Burial according to international standards
About modification of the legislation regulating dredging. Federal Law № 87 dated May 7, 2013 brought the legislation of the Russian Federation in compliance with the norms of international law in terms of determining the status of the soil extracted during dredging.
In accordance with the provisions of part 4 of article 15 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation "generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation are an integral part of its legal system. If an international Treaty of the Russian Federation establishes rules other than those provided for by law, the rules of the international Treaty shall apply." Until may 07, 2013, dredging in the Russian Federation, namely, related work on the burial of excavated soil, was carried out in contradiction with the provisions of international law.
Issues of waste and ground disposal are regulated, in international law, by the Helsinki Convention and the Bucharest Convention: on protection from pollution of the Baltic and Black Sea, respectively. According to the provisions of these conventions, the disposal of waste for purposes other than their disposal is not considered as disposal. To the works performed under dredging, the indicated conventions do not apply at all. Meanwhile, the Federal Law “On Inland Sea Water, the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of the Russian Federation” does not allow the placement of soils raised after dredging in the inland sea waters and the territorial sea of Russia.
At the same time, there is an obvious contradiction in the law. Article 37 of the said law prohibits the dumping of waste and other materials, as well as the direct discharge of harmful substances in the internal waters of Russia. Meanwhile, in article 34 of the law such a discharge is implied within the framework of federal programs, if the documentation relating to the dumping of waste has become an object of state environmental impact assessment.
To remove these inconsistencies, on May 7, 2013, Federal Law No. 87-ФЗ was adopted on amending the law “On Inland Marine Waters, the Territorial Sea and the Adjacent Zone and the Water Code”. By this law, Article 37 of the Federal Law "On Inland Sea Water, the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of the Russian Federation" has been amended to bring it into line with the provisions of international conventions. Now the burial of the soil extracted during the dredging works in the internal sea waters and in the territorial sea is not considered to be the burial of wastes. For dumping and burial of dredging waste, it is enough to have only permission of the state environmental impact assessment. At the moment, the government is already developing a number of new amendments and additions to make the use of the Federal Law "On Inland Sea Water, the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of the Russian Federation" easier and more accessible, including, says the list of harmful substances that will be buried prohibited.
Kirill Maslov
Managing partner
Law office of St. Petersburg «Inmarine».