Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council has said that it is inadmissible to build diversion-type mini-hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) on rivers in the Carpathian Mountains.

The resolution was approved at a session on Tuesday.

The lawmaker also decided to address Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Environmental Prosecutor General's Office to study the lawfulness of the issue of permits to build mini hydroelectric power plants of the diversion type on the Dzembronia River (Bystretska rural council, Verkhovyna district).

Lawmaker Yuriy Romaniuk said that the regional council supports the construction of mini HPPs, but it opposes the construction of mini HPPs of the diversion type. He said that at the said HPPs all water from the river is sent into the pipe and all living creatures are killed.

Romaniuk proposed to make a decision to ban the construction of the mini HPPs of the diversion type on rivers in the Carpathian Mountains. Chairman of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council Vasyl Skrypnychuk said that this is not in the competence of the council.

Deputy Director of the industry and infrastructure department of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Administration, Vadym Kozlenko, said that at present, seven permits have been issued for the construction of mini HPP issued by the state architectural and construction inspectorate. Three developers have presented their projects to the coordination council at the regional administration, and three developers have not yet presented their projects. A request to the state architectural and construction inspectorate to cancel the permit for the construction of a mini HPP on the Dzembronia River was sent.

As reported, earlier the coordination council for the construction of small hydroelectric facilities and flood defenses at Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Administration recommended that the regional inspectorate of the state architectural and construction control cancel a decision to build a mini-hydroelectric power plant on the Dzembronia River.

In June 2013, the fourth mini HPP was launched in Ivano-Frankivsk region. Three small HPPs operated in the region earlier: two of them were restored and one was built by a private businessman in 2009. Last year they generated around five million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

In March 2012, in response to protests by the public, Head of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Administration, Mykhailo Vyshyvaniuk suspended the construction of mini-hydroelectric power plants in the Carpathian Mountains and created a working group to study the observation of Ukrainian law during the construction of mini-hydroelectric power plants in Verkhovyna district. In May 2012, a coordination council for construction of mini-hydroelectric power plants and flood protection headed by First Deputy Head of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Administration, Vasyl Plaviuk, was created.

In December 2012, Vyshyvaniuk canceled his resolution on the suspension of the construction of mini-hydroelectric power plants on mountain rivers in the region, and he obliged heads of district administrations and town mayors to present projects on the construction of mini-hydroelectric power plants to the coordination council.