Article 217. Environmental Requirements Applicable to Use of Land

1. When using land, nature users must:

1) apply production technologies that meet relevant sanitary and epidemiological and environmental requirements, not to allow damage to human health and environment, and implement the best available technologies;

2) prevent pollution, clogging, degradation and deterioration of soil, as well as removing off fertile topsoil in order to sell it and dispose to other people, except for instances when such removal is required to prevent irretrievable loss of fertile topsoil;

3) stockpile and dispose waste in places established by the decision of local executive agencies upon agreement with environment protection authority, as well as with special competent authorities within their competence.

2. When developing mineral resources, conducting geological exploration, construction and other works, nature users must:

1) maintain occupied land plots in the condition suitable for their further intended use;

2) remove, preserve and use fertile soil during operations that might cause land disturbance; and

3) fulfil reclamation of disturbed land.

3. When selecting a method of land reclamation, the following shall be taken into account:

1) the nature of surface disturbance within the land plot;

2) natural and physical-geographical conditions in the area where the site is located;

3) social and economic peculiarities of site location, taking into account the prospects for the area development and environment protection requirements;

4) a necessity to recover the main area of the disturbed land to use it as cropland within the black earth and intensive agricultural production areas;

5) a necessity to rehabilitate disturbed land in the close vicinity to settlements to use it as gardens, household plots and recreation areas, including construction of water bodies in worked-out areas and decorative landscape-gardening complexes created on overburden dumps and tailing ponds;

6) carrying out surface planning works within the area of an industrial site, remove unnecessary ditches and dikes, dispose construction waste and perform land site improvement;

7) ravines and washouts found on the land plot that should be filled in or made gently sloping; and

8) mandatory planting of greenery within the area.

4. If land plots are used for placement, burial, and storage of industrial waste, such land plots must meet the following requirements:

1) comply with sanitary and epidemiological rules and regulations for project design, construction and operation of burial sites for non-recycled industrial waste;

2) have low-filtration soil when groundwater elevation table does not exceed two metres from the bottom of a reservoir with an angle of dip 1.5 per cent toward the reservoir, agricultural land, forests or industrial facilities;

3) be located on the leeside in relation to a settlement and groundwater downstream;

4) be located on the terrain not flooded with flood or storm water;

5) have an engineering impervious bed, fencing and greenery all around, and hard surface runways; and

6) surface and groundwater runoff from the land plot should not discharge to open water bodies.

5. Application of new technologies, implementation of land-improvement programmes and improvement of soil fertility shall be prohibited if they do not meet environmental and sanitary-epidemiological standards and rules, as well as other regulations envisaged by law of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

6. The use of chemically and radioactive polluted land, establishment of protection zones, preserving residential houses in such areas, as well as industrial, commercial and social-cultural facilities, conducting land-improvement and technical works shall be determined based on maximum permissible radioactive and chemical impacts.

7. In order to protect land, land owners and users shall be obliged to take measures to:

1) protect land from water and wind erosion, mudflows, water floods, swamping, secondary salinisation, dehydration, compacting, radioactive and chemical pollution; clogging with industrial and consumption waste, pollution, including biogenic, as well as other negative impacts;

2) protect agricultural and other land against contamination with bacterial, parasitic and quarantine pests and blights, invasion of weeds, bushes and low forests, as well as from other types of land deterioration;

3) remove pollution consequences, including biogenic pollution and clogging of land;

4) maintain the achieved land improvement level;

5) perform disturbed land reclamation, restore soil fertility, and ensure timely use of land; and

6) remove and preserve fertile top soil for its further use for land reclamation purposes.

8. There shall be prohibited to use sodium chloride in icy conditions of roads on land within populated areas.

Chapter 32. Environmental Requirements Applicable to Subsoil Use

Article 218. Environmental Rationale for Subsoil Use Operations

1. Environmental rationale for conducting subsoil use operations shall be affirmative statement of opinions issued by the state environmental and sanitary and epidemiological reviews of subsoil use contracts, project documentation and an environmental permit.

2. A subsoil user shall be obliged to submit all pre-project and project documentation for the state environmental and sanitary-epidemiological reviews, including environmental impact assessment for the intended activities, containing a section “Environmental Protection”.

Article 219. General Environmental Requirements Applicable to Subsoil Use

1. General environmental requirements applicable to subsoil use shall be as follows:

1) subsoil use in accordance with the requirements of environment protection legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

2) preserving ground surface by applying special field development technologies;

3) preventing man-made land desertification;

4) taking preventive measures against hazardous man-made processes during exploration and production, as well as construction and operation of underground facilities not associated with exploration and production;

5) subsoil protection from water inundation, fire and other natural disaster factors that complicate field operation and development;

6) preventing subsoil pollution, particularly at underground storage of oil, gas and other substances and materials, burying of hazardous substances and waste;

7) following the established procedure of suspending and terminating subsoil use operations, as well as conservation and abandonment of field sites under development;

8) ensuring compliance with environmental and sanitary and epidemiological requirements at waste storage and placement;

9) reducing the areas of disturbed and alienated land by constructing motor roads based on a rational pattern prior to the beginning of works, as well as by applying other methods, including construction of cluster wells, application of technologies with internal refuse disposal, utilisation of industrial and mineral processing waste;

10) precluding wind erosion of soil, overburden production waste dumping, its oxidizing and spontaneous combustion;

11) sealing of lost circulation and fresh water horizons to preclude their pollution;

12) precluding groundwater depletion and pollution, including applying non-toxic reagents when making circulation fluid;

13) cleaning and reuse of drilling mud;

14) removal of residuals of drilling mud, fuel and lubricants by environmentally safe technology; and

15) treatment and reuse of oil field effluent within the system maintaining oil field formation pressure.

2. There shall be prohibited to discharge into subsoil waste water that has not been treated up to regulatory standards. Re-injection of water produced together with minerals, injection of process solutions used for mineral production envisaged by projects and technological regulations, which enjoy affirmative opinions of the state environmental review, as well as other expert examinations envisaged by law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, shall not be interpreted as waste water discharge.

3. A subsoil user shall:

1) select the most efficient methods and technologies to conduct operations in accordance with the internationally recognised standards;

2) follow flow charts and project designs that provide for rational subsoil use, safety of employees, residents, and the environment.