An
organization of Russian ecologists in the Siberian city of Irkutsk is
being pressured by police for their criticism of the reopening of a
paper mill that would dump tons of toxic waste into nearby Lake Baikal,
Kasparov.ru reports.

Lawyers of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) have prepared
material for a lawsuit in regards to the spreading of ‘false
information’ about an accident which allegedly occurred at the plant in
late December 2009, according to the press office of the the BPPM.

The
Irkutsk regional association of trade unions, with reference to the
trade union of BPPM, claimed that «on the 24th December, with
production already having begun in the evaporation section in the BPPM,
a 20 cubic metre condensation tank exploded.

On the 18th February, colleagues of the Regional Non-Governmental Organisation ‘Baikal Environmental Wave’ were in the town of Baikalsk to visit the site of a pool-aerator, which is discharging pollutants into Lake Baikal, and which contains deposits of waste from the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill.