"Crematorium" in the legal field

How the law was thrown into disarray by opening a medical waste disposal facility on agricultural land

“This summer, the entire summer terrace was suddenly covered with some kind of white dust, which could not simply be swept away, as it simply smeared,” said a resident of the village of Zaozerye, Ramensky city. “For a long time we couldn’t understand what it was, it seemed like some kind of thick ash, but no one has a stove.” Moreover, such a scale, because the same thing happened in other villages around. And now it turns out that there is, in fact, a crematorium working next to us...” The medical waste disposal enterprise is located 375 meters from residential buildings in the village of Zaozerye, and 178 meters from the river. Moscow, on a plot of land with the type of permitted use - “for agricultural production”.

Consolidation of society as a source of information

For the last few years, residents of the Ramensky district, later united into a city district, and Zhukovsky have complained of a specific unpleasant odor that suddenly appeared at different points, with different amplitudes and at different periods of time. Appeals and requests ended in replies; officials’ conversations turned into installations of “I see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing” figurines. Two years ago, residents of Mikhailovskaya Sloboda, Chulkovo and nearby settlements independently found the cause of the smell, discovering that nearby waste was being dumped over a fairly large area, creating, in fact, an illegal dump. In 2020, residents even conducted an independent air analysis, receiving 6 MPCs for ammonia and 31 MPCs for hydrogen sulfide. However, large-scale consolidation to protect their rights did not work out at that moment. However, the authorities did everything possible to unite people; on New Year’s Eve 2021, strings of garbage trucks from the Moscow State University construction site went to the landfill in Chulkovo, which not only overloaded the unofficial landfill, but also exhausted the patience of the residents. Others began to join one initiative group, people shared their experience of protecting their rights and talked about similar problems in other places. This is how we learned about a strange “factory” with constantly smoking pipes near the village named after. Telman, next to the interchange on Novoryazanskoye Highway. When I contacted the Ramenskoye regional management center, I received a response quite quickly: the land plot on which this “production” is located is located on the territory of the city district. Zhukovsky.

Two sides of one personality

A land plot with an area of ​​24,500 square meters was cadastred in 2014 for agricultural production. Since March 2015, Vladislav Gennadievich Matveev, at that time a deputy of the rural settlement of Kuznetsovskoye, Ramensky district, became the owner of this land plot. It is worth noting that the interests of the 35-year-old entrepreneur were not limited to the rural settlement of Kuznetsovskoye; before that, he was nominated as a deputy of the rural settlement of Chulkvoskoye, but lost the elections, apparently, as a consolation prize, becoming a contractor under several contracts concluded with the Chulkvo administration.

In October 2015, Vladislav Matveev, as the sole founder, registered Ecosystem PJSC in Moscow with an authorized capital of 1 million rubles. The company's website indicates the goal of the Ecosystem group of companies: meeting public needs in the field of environmental protection from pollution by industrial and consumption waste, as well as generating profit from the operation of its own production facilities. The main activities are collection and sorting of household and industrial waste, transportation, sorting and processing. By phone number listed on the website of Ecosystem PJSC, they reported that the company does not deal with waste disposal, but develops equipment. “We are a startup, we have a new organization, we have been working for several years, developing equipment for processing, production of foam glass, for example.” At the same time, the TIN of the founder of Ecosystem PJSC Vladislav Matveev completely coincides with the TIN of individual entrepreneur V.G. Matveev, who won tenders in Chulkovo and owns a land plot on the territory of Zhukovsky. This is a split personality: on a plot of land in the Moscow region, pipes smoke, after which all nearby settlements are covered in ash, and a company in Moscow sells equipment for foam glass as part of environmental protection.

Special purpose pipes

The Yandex maps clearly show that in 2015 there was nothing on the site, in 2018 the entire infrastructure for “recycling” had already appeared, and in 2020 the pipes of the furnaces in which waste was disposed grew. And all this grew on land for agricultural production.

First, they launched the “recycling” of plastic, which, according to residents of Zaozerye, they felt two years ago. However, this turned out to be just the beginning, because now medical waste is being disposed of on this land plot. There is even a mark on the maps “Medical waste collection point”, but as activists and members of the public movement “Right to the Future”, who set up a vigil at the facility, learned, not only is there a reception, but a full recycling cycle is carried out. Branded vehicles of the Medservice24 company drive through the gates, which, as stated on the website, is engaged in the removal and disposal of medical, biological, pharmaceutical, laboratory and food waste.

The company's website contains a detailed description of the class of waste and containers for it. For example, medical waste of class “B” is generated in intensive care and operating departments of hospitals, veterinary clinics and laboratories, and morgues. They are classified as epidemiologically dangerous, therefore collection, storage and removal are carried out strictly in accordance with the requirements of SanPiN.” Organic medical waste is collected in special yellow bags and labeled. According to eyewitnesses, as can be seen in photographs taken at the end of January, there are the most yellow bags on the territory of the facility. Class B waste is extremely hazardous waste that can lead to various epidemics. These include laboratory waste materials of pathogenicity groups 1-2, waste from tuberculosis dispensaries and other infectious diseases hospitals. Class B medical waste is collected in red packaging. Class “D” waste includes waste from laboratories, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical industries, which are classified as toxic. These medications are collected in black bags. All three color schemes of bags are present on a plot of land 375 meters from residential buildings and 178 meters from the river. Moscow. Moreover, they are clearly not stored in accordance with the standards specified on the website of the Medservice24 company: the bags are scattered throughout the territory, many of them are visually damaged. There are also many barrels with unknown contents visible on the territory. And under the fence, liquid with a specific odor leaks out in several places.

ZhV tried to contact Vladislav Matveev at the phone number indicated in several documents. The subscriber asked who was interested in Mr. Matveev, and, having learned that journalists were looking for him, he immediately reported the standard “wrong number” and hung up. And then he turned off the phone completely.

Better late than never and nowhere
With representatives of land control of the city administration. Zhukovsky, the owner of the land plot, also, in all likelihood, does not intend to communicate. Vladislav Matveev was not present during the inspection of the site on January 27. Land control officials spotted metal structures with smoking chimneys and metal shipping containers rising from them, as well as piled plastic bags with unidentified contents. “There is a pungent odor from combustion products around the land plot,” the inspection report states. Land control revealed a violation within the framework of its powers: waste is being stored and processed on the land plot, which is an inappropriate use of the land plot.

Based on these documents, the city administration Zhukovsky sent Zhukovsky to the city police department and the prosecutor's office, and also contacted the Admtechnadzor, the Ministry of Ecology and the Office of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare in the Moscow Region.

At the same time, the Ministry of Ecology has already responded to residents on social networks, raising many additional questions: “The waste disposal enterprise Ecosystem LLC is located on this site.” From the point of view of legal rights, this company has a valid license from Rosprirodnadzor to carry out activities for the collection, transportation, processing, disposal, neutralization and disposal of waste of I-IV hazard classes. In addition, the enterprise’s activities received a positive sanitary and epidemiological conclusion from Rospotrebnadzor. Thus, the enterprise is in the legal field. It is supervised by Rosprirodnadzor and Rospotrebnadzor.” That is, Rospotrebnadzor issued a license for waste disposal up to hazard class I less than 200 meters from the river. Moscow and less than 400 meters from residential buildings. And then, together with Rosprirodnadzor, he began to control all this chaos. The question also arises of how citizen Matveev entered into a lease agreement for a type of permitted activity that is not indicated in the registration documents. I wonder who registered such an agreement in the legal field with Rosreestr. I remember the immortal phrase from the film “Election Day”: “And I see that you are all great here.”

You can declare a year of ecology as much as you like, but as long as in response to residents’ appeals about the deterioration of the environmental situation, supervisory authorities talk about the legal framework in which some violations give rise to and give indulgence to others, the situation will only change for the worse. It’s time to move away from “paper” law and look at the facts that can become “deadly” not only for ordinary residents of nearby settlements.

PS I ask that this publication be considered an official statement to the prosecutor’s office, I demand that the facts stated in the article be verified.