COUNTRY PROFILE_ BULGARIA
Prepared by Ivanka Todorova, head of department “Land, protected area and
biodiversity”, Bulgarian Executive Environment Agency
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National pollution prevention policy and company practices (inventory of
polluting facilities, the implementation of the IPPC Directive).
The requirements of the Directive are partially transposed with:
Environmental Protection Act (State Gazette No 91/2002);- Chapter Seven, part II, art
117
Regulation for the issuing of integrated pollution prevention and control permit for the
construction of new and the operation of both new and existing industrial installations
and equipment - State Gazette No 29/2003.
By 2007 about 235/250 operation plants have to apply for issuing of integrated
permits in accordance with the above mentioned regulation.
Comments: "Integrated permit" shall be an individual administrative act granting
authorization to operate all or part of a specific installation, subject to certain
conditions which guarantee that the installation complies with the requirements of
Chapter Seven herein. A permit may cover one or more installations (or parts of
different installations) on the same site operated by the same operator.
Clean Air Act (State Gazette No 45/1996, as amended in March, 2000);
Regulation No15 on emission limit values for SO2, NOx and dust emissions from
new large combustion plants (State Gazette No 73/1999);
Regulation No 6 on the requirements for emission control measurement (State Gazette
No 31/1999);
Water Act
Waste Management Act
Source: MOEW, BEEA
http://www.moew.government.bg/index_e.html- in English language
http://www.moew.government.bg/index1.html- in Bulgarian language
National programme on contaminated lands, if any (established by whom, by what
legislation); other regional or sector programmes or databases.
No special program on contaminated lands, respectively legislation.
Only the National program for reduction of the number and hazardous of
landfills and old contaminated sites partially refer to the problem as the principles laid
down were reflected in the Program for Implementation of the Landfill Directive.
Specialised governmental decisions for shutting down of inefficient mining activities
are also related to a certain extend to the a.m. issue.
The following instruments of the environmental and sector policies particularly are
relevant to contaminated lands:
- National Environmental Strategy and National Action Plan
- National Development Plan, sector Environment
- National Program on Priority Construction of Waste Water Treatment Plants
- National Action Plan on Environment and Health
- National Program on Staged Termination of the Production of Leadcontaining Petrol
- National Rural Areas Development Program
- National Biodiversity Conservation Plan
- signing and ratification of relevant conventions, protocols etc.
Including some legal acts- Agricultural soil protection (comment agricultural soil
pollution) Act and Environmental Protection Act (partially trough polluters pay
principle) run out of the national instrumentarium.
From the year 2000 on, after the country became a member of the European
Environment Agency (EEA), the observation and evaluation of the contaminated sites
as well as the expenses allocated for their examination and remediation are part of the
annual reporting. Adopting the definitions set by the member states, the BEEA has
initiated the development of a specialised register of the local soil contamination. In
2002 and 2003 the BEEA reported properly. The main challenge raised is the lack of a
complete inventory based on an unified methodology.
3. Data acquisition (integration of existing databases, detection by authorities,
monitoring networks, new field campaign).
The Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) is responsible for implementation
of the national environmental policy.
The BEEA is the competent authority for collection and dissemination of information
concerning the environmental components and their fluctuations caused by various
factors.
The BEEA is a specialized institution responsible for collection, processing, storage
and publishing of environmental information. It is also the Bulgarian referent centre
to the European Environment Agency.
The methodological, material, technical and information support and development of
the National Automated Environmental Monitoring System (NASEM) is performed
by BEEA, structure of MOEW.
The NASEM covers whole territory of the country and maintains information
databases on national and regional level. It is operated by the BEEA together with the
15 Regional Inspectorates of Environmental and Water (RIEW). That includes all
annual inventories, quality control, assessment and reporting to national and
international bodies on environmental status.
Since establishing the National Monitoring Network and system Database collects
data on degradation of the land, diffuse soil contamination and contaminated land,
register on contaminated sites (local soil contamination) is under construction.
Ministry of agriculture and forest is responsible for agricultural soil management.
4. Database management and structure of national (or other) inventories.
The below information includes all annual inventories, quality control, assessment
and reporting to national and international bodies on environmental status.
The primary data from the local networks of the NASEM are obtained through
automated stations and conventional sample-taking sites. After reliability assessment,
they are submitted to local databases via manual or automated input. Following the
necessarily processing, the information is transferred via telex to the BEEA. The realtime data are valid only for the automatic stations for gamma-background radiation
and for two of the air quality stations. The monitoring data are centralized in the
National Database of BEEA, which till present is not integrated by components.
The updating is dependent on the concrete component and factors, for example:
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on air - daily, for the automated stations is planned the system to become a
real time one;
- on gamma-background - in real time
- on water and radiation - monthly, quarterly and annually
- on soils, waste, noise - annual
- on emissions - every 6 months
The Soil Monitoring Network has being partially restructured, but it ensures updated
annual data on diffuse and point contamination, typical degradation processes such as
acidification, salinisation and erosion.
5. Classification and assessment systems for ranking the priorities of
decontamination actions.
There is no separate document determines the status or other procedure on
decontamination actions. There is some legal ordinances about “old” pollution
relevant to privatisation, mining activities and waste landfills.
6. Risk assessment instruments at site-level, or above.
There are only some guidance regarding assessment of environmental status. The
National program Environment- Health was set but is not satisfactory.
7. Other decision-making mechanisms ruling the decontamination process (major
stakeholders, public participation, cost-benefit analysis, etc.).
The main mechanism is the “polluter pay principle” regarding it (the Environmental
Protection Act- Art.3 (1) and Art. 5 ) anyone accomplishing harmful damages shall be
obliged to:
- Eliminate the source of damage
- Bear responsibility for damage caused
- Implement activities, which will restore damage caused
Implementation of the principle in practice
- In case of past (old) contamination: At the time of restitution and privatization of
property, the new owners shall not be liable for ecological damage caused by past
actions or lack of actions. Any property to be privatized must also be evaluated for
ongoing pollution and compliance with environmental requirements. The
expenses must launch by the government.
- In case of unknown polluter: The government is responsible.
- In case of known polluter who ready to restore damages caused by him: The state
authors (Ministry of Environment) remit part of set penalty or grant financial
support as loan with low interest by National Environmental found
- In case of known polluter who not willing to restore damages caused by him: The
legal way is constituted juridical case by Ministry of Environment and Water.
The Environment Protection Act says "Environmental damage resulting from past act or
omission" shall be old pollution of sites or building structures on industrial sites with
hazardous substances and waste generated by industrial, agricultural, commercial or
transport activity posing a hazard to human health or to the environment.
8. Financial funding mechanisms of the inventorisation and the decontamination
actions other than polluter-pays (central budget, sector royalties, environmental taxes,
other funds).
On the national level- State budget, Enterprise for management of environmental
protection related activities within the MOEW, International instruments as PHARE,
ISPRA, World bank
On local level, the specialized financing instruments are the municipal budgets and
the municipal environmental protection funds
9. Regulatory authority framework and key players in soil protection and specific to
contaminated lands (licensing authorities, legislative bodies, research organizations).
Licensing scheme of a site decontamination (from detection to approval of the cleanup).
Legal authorities on soil protection policy in general:
- Ministry of Agriculture and Forest- for agriculture and forest soil
- Ministry of Environment and Water- for land as natural resource
No clear Licensing scheme of site decontamination (from detection to approval of the
clean up) because of absent of special normative acts.
Ministry of Agriculture and Forest is responsible for recultivation of agriculture land
and that is conduct regarding specially Regulation on land recultivation.
Ministry of Environment is responsible for assessment of old / previous damages.
The determination of previous ecological damages is made according to methods
approved by MOEW, and methodological Instruction published in 1998 about the
scope and the content of reports on determination of the damages dated before
privatisation. The process of making such reports involves a two- stage procedure:
The process of making this report involves a two-stage procedure:
 The first step is preparing a preliminary report, filling up questionnaires and forms
for identifying the contamination concerning the groundwater, the surface water, the
soils and the air - by assessment on the basis of a point system. Useful are the help
work-schemes with list containing criteria for probability of the groundwater
contamination, soil contamination etc., and criteria for selection of primary objectives
of impact concerning groundwater, surface water, soils, air.
 The numbers of the points determine whether the second step will be applied
(only for groundwater and soils). After the careful study of the available information
about the groundwater and soils there is composing “Plan about additional
investigations of the enterprise’s site” on the basis of the Methods of ecological risk
assessment, Dutch target and intervention values for soil and groundwater, the
experience of other countries on these problems. The aim of the additional
investigations is to be evaluated soils and groundwater conditions and impact factors
(polluters), in order to determine the extent of soil and groundwater contamination.
The additional researches supplement necessary information about these evaluations.
 The competent national body - the Supreme Environmental Experts Council
evaluate the Report and take decision to finish the determination of damages from
previous contamination until the moment of privatisation. In the case when as a result
from the two stages of determination, previous damages are proved, a Planprogramme is proposed with remedial measures and a groundwater-monitoring plan
also. The prepared report, by determination, concerns only the past damages in
the scope of the plant site, which have been caused directly by the enterprise.
 If a local monitoring network is available, it must be updated, otherwise it has to
be built a new monitoring network. It provides information about the current state and
development of the contamination and the effect of the remediation measures upon
the groundwater and will be useful for corrections and management of remedial
actions and warning in emergency or risk situations.
 The Ministry of Environment and Water approves the remedial measures, but their
value is accepted by the Privatisation agency. It reduces the cash-prise of the
enterprise. The ecological legislation requires from the new owner to implement the
remediation programme, which is financed from domestic or foreign sources. The
implementation control is made by the REWI-s. The Government may secure the
development of technologies for treatment of contaminated soils and groundwater.
10. Legislation (acts, decrees) on soil protection, incl. legal definitions on „soil”,
„contaminated soil”, „contaminated site”.
There is no complete legislation regulating soil/ land protection as natural resource as
well as no specific definition for contaminated sites and land.
After the main sectors Air and Water drop off the Law for Protection of Air, Water
and Land, the law in practice does not function any more and has no legal force, as a
result of which Bulgaria does not dispose of a normative document for soil protection.
There are several texts in other state documents, in connection with protection of
agricultural land aiming at increasing its fertility - for example the Agricultural soil
protection Act, also in several regulations.
Requirements of soil protection are included in several legislative acts. It is aimed to
follow the “polluter pays principle” but the laws and lower legislative acts in force so
far are not systematic regarding this:
- Environmental Protection Act, Water law, Waste Law, several Regulation etc (see
p.1)
The main Environment Low- (Environmental Protection Act -State Gazette No
91/2002;- Chapter Seven, part II, art 117) says:
- "Soil" shall be the upper layer of the Earth's crust in so far as it is the exponent of
soil functions, including liquid components (soil solution) and gaseous components
(soil air), excluding ground water, river channels and bottoms of water basins;
-"Soil functions" shall be:
a) basis for life and living space for human beings, animals, plants and soil
organisms;
b) an element of the natural balance, especially with the hydrological and nutrient
cycles thereof.
-"Harmful soil modifications" shall be the disturbance of the soil functions causing
significant harm and damage to the individual and to the community in general:
a) Chemical pollution in excess of the maximum permissible quantities with heavy
metals and metalloids, resistant organic pollutants, pesticides and oils, including
salinization and acidification;
b) Pollution with fresh fertilizer residues and concentrated mineral fertilizers, as well
as with various types of waste;
c) Physical degradation, such as water and wind erosion with the anthropogenic
aspects thereof, waterlogging and swamping, consequences of burning of stubble
and plant residue.
In 2001, the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) published Guidelines on
evaluation and treatment of old contamination (Guidelines on evaluation and
treatment of old contamination – sub-project 10 under the PHARE program –
Twinning BG-98, MOEW, Sofia 2001), during the same year a Methodology for
evaluation of landfills and old waste contamination was developed. It contains
detailed instructions about the landfills evaluation and the old contamination being
potential contamination sources for the environment components (mainly
groundwater and soil) and risk impact on the human health. The definitions adopted
are as follows:
А. Old contamination – Landfills and/or old sites with potential harmful effect on
the environment and the human health because of the presence of harmful substances
and possibility for their dissemination;
B. Landfills – operating or shut down facilities for waste disposal through landfilling,
waste bank from extraction and transformation of ores and minerals as well as any
type of non-regulated storages which could provoke harmful alteration of the soil and
various dangers for the mankind, flora and fauna;
C. Old sites – these are as follows::
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Production sites or areas where are or were shut down facilities or
equipment for work with substances that could provoke lasting alteration of the
environment quality. The sites dedicated for work with radioactive substances are
excluded.
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Production sites or areas where activities with endangering the
environment substances are carried out. The sites dedicated for work with radioactive
substances, wastewater collection, sludge, tratment and usage of fertilizes and
pesticades are excluded.
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Production sites or areas where abandoned or sewerage systems are
present.
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Since membership in European Environment Agency, for regular annual reporting the
uniform common definition from Draft International Standard ISO/DIS 10381-5 is used.
11. Specific legislation on soil contamination, incl. quality standards (emission,
immission, decontamination, intervention, natural background values).
There is only one Regulation No. 3 on the content of harmful substances in soils (SG
36/79 and 54/97, 21/2002.) including quality standards as follows:
- Heavy metal pollution- reference background values, precautions concentration,
maximum admissible concentration (under development is intervention values).
- Organic pollutants- PAH, PCB and pesticides: reference background values,
precautions concentration, maximum admissible concentration and intervention
concentration levels.
12. National strategy concerning diffuse source pollution and immission to soils.
No special common strategy
Un-lead petrol, some national program on pesticides and fertilise usage, in force
Regulation on the requirements for soil protection when sewage sludge is used in
agriculture (adopted by Decree No 262/2000 of the Council of Ministers, State
Gazette No 101/2000), Regulation on water protection by agricultural sources. (ДВ,
бр. 87/2000 г.);
13. Monitoring system(s) of soil quality (national, companies, etc.).
Current
Soil Monitoring Network
Land resources and soil degradation1. Control and protection of soil from pollution by heavy metals (318 points,
distributed in sources of pollution - industry, agricultural impact, irrigation and
transport) diffusion soil contamination
2. Control and protection of soil from pollution by persistent organic pollutants (98,
and later reduce on 20 points for monitoring of PAH, PCB and pesticides)
diffusion soil contamination
3. Control and protection of soil from acidification (70 places)
4. Control and protection of soil from salinisation (15 places)
5. Control and protection of soil from erosion - implementation of a mathematical
model for evaluation of the prognostic water area erosion is forthcoming
The controlling points are situated all over the country, under a scheme that allows for
timely and truthful registering of the changes in land quality.
And
Local soil contamination based on inventory of contaminated sites
On- going
This year the network re- structured as follows:
- I level- in the grid 16x16 km, main parameters as organic C, P, N, heavy metals
etc., ~450 points
- II level- will be depend on typical harmful degradation process in some regions as
organic and no- organic pollution (diffusion pollution), acidification, salinization,
erosion and desertification
- III level- that will be local soil contamination means to monitor the contaminated
sites
Companies
There are some requirements/ obligations to enterprises to do soil monitoring into
their sites by their self, but that is rarely cases because of needed legal instruments.
14. Regulations on liability (the conflict of polluter vs. landowner) and sanctions of
soil pollution in the environmental legislation and/or the criminal code.
Environmental protection act and sector law on air, water, waste management comes
in force “polluter pay principle”. Also, there is Regulation on control activities
15. How does land use planning consider contaminated lands?
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forest has developed a Recommended Regime
System to limit the use of lands contaminated with heavy metals depending on the
degree of contamination and the potential risk for the health in result of use of the
produce. When ownership over farmland is restituted, in the respective restitution
certificate the degree of contamination and the recommended regime of restricted use
of the soils shall be specified.
According to Decree 140/1992 of the Council of Ministers on Restructuring of ore
mining and phased close-up of ineffective production facilities, a program for
liquidation of a mine should include plans for technical and biological rehabilitation
of the lands damaged in result of the mine operation.
Projects for reduction and elimination of the contamination and sustainable
management and use have of such lands been developed.
Incentives are provided to land-use projects that take into account the residual
contamination, through interest-free loans extended by the National Enterprise for
Environmental Protection activities (That is economic organisation of environmental
protection activities).
16. The control of the transfer of contaminated lands (e.g. owner’s statement on land
status, approval by an authority).
No special regulation
There are not special requirements to agricultural owners for annual report but the
owner’s/ operators of industrial facilities have to report annually to BEEA (only for
enterprises under IPPC directive)
17. REFERENCES
1. National Environment Strategy and Action Plan for 2000 – 2006 period, MOEW
2. National Development Plan until the year 2006;
Sectoral programme
"Environment"
3. National Strategy for Energy Development for the period up to 2010;
4. National Action Plan on Environment and Health;
5. National Plan for Regional Development within 2000-2006 period;
6. The National Agricultural and Rural Development Plan for 2000-2006 period
under the Special EU Accession Programme for Agricultural and Rural
Development (SAPARD);
7. National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA);
8. Strategy on ISPA, Sector “Environment”, etc.
9. National program for reduction of the number and hazardous
10. Annual state report on status of environment, BEEA; MOEW
11. Annual report to EEA - Re: EIONET Data request for Local Contamination,
upload to CDR
18. ABBREVIATIONS USED:
MOEW- Ministry of Environment and Water
EEA- European Environment Agency
BEEA- Bulgarian Executive Environment Agency
NASEM- National Automated Environmental Monitoring System
31 October 2003