A year ago, the State Environmental Service, while investigating complaints from residents, discovered that an illegal dam had been built across the Rēzekne River next to some quarries.

Boaters had known about the dam for at least five years, yet the environmental inspectors who monitor the Vlakon quarries and fish farming operations had failed to notice it. Neither the State Environmental Service nor the Rēzekne Municipality building authority penalised the company, merely ordering the structure to be demolished.