In cooperation with the State Environmental Agency, JSC BAO delivered the largest and technologically one of the most complex environmental projects in Latvia so far, cleaning the Incukalns sulfuric acid tar ponds from historical pollution. In the spring of 2021, the rehabilitation and recultivation works will be completed, but the safe disposal of the tar removed from the ponds will continue until 2023. Using the post-remediation monitoring system established in both the South and North ponds, State Environmental Agency will continue to monitor the quality of the environment 30 years after the completion of the project.
“The remediation of the ponds polluted by sulfuric acid tar is the most ambitious and technically challenging project of this type that has ever been done in Latvia. We have achieved a successful result through the cooperation of many involved parties – businessmen who introduced special innovations adapted to the specifics of this project and responsibly solved previously unforeseeable complications that inevitably arise in such projects, as well as state institutions who jointly monitored the progress and finances of the project and were able to be open for both technological and management innovations. Today we are satisfied with the project and the conviction that the society of the 21st century understands and is much more aware of the impact of its economic activity on the environment, and the creation of such ecological disasters would no longer be possible,” says Elita Baklāne-Ansberga. On May 8, 2021, State Environmental Agency together with project cooperation partners symbolically planted 2,400 pine trees in the territory of the South Pond.