Unauthorized Disposal of Hazardous Waste Causes €5.6-million Damage: Eight Years in Prison in Frame

ARTICLE PROVIDED BY THE SLOVAK POLICE

An investigator of the criminal police department of the Regional Directorate of the Police Force in Žilina has accused two individuals as well as two legal entities from Tvrdošín district (Zilina region) of the ongoing crime of unauthorized waste management under Section 302 of the Criminal Code for the manner in which hazardous waste in the form of dust from flue gases was handled in 2018.

The accused individuals and legal entities dumped more than 32,000 tonnes of flue-gas dust in an area near a former cattle farm in the villages of Zábiedovo and Hladovka in Tvrdošín district. The illegal landfill covered more than 6,430 m2. By depositing hazardous waste in a location other than the one designated, they created an illegal landfill for hazardous waste on the land, which resulted in pollution of a rocky environment and an adverse impact on the landscape. The costs necessary to recover and dispose of the illegally deposited hazardous waste has been estimated by experts at more than €5.6 million.

According to Section 302, Sub-section 1 of the Criminal Code (Unauthorised Waste Management), handling waste contrary to generally binding legal regulations to a minor extent, even out of negligence, can be punished with a prison sentence of up to two years. According to Section 302, Sub-section 4b, a prison sentence of three to eight years can be imposed upon an offender who commits a gross act referred to in Sub-section 1.