Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Hellenic Mining Watch came to protest; Turkish activists expressed
support but were not able to obtain visas (Bacheva-McGrath 2008b).
The Greek activists also organized a complaint from their government
that Greece's rights under the Espoo Convention had been violated.
Bulgaria had signed the Convention, thereby recognizing the rights of
neighboring countries to be consulted on projects that could have damag-
ing effects on their environment. Turkish groups have long resisted gold-
mining investments and cyanide use in their own country, particularly in
Bergama (Panayotova and Kuznetsov 2008). Both ethnic ties and the
framing so prevalent in Bergama that links living with nature to opposi-
tion to mining (Çoban 2004) have resonance in Krumovgrad.
By the end of 2005, the Minister of Environment and Water still had
not ruled on the EIA, and the Vice Minister indicated that the company
should take that fact as a “silent refusal.” The Krumovgrad case was
included in the company's charges in the Supreme Administrative Court
the following spring and the decision of that court in April 2007, as well
as in Dundee's appeal to the European Commission to start infringement
proceedings. The two cases, however, were uncoupled during the nego-
tiations in spring 2008. Whereas the company claimed that the negotia-
tions should result in both cases being resolved, the Bulgarian government
said nothing about the negotiations covering Krumovgrad and did not
move to reopen that case. While the minister then approved the Chelo-
pech EIA, the Krumovgrad EIA was not approved. The decoupling was
perhaps foreshadowed by the difference between the informal justifi ca-
tion the ministry offered for the “silent refusal” on Krumovgrad in
December, which highlighted local opposition and Greek opposition, and
the economic arguments he was citing regarding Chelopech the next
summer. Some of the movement observers believe that the minister was
willing to sacrifi ce Chelopech to protect Krumovgrad, an argument con-
sistent with his party's interest in supporting its base. In December 2008,
the ministry asked Dundee to prepare a Compatibility Assessment of its
Ada Tepe project with the Natura 2000 criteria as a prerequisite for the
ministry issuing a decision on the EIA. The outcome of this process was
not clear; the activities of the company are diffi cult to reconcile to Natura
2000 unless it can argue that there will be a suffi cient buffer between
its activities and protected areas. Indeed, the initial study did fi nd prob-
lems with parts of the project. The company proposed an alternative
location for waste and tailings, and the report incorporating this change
was completed in June 2009 (DPM 2009). In September 2009, the
Ministry of Environment and Water issued the “Commercial Discovery
