The Valgevälja sand quarry in Lääne County in Nort-West of Estonia operating on the basis of an extraction permit issued to OÜ Lääne Teed, was entered in the official register of water bodies as a result of the new law coming into force. This resulted in the legal restrictions established on water bodies (lakes and rivers) being applied to an operating quarry so that extraction of sand was permitted and prohibited at the same time.

Filing a petition with the Ministry of the Environment for the deletion of the quarry from the register of water bodies did not solve the absurd misunderstanding. Only after our firm filed a legal complaint with the administrative court, the Ministry of the Environment deleted the Valgevälja quarry from the register of water bodies. The permitted extraction is no longer prohibited.