site.btaEnvironment Minister Karamfilova Opens Air Quality Forum in Burgas, Unveils New Monitoring Project

The Minister of Environment and Water, Rositsa Karamfilova, opened a forum on Thursday in Burgas dedicated to improving the monitoring of atmospheric air quality at the national level. The event was held within the framework of the project "Improving the monitoring of atmospheric air quality at the national level" under the Environment Programme 2021–2027, implemented by the Executive Environment Agency (ExEA). 

The Minister described the project as visionary and a key step in building a modern national monitoring system, with the project having delivered six mobile automatic stations designed to measure specific pollutants. She also announced a parallel project under a Swiss-Bulgarian programme to modernize measuring stations and create a mobile application for real-time data access.

Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov proposed that the Municipality provide a sea vessel to the ExEA so that measurements can be carried out as close as possible to the tankers in the Burgas Bay. He reported that hydrocarbons from ship-to-ship loading in the bay during adverse weather conditions reach the city's residential areas. 

The financial volume of the project was also presented during the forum. The funding is nearly EUR 5 million, with 83% provided by the European Regional Development Fund and the EU Cohesion Fund, and 17% representing national co-financing. Radoslava Shoevska, Director General of the Analytical and Laboratory Activities General Directorate and project manager, emphasized that it has an interdisciplinary nature and includes the delivery of mobile stations, modernization of hardware and software, and the construction of an information security system. "The main principle is to limit the emission, for the site to be controlled and to be able to offer preventive measures, because every measurement that has already been released into the environment is a subsequent fact," she explained.

A demonstration of a mobile automatic station was made in the area of Morska Gara area of Burgas in the presence of Minister Karamfilova, Shoevska and the Mayor Nikolov. Milena Parvanova, Head of the Air Quality Laboratory Department, explained that the station is equipped to measure the main pollutants - fine dust particles, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and ozone, as well as pollutants specific to the region such as hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide and methyl mercaptan. The station also records meteorological parameters, and its key advantage is the possibility of real-time monitoring with direct data transmission to an ExEA server.