OREANDA-NEWS. On 1 February 2008  was announced, that in reply to the information given by the Press Service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia on 30.01.2008 referring to Mr. Mitvol, Deputy Head of Rosprirodnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage), about "sharp falling of the level of Lake Baikal at the end of year 2007 - beginning of 2008" due to the established modes of the Angarsk cascade of hydroelectric power stations, we declare the following:

JSC Irkutskenergo daily receives the information on the water levels of Lake Baikal from the Irkutsk Hydraulic Meteorological Centre and declares that in 2006 and 2007 there were no extraordinary problems with the level modes of Lake Baikal.

In particular, the marks of water levels of Lake Baikal in 2006-2007 were changing within the following limits:
                                                             

                                                            Established by Order No. 234 of the Government 
             Minimum           Maximum           of the Russian Federation as of 26.03.2001
2006     456.05                456.13                                         456.00
2007      456.89               456.75                                         457.00


The operating mode of the Irkutsk hydraulic unit was established according to the Order of the Federal Agency for Water Resources (FAWR) - the Yenisei Water Basin Administration (entity of FAWR).

In January 2008, the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station operates under the established daily average discharge of 1,400 m3/sec.; from January 26 to January 30, the level of Lake Baikal is on the level of 456.28 m that complies with the established schedule of evacuation of water of Lake Baikal.