SJSC State Real Estate (SRE) has completed the removal of waste hazardous to human health and the surrounding environment from the real estate in Felicianova, Cibla Rural Territory. A total of 40.59 tonnes of various hazardous waste was removed and disposed of, including paint and varnish waste containing hazardous substances, chemical substances used in laboratories and contaminated packaging, informs Andris Vārna, Member of the Board of SJSC State Real Estate.
“Now yet another property that was taken over by SRE as a property without heirs will have an opportunity for a new life. At the same time, we continue calling for the introduction of a precise algorithm of joint action in the laws and regulations, so that it is already clear what to do and where to look for funding for preventing threats when contaminated property is taken over by the state. Otherwise, a lot of resources are spent in agreeing on the work to be carried out with other state and local government institutions,” emphasises Vārna.
The removal and disposal of hazardous waste from the real estate in Felicianova cost SRE 41.9 thousand euros (without VAT). To put the property in order, funds from the proceeds of the expropriation of real estate owned by the Ministry of Finance were used. The cadastral value of the property is 13.9 thousand euros.
In June 2022, SRE took over the property of the liquidated paint and varnish manufacturer AS EMFEL – land with an area of 0.88 ha with two buildings – as property without heirs. The property with its hazardous waste – raw materials unsuitable for paint production – has been in the state register since December 2019.
The reorganised real estate will be expropriated. True, the estimates of SRE professionals demonstrate that the possibilities of fully recovering the funds invested in its reorganisation are negligible.
Discussions on how to more effectively deal with situations when the state has to take over property without heirs, in which pollution dangerous to the environment and human health is detected, have been ongoing for several years, reminds the Member of the Board of SRE.
According to the proposals already previously submitted by SRE, in 2021, amendments have been made to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers “Procedure for registering, evaluating, selling, transferring free of charge, eliminating and crediting the proceeds from sales to the state budget of property belonging to the state”. According to them, when taking over real estate without compensation, if waste is found in it, which causes or may cause damage or a danger to the environment or human life or health, the authority that takes over the real estate informs the State Police and the State Environmental Service about the established fact for further action.
SRE also participates in the interinstitutional working group created for the development of a conceptual report on the problematic issues of the legal framework affecting the taking over of property belonging to the state. In order to solve the problem of hazardous waste in state-owned properties, several solutions are being considered, which provide for amendments to the regulatory enactments on environmental protection, as well as the development of preventive legal mechanisms to prevent such situations. However, until a final agreement has been reached, each such case is dealt with individually, with SRE agreeing on the work to be performed with the institutions responsible for environmental protection.
Since the beginning of 2019, SRE has had to take over and reorganise three such real estate properties. In 2020, SRE improved the degraded environment in Auce, freeing it from hazardous waste and degraded buildings. The waste posed a threat both to the property and to the part of the adjacent populated territory, to apartment buildings in the immediate vicinity and to the educational institution – the school. For the performance of the works, SRE allocated 95 thousand euros of funding from the 2020 revenues from the expropriation of real estate owned by the Ministry of Finance. In 2019, in cooperation with the State Environmental Service (VVD) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM), SRE carried out actions to prevent existing environmental hazards at the real estate “Kalndīķi” in Saldus Rural Territory, by cleaning liquid hazardous waste from chemical substances, which was financed from the funding provided for the environmental sector in 2019 in line with the state budget sub-programme “Industry environmental projects” in the amount of more than 33 thousand euros. This real estate was also allocated to the state after the liquidation of the company.
A short photo report on the cleaning works is available here.
SRE successfully implements 44 projects of national importance, of which 24 are in the construction stage. The total implementation budget of the projects is more than 336 million euros. SRE provides professional real estate management and administration for approximately 365 real estate properties consisting of 1100 buildings with a total floor area of 0.95 million square metres, along with land beneath the buildings covering 602 hectares and more than 3536 land properties with an area of 903 hectares. SRE is one of 23 Latvian companies to have received the highest platinum award as part of the Sustainability Index of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, confirming the good governance and sustainability of its operations. The company was founded in 1996 and is 100% owned by the Ministry of Finance.
