OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2009. Public hearings were held in the town of Tura on draft materials on the Environmental Impact Assessment for JSC RusHydro’s (ticker symbol: HYDR; MICEX, RTS and LSE) Evenkiiskaya HPP. Specialists from the Company, JSC Lengidroproekt and R & D institutes that are a part of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who had conducted a multi-factor analysis on the potential impact of the intended Evenkiiskaya HPP construction on the environment, reported that more than 200 Tura residents attending the meeting about the research results. Following the report, specialists gave expert answers to more than 40 questions. The entire event lasted approximately six hours. Today, RusHydro is forwarding draft minutes of the meeting to the Tura administration.

Following an analysis of critical remarks and proposals submitted to community liaison offices, those recorded in the minutes of public hearings, and also those comments received 30 days after the hearing dates, draft materials will be amended and a final version of the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Evenkiiskaya HPP will be prepared. All materials from public discussions will be included in the package of documentation to be submitted for State Expert Examination.

On September 17th, 2009, public hearings on draft materials on the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Evenkiiskaya HPP were held in Turukhansk.

The Company’s Evenkiiskaya HPP has a planned capacity of 8 - 12 GW.  Constructing the Evenkiiskaya HPP on the Nizhnyaya (Lower) Tunguska River will help the Russian state address a number of systemic geo-political challenges: to create a strategic energy reserve for Russia and to enhance the sustainability of the state’s entire social and economic infrastructure; to bridge power capacity shortages; to stimulate comprehensive economic development in the Urals and Siberia, including the area of Russia’s Arctic interests; to substitute for the burning of 32 million tons of coal in order to reduce Russia’s contribution to the global greenhouse effect; to prevent the atmospheric emission of 535,000 tons of pollutants, 273 million tons of CO2 and the creation of more than 3 million tons of ash and slag waste per year; and to stimulate the development of domestic science, engineering and machine-building, as well as the production of building materials, home construction and transportation.

Considering that the intended project is extremely important from a social, economic and geo-political perspective, RusHydro already prepared at an early pre-project stage of Investment Substantiation a highly professional and detailed assessment of the planned project’s environmental.  This assessment was as detailed as possible given the allocated timeframe for research.  Fully disclosing social and environmental risks before the start up of basic stage project work at the site will make it possible to make a well-reasoned decision on the feasibility of implementing the project. In the event of a positive decision on constructing the HPP, research will continue on a more detailed and profound level.

Scientists and other specialists from research and specialized institutes in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Chita and Irkutsk took part in the territorial study and the preparation of materials on the Environmental Impact Assessment.