Ecologists assert that Gazprom tries to distort the truth

The Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus believes that Gazprom, while trying to whitewash "the honest name of the company", is confusing the public. In the opinion of ecologists, "Gazprom is illegally building Olympic object 'Refuge No. 1' in the Psekhako Site" in the territory of the Sochi National Park.

The Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus has disseminated the results of public inspection of this Olympic object that was conducted on September 20-21.

According to ecologists, on September 29, the press service of Gazprom reported that "on June 28, 2005, Order No. 135 approved the positive conclusions of the expert commission of the state ecological examination of the project on building the mountain-tourist centre, including a refuge on the Psekhako Ridge."

According to the project named "House for receiving official delegations and 'Laura' cottage district in Esto-Sadok village, Adler District of Sochi, mountain-tourist centre of the OJSC Gazprom", construction of three refuges was really envisioned; and ecologists confirm it. However, these were different objects, which had, accordingly, different project documentation.

The Ecological Watch reminds that according to the documents presented by Gazprom for ecological examination in 2005, it was planned to build the refuges of 70 places each. They were intended for temporary residence and rest of tourists.

However, the project of Refuge No. 1 in Psekhako site is radically different, as ecologists assert. This is a three-storey concrete building housing two restaurants with the aggregate capacity of 500 persons, equipment leasing centre, first-aid post, premises for rescue team, securities, etc.

In the opinion of ecologists, the very fact that this project was finished by the LLC "Rosengineering-Project" only in January 2008, means that it could not have passed the ecological examination in 2005.

The press service of the OJSC "Gazprom" also indicates that public hearings on this project were held prior to start the construction, in April 2005. However, the procedure of public hearings is radically different from what Gazprom describes, ecologists assert. In 2005, there were no informational publications in official mass media, to say nothing about the availability of the materials of the environmental impact evaluation (EIE) for the public, the Ecological Watch explains. On the contrary, the OJSC "Gazprom" was hiding the project documentation from broad public.