Raising Knowledge among Students and Teachers on Tailings Safety
and its Legislative Review in Ukraine

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STARTING SEMINAR

The Starting workshop with the representatives of German Environment Agency (UBA), the Ukrainian project team, the SHEI �National Mining University� (NMU) as the host, tutors and representatives of the key competent authorities was held at the NMU on July 12-13, 2017.

The meeting officially opened the project, introduced all project participants. The Ukrainian team presented the results of the previous UBA project on TMF safety, the UBA representatives and the project team have agreed work specifications and the logistics of project events and activities at the host university including timetable, rooms for trainings, equipment with its top managers, identified the ways of interaction among project parties, developed the follow-up activities program.

During the Starting seminar, the participants discussed project activities focusing on the educational and legislative components.

All participants outlined the importance of the educational course on TMF safety for specialists in TMF safety assessment due to the lack of such expertize in Ukraine. Implementing innovative educational courses is one of the NMU priorities so the deliverables planned within the project are closely related to university educational programs.

Dnipro Regional State Administration highly supported the initiative of the project because the number of TMFs in the region is one of the highest among other regions of Ukraine; some of TMFs are of very high risk due to extensive extraction of minerals with out-of-date capacities during many decades and improper safety standards having led to catastrophic changes of the environment in this area. Local authorities declare its high interest in the implementation of European legislation as some existing legislative acts do not work in practice, e.g. the exact information on TMFs safety is not properly monitored and supervised, industrial enterprises are not stimulated in carrying out practical measures in ensuring TMFs safety.

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The participants emphasizes the importance of the developed Roadmap containing Action plan for implementation of Directive 2006/21/EC in Ukraine that will help to Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine and Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine to fulfil some points of State Implementation Plan for Directive 2006/21/EC approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Thus, project results will help to start a process of the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with EU law in the field of tailings management to reach clear and transparent legislation with clearly defined responsibilities of TMF operators and competent authorities (Directive 2006/21/EC). Implementation of the TMF Methodology in the framework of Directive 2006/21/EC will provide unified requirements for inspectors and operators, further creation of TMF software and further development of the State Investment Program to improve TMF safety.

During the Starting seminar the UBA representative, the Ukrainian team and tutors have visited the TMF of Prydniprovska Thermal Power Plant operated by PJSC DTEK Dniproenergo. They made a preliminary visual inspection of the site and interviewed the TMF personnel to become familiar with the specifics of the site and local features. The field trip also served to obtain the actual data on the TMF history and its performance that facilitated filling in the TMF Checklist during the workshop. The participants discussed the issues of preparation to the next project activities.

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