COMPLIANCE WITH THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION OF THE BASIN-WIDE REGULATION OF POLLUTANTS DISCHARGE

Abstract

The article examines the main component of environmental and legal mechanism for the regulation of the discharge of pollutants (RDP) from point anthropogenic sources into the surface waters of Ukraine – the "basin principle" for calculating maximum permissible discharges (BPCMPD). The purpose of the article is to determine the compliance with the Ukrainian legislation of the terminological, basic ecological and ecological legal features of the current BPCMPD. The study of BPCMPD as a component of the complex environmental and legal institute of water quality and its regulation carried out using the methods of comparative jurisprudence. The relevance of the research determined by the documents of the state environmental policy and environmental safety, the Water Strategy of Ukraine, etc. It proposes to change the erroneous definition of "basin" in the name of BPCMPD to "cascade". It was determined that the assimilating capacity (AC) of the water body, which is used for the implementation of regulation, does not have a basin, i.e., shared between all discharges, environmental-legal nature, but a local point nature for one discharge. The lack of divisibility does not allow for distributing of the point environmental feature AC between individual water users from the calculation cascade. The main result is the conclusion about violations of the requirement of the environmental legislation regarding the nationwide uniformity of limits on pollutant concentrations in water within the cascade. It is found that the so-called the water user's right to the "AC quota", on which the BPCMPD is based, is absent in the legislation, also the water legislation does not provide for the joint activity of water users to implement the BPCMPD, and its implementation creates conditions for the deterioration of water quality. The conclusions are drawn that the Ukrainian BPCMPD is scientifically wrong since the beginning of its existence in 1977, and that the requirements for the most effective RDP tools, which are the standards of the MAC, contains ecological errors and do not correspond with the important political norm from environmental legislation (since 1992). In addition, BPCMPDs current realization as common water protection activity of many water-users is in contrast with water legislation (since 1995 r.), as with demands of civil and economic legislation.