A task force will investigate whether measuring stations were moved to park areas so they don’t catch fine particles, and who did it
From 2021 to the present, the National Air Quality Monitoring System has not once reported an exceedance of the average annual norms of fine dust particles at the national level.
This was assured by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Reneta Koleva, Acting. the executive director of the Environmental Executive Agency Rosalina Indzhieva and experts from the agency.
“In 2023, the positive trend will be maintained, with full compliance not being achieved in only 1 point for monitoring the quality of atmospheric air,” Koleva specified.
According to her, in cases where the total mass of emissions in a given area exceeds the norms,
the mayors of the municipalities develop and implement the relevant programs
to reduce pollutant levels and to reach established norms. And in the absence of improvement, the responsible institutions could impose sanctions.
Recently, non-governmental organizations raised the alarm that air quality data was being manipulated and was not accurate. The basis for their claims was that in some municipalities the sampling stations were moved from the street lane into park areas where, naturally, there are not so many particulates.
Both Koleva and Indzhieva explained that there was no possibility of data manipulation. Letters have been sent to the municipalities for the compromised locations where the stations were allegedly moved. A task force will be formed to review the locations where they are located and whether this meets the requirements of the law.
Injieva said that the national system for measuring fine dust particles consists of
48 stationary points, of which 30 are automatic,
4 for forest monitoring, there are 5 optical systems and 9 manual sampling points.
“The number of points meets the requirements of European and Bulgarian legislation”, Indzhieva was categorical.
30 of the 48 stationary points will be replaced and the rest will be completely new so that the system can be modernized, renewed and upgraded, she added.
Fine dust particles in the air are decreasing, the Ministry of Education and Culture reported. The reasons for this, first of all, are the change in the attitudes of citizens regarding the heating method, the reduction of wood, the disposal of solid fuel stoves and boilers, and the improvement of motor vehicle registration.
“Data from the latest population census indicate that
47.7% of homes are heated with electricity, 36.3% with wood,
13.3% – with thermal energy from a central steam source, 4.8% – with coal, 4.1% – with pellets, 2.5% of households are on natural gas from a central source”, Koleva said.
In 2010, the EC started two criminal proceedings against Bulgaria – for exceeding the norms for the content of fine dust particles in the air and for the lack of transposition of a European directive in the field.
However, Bulgaria is not condemned
“It didn’t get to that point, because in March 2023 the Court of the European Union issued a decision by which the claim of the EC to impose a monetary sanction on Bulgaria was rejected as inadmissible.
This does not reassure us, but rather motivates us to undertake stronger control of the measures to improve the quality of the atmospheric air throughout the country,” Koleva said categorically.