Bulgaria's southern town of Galabovo is regularly polluted with sulphur dioxide by the nearby thermal power plants. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Bulgarian Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office has ordered instituting legal procedures against unknown perpetrator over the regular sulphur dioxide pollution in the town of Galabovo.
The announcement was made by the national movement "Ekoglastnost" that has previously tried twice to bring the case to court but all the claims were rejected.
The legal procedures are to be launched after the activists informed European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Bulgaria's Chief prosecutor Boris Velchev in letters, sent on April 1, 2007.
The local environmental authority has repeatedly issued orders to the three nearby thermal power plants from the Maritza-Iztok Complex to reduce their output in order to prevent further pollution.
The Galabovo Mayor Nikolay Tonev said last month the pollution was constant but that the environmental inspectorate recorded it only when the wind blew in the direction of the detection devise.
An initiative committee from the town of Galabovo is planning to stage a protest against the inaction of the responsible institutions on March 17. The protesters threatened to block the international road Ruse-Svilengrad.
The Stara Zagora District Governor Maria Neykova announced at the end of February that the Health Minister Radoslav Gaydarski had promised to grant funds for the medical examinations of the adult population in the two towns of Galabovo and Radnevo, which are constantly polluted by the Maritza Iztor Power Complex.
Neykova also insisted that the BGN 360 000 already collected from the three power plants in the region as fines for the pollution should be invested in environmental projects in the Galabovo Municipality.