The Keskkonnaamet publishes this announcement under § 12 (1¹)2) of Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management System Act.

Environmental Agency as a decision-maker announces that by order No DM-120984-10 of 10.05.2023 on the application for amendment of environmental permit No HARM-100 FOR the Soodla II sandy quarry environmental impact assessment (EIA) has not started.

The requested Soodla II sand quarry (existing quarry with extended area) is located in the village of Soodla in Harju, County Anija, cadastral parcels Soodla sand quarry 2 (cadastral identification: 14001:002:0530, intended purpose: 100% mining land) and Kolga District 62 (cadastral identification: 14001:002:0531, intended purpose: arable land 100%). The manager of the cadastral district Kolga District 62 is the Ministry of the Environment and the authorised authority is the State Forest Management Centre and the manager of cadastral division Soodla sand quarry 2 is the Ministry of the Environment and the Delegated Authority the Earth Authority.

The area of the mountain provision applied for is 46.26 ha and the area of the service area of the mountain provision is 60.54 ha. Of that, the area of the existing mountain allocation is 24.01 ha and the area of the service area of the mountain allocation is 36.19 ha and the area of the expansible mountain allocation is 22.25 ha and the area of that service is 24.35 ha.

The requested mountain allocation consists of an active consumable stock of construction sand 2, 3, 17 and 18 blocks, an active consumable stock of aggregate sand 4, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22 blocks (registry card No 0602 of the Mineral Register) and an existing deposit of sandy from the Soodla II quarry (permit No 160-100; permit holder OÜ MERKO MINES). The catchment area of the mountain allocation applied for coincides on a permanent basis with the catchment area of the existing mountain allocation of the sandy quarry in Soodla II.

The MINES OF OÜ MERKO ARE seeking, on the basis of paragraph 68(1) of the Subground Law and under conditions, an extension of the existing mining reserves. The explanatory memorandum to the application States that, in the east of the existing mountain allocation, a geological study was carried out entitled “Report on the geological work carried out at the Soodla Soodla experimental Area IV (stock at 30.09.2021. a)” (V. Valling 2021, EGF 9538). The geological study also partly overlaps with the catchment area of the existing mountain allocation. The MINES of OÜ MERKO ARE seeking to extend the existing mining reserves to an area overlapping with the mineral reserves recorded on the basis of the Geological Survey Report of 2021.

The Explanatory Memorandum to the application explains OÜ MERKO's MINES that the quarries mined by the blocks of mineral resources associated with the deposit of the existing Soodla II sandy quarry are, according to the Land Authority's public map application for deposits [1], a total of 632,74 thousand m ³. The average extraction volume in the last five years of mining has been 142,62 thousand m ³ in the mining reserves. Take into account the above and the fact that there is a strong demand for building minerals for the extraction of the stock at Soodla II's sandy quarry to be exhausted and that the minerals to be extracted will continue under an existing permit for a period of less than five years.

In addition, it is proposed to extend the period of validity of the environmental permit by 15 years.

The ex-ante assessment of the EIA proposes the following mitigation measures to be included in environmental permit No. HARMON-100:
1. Continue monitoring the aquifer layer of the quaternary by measuring the groundwater level OF the surveillance wells SPK1 (PRK0050787) and SPK2 (PRK0050788) on a quarterly basis. The results of groundwater measurements shall be reported to the Environment Agency via a BAGGED information system on a quarterly basis.
2. If the effect of lowering water levels on drills close to the quarry is felt, measures must be taken to ensure that the population is supplied with water.
3. Mitigating measures must be taken in the event of a dangerous reduction in water levels, which may have an impact on the Rehatic gamblets. (close ditches to increase water level, use materials to reduce filtration).
4. In order to minimise the possibility of pollution, the maintenance of mining and processing installations must be checked regularly and the maintenance of machinery must be carried out only on specialised maintenance sites designated for that purpose.
5. In order to rectify any failures and any fuel or oil pollution caused by an accident, an adequate quantity of absorbent (such as peat, sawdust or synthetic absorbents) must be available in the quarry to enable the pollution to be recovered.
6. In the event of an accident, the pollution must be immediately localised and notified to the Environment Agency, the Police and border Guard Board and the emergency services Agency.
7. During the deposition period, when the average outside temperature of the day is above +5 °C and mining activities take place, the holder of the environmental permit is obliged to pick up, in the quarry, the internal routes used for the transport of the mine.
8. The undertaking is required to ensure that land adjacent to the upland and accessible through the terrain of the quarry has access to its land, either through existing or alternative new roads.
9. If the noise level at the border of the wild game restriction zone exceeds 45 dB during daytime, the forest must be stopped at the quarry from March to mid-May between 17.00 and 11.00 hours.
10. Routes within a quarry and sand depositories must be placed in such a way that the dust emitted as a result of the activities of the quarry remains within the quarry and that the activities do not result in the limit values for the level of pollution being exceeded in an atmosphere close to the ground at the border of the production territory and, under dry weather conditions, use load coatings for sand transport or choose an appropriate navigation rate so that fine sand particles do not fly from the load.
11. The main impact of the establishment of a quarry is on the existing forest and its habitats, and it is optimum to deforestate the way in which the stages are planted and to the extent strictly necessary for mountain work - between 10 and 15 ha.

EIA was not started Paragraphs 3(1)(1), 6(2)(2) and (4), 6(3) and (5), 9(1), 11(2), (2) ², 2 ³, 4, 8 and 8 ¹ of the KeHJS, paragraph 1(1) and paragraph 3(4) of Decree No 224 of the Government of the Republic of 29.08.2005, entitled “list of areas of activity for which a preliminary assessment of the need for an environmental impact assessment must be carried out”, and Regulation No 31 of the Minister for the Environment of 16.08.2017, entitled “requirements specified on the basis of the "”

The developer is OÜ MERKO KAEVANDUSED (registry code: 14872152) contact details: Järvevana tee 9 g, city centre, Tallinn, Harju County
The decision-maker is Environmental Agency (contact person Liis Jääger, e-mail info@keskkonnaamet.ee, phone 5656 4094).

The decision not to start an EIA is available at working days, with prior notice at the nearest Office of the Environment Agency. In digital format, documents can be found in THE information system for environmental decisions IN BAGGED https://kotkas.envir.ee/, under procedure No M-120984.