Varna Residents Express Concern About South Stream Pipeline
Residents of Bulgarian coastal city of Varna plan to organize against the decision of the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water to approve the environmental impact assessment report for the construction of the land section of the South Stream gas pipeline.
The offshore portion of the planned pipeline is to emerge from the Black Sea at the seaside city of 40,000 inhabitants.
Protest organizers in Bulgaria’s 3rd largest city, complain that the approval granted on 30.08.2013, has not taken into consideration the demands for the re-location of the pipeline's compressor station and reception terminal.
Noise and air pollution from both construction works and operation of the pipeline and compressor station, planned to be built just 1-2 kilometers away from the most southern parts of the city’s suburbs, is the primary concern of opponents, who claim the approval is risking citizen's fundamental right to healthy life for the benefit of corporate interests.
Protestors are also upset that the entry point on Bulgarian territory is planned at Pasha Dere beach – a wild, spared from construction beach, which belongs to the protected areas of EU-wide network Natura 2000. Some 10 decares of woods in the vicinity would be cut down and 30,000 tonnes of cement would be poured in zones marked as green space in Varna’s detailed development plant.