Information newsletter
Issue 6(18), June 2005

Case of the Month: Regional Inspections on Environment and Waters and The Inspectorates on the Protection and Control Over the People’s Health Should Actively Inform Citizens In Cases of Drinking Water Pollution
Kiril Terziiski, AIP

The Case:
The river flowing through the village of Nedelino was polluted with oil-wastes during the repair works of a shaft near the local heating boiler of a kindergarten. The black oil and the naphtha had leaked into the river, whose waters were pumped back and used for drinking by three neighboring villages-Nedelino, Starcevo, and Dolen. The municipality and its environmental department refused to give information to the media about the incident, nor did they take any measures to inform the population about the poisoned water or the fish that died as a result. They grounded their refusal in the fact that the oil wastes had already been leaked in the waters so the quantity could not be estimated and exact information could not be released. The tests for the quality of the drinking water did not start until the second day after the leakage.

The Comments:
This kind of information is very important due to its direct relation to the protection of human life and health, as well as of the environment. That is why the provision of that information is subject to special legal provisions that establish additional obligations to those existing under the Access to Public Information Act (APIA).

Article 23 of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) stipulates a common obligation for active provision of information in cases of accidental pollution. First of all, in all cases of accidental or other pollutions when the defined limits for the allowed quantity of contamination of the environment stipulated by administrative or individual decisions are violated, the law obliges the bodies responsible for the oversight of these limits (within a certain institution, for example) to immediately inform the governors and the mayors of the respective regions and municipalities, the Regional Inspectorates on the Environment and Waters (RIEWs), the Basin Directorates, and the Emergency Management Agency. In cases of radiation alteration, the Agency of Nuclear Regulation should be also informed. The above-listed bodies have the obligation to immediately alarm the Ministry of Environment and Waters and the population about the pollution above the limits. They should also release a strategy for the protection of the human health and property.

Furthermore, according to the legislation, the quality of the drinking water in Bulgaria, as a good that is delivered and sold through the water-conduit, is overseen “at the entry” by the Regional Inspectorates on the Protection and Control Over the People’s Health (RIPCOP, the former Hygienic Epidemiological Institutes). Responsibility for the quality of the water as a consumer good “at the exit” is taken by the water delivery companies. The secondary legislation that stipulates the criteria for quality of the drinking water is Order No. 9 as of 16 March 2001, issued by the Minister of Health, the Minister of the Public Works, and the Minister of Environment and Waters. Pursuant to Article 10 of this Order No.9, in cases of drinking water pollution and threat to people’s health due to non-compliance with the requirements for water quality, the National Sanitary Control bodies (NSC) should restrict or forbid its usage. In such cases, the Regional Inspectorates on the Protection and Control Over the People’s Health – RIPCPH (former, Hygienic Epidemiological Inspectorates) should evaluate the risk level and should request the water-delivering companies to take measures to improve the quality of the drinking water in regard to the health of the consumers. Whenever the change in the quality of drinking water poses a threat to health, the water delivery companies and the NSC bodies are obliged to inform the consumers about the measures they have taken.
Additionally, if the pollution has led to changes beyond the lawfully permitted level, the RIEWs and the RIPCPHs are obliged to actively inform the population—in other words, on their own initiative.

Finally, in all cases of pollution, no matter whether the risk level has been exceeded, information should be provided by request under Chapter II of the Environment Protection Act, titled Access to Environmental Information.