Winter maintenance of roads in Karelia will become cheaper due to easing of environmental requirements

Russian legislation has undergone changes in terms of snow removal standards in the Arctic zone and in the Northern Territories equated to it. Amendments to the SanPiN introduced in September of this year allow municipalities to abandon the construction of expensive landfills with waterproofing and earthshafts if there are no reagents in the exported snow. This initiative was developed with the active assistance of senators and received support in the Federation Council.

As explained by Senator Igor Zubarev, the key difficulty was that under the old rules, any street snow was equal to waste. Northern municipalities incurred huge expenses, organizing specialized sites with filtration of meltwater or buying snow smelting equipment. Now, if the regions exclude the use of chemistry in the fight against ice, the need for such engineering structures will disappear.

At the same time, the parliamentarian stressed that the exemptions apply only to environmentally friendly snow. If the roads are treated with a sand-salt mixture, as is often practiced in Karelia, then snow masses are still subject to export only to specially equipped facilities in order to avoid large fines from Rospotrebnadzor. Otherwise, the violation of environmental standards will entail severe sanctions.