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Kolin's Coal Mines Exempted From ÇED

30.10.2014 18:40

Coal mines to provide raw materials for a thermal power plant to be operated by Hidro-Gen Enerji, a member of the pro-government Kolin Holding, in Manisa's Soma district were exempted from the obligation of providing an environmental impact assessment (ÇED) report. The Kolin Group, which is also a part.

Coal mines to provide raw materials for a thermal power plant to be operated by Hidro-Gen Enerji, a member of the pro-government Kolin Holding, in Manisa's Soma district were exempted from the obligation of providing an environmental impact assessment (ÇED) report.
The Kolin Group, which is also a part of the consortium that won the mega-project of a new airport in İstanbul, had promised in the ÇED for the thermal plant that it wouldn't start working for the construction unless getting the permissions for the utilization of the lands in Soma for non-agricultural purposes. But the company's workers chopped 475 olive trees there in two days without waiting for the permission to be granted. The villagers tried in vain to prevent their orchards from destruction, many of them getting injured in a free-for-all with the Kolin's men.
The Greenpeace Mediterranean's lawyer Deniz Bayram noted in a statement on Thursday that the ÇED exemption for the mines were obtained by the Ministry of the Environment and Urban Affairs in accordance with the Temporary Article 3 of the ÇED Regulations, which had been scrapped by the Council of State before. It was also annulled by the Constitutional Court in July this year after the government attempted to reinstitute it last year, said the lawyer. “Despite the mining disaster in Soma a couple of months ago, the coal mines to provide raw materials for a thermal power plant to be built there are being exempted from the ÇED. ÇED is not only an assessment over the environmental impacts of a project, but it also encompasses the process of evaluating safety and security conditions and measures. The [deadly coal mine] disasters in Soma, and most recently in Karaman, are stressing the importance of the prerequisite [of having ÇED properly],” the lawyer said.

Bayram also said that there were over 6,000 olive trees in the area where the energy plant was planned on being built. “The area of the mine in question was not given permission by the Manisa Province Directorate of Agriculture to be used for any other purpose apart from agriculture,” he said, adding that in spite of this nearly 1000 olive trees were cut down.

There had previously been disputes between security personnel working for the Hidro-Gen Energy firm-- a subsidiary of the Kolin Group that was tapped to build the plant in the Yırca village--and village residents. On the morning of October 21, a group of volunteers who had assembled to protect the trees were beaten by security guards employed by the Kolin group. Some of the volunteers were also handcuffed by the guards.

A 2013 article added to a main environmental law enabled the necessary structures and facilities pertaining to projects that were in planning stage or in the tender process to be exempt from obtaining ÇED reports. However, in 2014 the Constitutional Court opted to partially invalidate this article, ruling that it was unconstitutional.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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