by art. 8.13 of the Administrative Code for violating the rules of protection of water bodies, are not a serious punishment. For individuals, the amount of fines has been maintained at the level of 2007. At the same time, the minimum wage in Russia increased by more than 17 times from 2007 to 2024. In such conditions, unscrupulous citizens, committing these offenses, pay a fine and continue to carry out activities, violating the rules for the protection of water bodies," the explanatory note to the document says.

It also says that the bill was supported in 70 regions of the country. In recent years, as the developers of the new rules point out, citizens have been punished under this article of the Administrative Code in Moscow, Bashkiria, the Republic of Altai, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Tatarstan, Krasnodar, Primorsky, Khabarovsk, and Trans-Baikal Territories. As well as in the Belgorod, Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Murmansk, Penza, Rostov, Samara, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District and Sevastopol.

"Taking into account the fact that the amounts of administrative fines for the commission of these offenses were established in 2002 and have not been reviewed since, the strengthening of administrative responsibility proposed by the bill is justified and will increase the effectiveness of their prevention and prevention," the official response of the government, which supported the bill, says.

The Accounting Chamber also reported that there were no comments on the document, and Izvestia reviewed its review.

Will increasing the punishment solve the pollution problem

The Duma factions support this initiative. At the same time, the deputies believe that an increase in fines for citizens alone will not solve the problem of water pollution.

— Of course, punishment is necessary for violations of the ecology of reservoirs. The increase in fines against citizens may make this problem less acute. However, they do not radically solve it. After all, agricultural and industrial enterprises are the main pollutants," Vladimir Burmatov, first deputy chairman of the Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection from the United Russia faction, explained to Izvestia.

According to him, a person with his household will not cause as much damage in his entire life as a conditional pig farm for just one unauthorized discharge, and some of them make discharges several times a day. This is not to mention industrial enterprises that can even discharge sulfuric acid or other chemicals into reservoirs, the deputy noted. The MP believes that in addition to increasing responsibility for citizens, it is necessary to pay attention to the low efficiency of wastewater treatment plants.

Sergei Leonov, head of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection from the LDPR faction, believes that the Crimean authorities are doing the right thing by raising this issue, since sewage can serve as a source of spreading infections and diseases both at sea and in rivers.

— But the question is, which budget will these fines go to — federal or regional, will local authorities be able to use these funds for the needs of the territories? If the money remains, then, of course, officials will be interested in increasing control and restoring order," the deputy drew attention.

The amount of punishment should be higher so that it would be unwise to violate the ban for the second time, says Nikolai Arefyev, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy from the Communist Party faction.

— They have polluted all the reservoirs, the water from which it is already impossible to drink, as it is possible to get poisoned. I am a deputy from the Astrakhan region, where they drink only river water, as the groundwater is bitterly salty and there are no wells. And the Volga River has now practically turned into a sewer system, since sewage treatment plants practically do not work anywhere, everything drains without cleaning," the parliamentarian noted.

At the same time, he believes that it is necessary to strengthen fines for enterprises, since they are the main pollutants, and control over them is minimal.

Ecologist Mikhail Kreindlin, in a conversation with Izvestia, also noted that there is a problem of unauthorized wastewater in Russia. In his opinion, fines are one of the mechanisms in the fight against this phenomenon, but they are unlikely to be effective if instead of 500 rubles the perpetrator is asked to pay 1 thousand rubles.