OREANDA-NEWS. October 5, 2009. The working visit of the members of the Public Ecological Council under the Governor of Leningrad region to Ust-Luga port took place on 17 September. The framework of the trip included meetings of ecologists with executives and specialists of OJSC Ust-Luga Company, Rosatom Center of Communications as well as representatives of the administration of Ust-Luga and Vistino rural settlements.

OJSC Ust-Luga Company, the construction manager of Ust-Luga port, considers environmental issues as a component of complex social-economic development of the territories adjoining the port. Therefore, the company strives to establish a bilateral dialogue with nongovernmental environmental organizations. The participants of the working trip included representatives of the Russian ecology movement "The Greens", "Green Cross" Society, All-Russian movement of the Greens "Motherland" and "The Society and Ecology" newspaper.

During the trip the members of the ecological council visited the port terminals, observed operation of the technological equipment and modern dredging machines.

The participants of the working trip also met representatives of the administration of Ust-Luga and Vistino rural settlements during a round-table discussion in the House of Culture of Ust-Luga settlement of Kingisepp district. The heads of the administrations spoke about the most pressing problems in the sphere of nature management: the danger of emergency situations at the facilities of Ust-Luga port, observance of the reservation conditions in Kurgalsky wildlife reserve, formation of unauthorized landfills as a result of unorganized rest on the coast of the Gulf of Finland.

By the results of the visiting meeting the members of the Public Ecological Council decided to create a uniform system of environmental monitoring in the area of Ust-Luga port and on the territories adjoining the port and to create a working group under the Eco-Center on issues of ecology in the area of the port and the adjacent territories.

Discussion of the environmental situation on the territories adjoining Ust-Luga port will continue on 30 September at the meeting of the Public Ecological Council.