Sludge lake. The White Sea, or the salt lakes of Bolivia near Dzerzhinsk. Press and Internet

We visited this interesting and little-known place in our region, which is located near Dzerzhinsk next to the village of Igumnovo.

02.

You can view the interactive map

Some information from Wikipedia:
Sludge storage tank at the SIBUR-Neftekhim plant (formerly Caprolactam).
Commissioning date: December 1973;
Purpose – storage of sludge produced by the state-owned enterprise Kaprolaktam plant;
Useful design capacity – 4.13 million cubic meters. m;
Filled - 3.928 million cubic meters. (99.5% of the waste volume was generated in Soviet times);
Sludge storage area – 92.0 ha;
Dam height – (7.5-8.0) m;

On the weekend, having gathered in Nizhny and loaded into the car, we moved towards Dzerzhinsk, having in stock a rough plan and mobile phones with maps of the region.
Before reaching Dzerzhinsk, we turned around, crossed the railway tracks and drove in the opposite direction along Sibur-Neftekhim. We needed to go around it in a circle, because... The sludge pond is located behind the vast territory of the plant. From the asphalt road you need to turn right in the village of Igumnovo (we did this a little earlier than necessary and therefore had a long drive along not the smoothest forest roads), drive through it and drive out to the lakes, which are located around the sludge reservoir. On the way we met local guys who explained that this towering plateau (as it turned out - a dam about 8m high) is the “White Sea”, and the best way to get there is to walk along a narrow pipe about 10 meters above the “river”, which serves the role of a ditch in front of the sludge storage dam. Upon closer inspection, it didn’t look much like a river; rather, it was a liquid strip of waste, covered with a green-black mass of incomprehensible consistency. Having thrown a stone there, the mass made a hole and, with a disgusting squelch, splashed in different directions with something completely black, similar to either oil or petroleum. The crossing over this ditch turned out to be not a pipe, but an ancient metal non-functioning conduit for the power line standing next door (by the way, you can use the power line tower to navigate to the place where you can go to the “White Sea”) - rusty and not particularly reliable in appearance. The prospect of falling into a sludge of unknown origin did not warm me, so the passage through this conduit was perhaps the most unpleasant moment of the entire trip.

03. The sludge storage area is huge.

04. Somewhere trees have already grown.

06. A long pipe, about half a kilometer, goes to the center of the slurry reservoir.

08. Almost nothing grows around it; it feels like the soil around the pipe is more poisonous.

11. In spots you can find red moss or bright blue earth.

13. The sludge is fragile and practically crumbles in your hands.

15. The surface under your feet collapses, scattering beautiful dust from under your feet.

16. In the center of this sludge reservoir plateau there is a whole large lake. It looks like even with fish, because... a bunch of birds were seen.

17. It looked like a beautiful beach, if not for the mud that spread underfoot.

18. The closer to the water, the more you fall through.

19. An incomprehensible building on the other side.

20. A bird with something stuck to its paws.

21. There are a lot of fish and bird bones and feathers everywhere. It looks creepy.

22. s1rus

23. The surface is very heterogeneous. In some places it is harder, in others it looks like oil, very slippery.

26. Traces of some animals were noticed.

27. The sneakers were a little damaged.

29. Real desert.

31. A stream of waste that feeds the lake.

33. And again Andrey.

34. Something similar to whitewash.

35. At one point, a large chimney at the plant emitted several clouds of acrid black smoke.

37. And here is the drain of the pipe, from here everything spreads throughout the rest of the slag storage tank.

39. There is scorched earth around the pipe.

43. These are the trees.

46. And these lakes are already outside the territory of the slag dump.

47. From a distance it looks nice, but in reality it’s the same oily dirt and heaps of garbage.

That's all for today. I hope to be able to visit some more unusual places like this in the near future.

The most polluted city in Russia will host a meeting of the State Council on environmental issues.

On the very eve of the May holidays, when the whole country had already relaxed, thunder roared in the administration of the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region: “The president is coming to us!”

In June, a Russia-EU summit will be held in Nizhny Novgorod, and now it turns out that on the same dates the president intends to organize a meeting of the State Council on environmental issues in Dzerzhinsk.

Why did the presidential choice fall on Dzerzhinsk? Let's face it: it's a big city and a significant industrial center. But are there many such Dzerzhinskys in Russia?

I talked a little earlier with Vladimir Fedorovich Orekhov about how Dzerzhinsk stands out against the all-Russian background. Of course, he will not attend the meeting of the State Council - although, I think, it would be worth inviting him - as an unbiased environmental activist who knows the issue.

I will write about everything that he and other Dzerzhinsky ecologists could tell the president if they were invited to this meeting.

Vladimir Fedorovich Orekhov headed the Northern branch of the Acoustic Institute in Severomorsk for 35 years, then retired and returned to his homeland, the Nizhny Novgorod region. He returned and immediately found himself in the epicenter of the struggle: the local population rebelled against the largest household waste landfill in Europe, Igumnovo, which was pouring greasy, suffocating smoke into the surrounding villages.

At first, the environmental prosecutor's office could not catch the owners; the city authorities weakly convinced everyone that the smelly landfill met all the standards, and blamed people for not having special knowledge. But people, in a philistine way, stood their ground: “The landfill interferes with our lives, it makes us suffocate, and our children suffer from asthma.”

Vladimir Fedorovich Orekhov

The protest movement grew, and Orekhov joined it. Soon, on the basis of a group of activists, the environmental organization “Vyunitsa” (that’s the name of one small local river) was created. Having pinned down the environmental prosecutor's office, this same "Vyunitsa" ensured that the case of liquidation of the landfill reached the court. And in May 2008, the Dzerzhinsky District Court made an unprecedented decision: to stop operating the landfill by October 2010.

The landfill, however, is still in use today: the administration of Dzerzhinsk refers to the fact that no alternative to Igumnov has been built. Officials treat the court's decision like the “Notice” card from a board game: while they played the triumph of the rule of law, all participants kept a serious face. But the trial passed - and the administration forgot to think about this pampering.

Although the fires at the landfill have since subsided. And soon after the trial, Orekhov received a call from the city administration: “Head the Regional Center for Environmental Monitoring” (RCEM).

For about a year, RCEM fought for compliance with environmental legislation in Dzerzhinsk - as confidently as Vyunitsa.

And then Orekhov suddenly resigned from his leadership position. He doesn't go into detail about why he suddenly made this decision, but says: "Living on a pension, I can still afford an attitude and conviction."

Disease history

Ecology for Dzerzhinsk is a point of conflict of interests and an unhealed ulcer. So old, so difficult to treat, that many leaders have simply learned to speculate on it, the way street beggars speculate on photographs of their sick children.

Orekhov says about Dzerzhinsk: “Our city is burdened with history.” Couldn't have said it better. The history of Dzerzhinsk is indeed a heavy, unbearable burden.

The place where Dzerzhinsk now stands has long been popularly called Chernorechye - a remote corner 40 kilometers from Nizhny Novgorod, a trade giant on the Volga. In the middle of the 19th century, a railway was built into the depths of Chernorechye, and from then on, production began to grow here, and people flocked from the villages.

The Soviet government accelerated the industrial growth of Chernorechye, opening more and more factories and rebuilding the old ones.

Thousands of peasants flocked to production: hunger was driving, there was rationed bread at the factory.

In 1930, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, by its decision, approved the city of Dzerzhinsk on the map of the country, which occupied the area of many former Chernorechensk villages.

Today, about 240 thousand people live in the city and its surroundings.

The 20th century, with its arms race, gave Dzerzhinsk fundamental importance for the country. During the war, a wide range of weapons were produced here - explosives, bombs, aircraft shells. Military chemicals, of course: phosgene, mustard gas, lewisite, chlorine, hydrocyanic acid. Each of the plants, in addition to products for the needs of the defense industry, also produced a significant amount of chemical waste. As a rule, they were dumped nearby. Thus, in particular, the White Sea sludge storage facility was formed.

The White Sea is the largest sludge reservoir in Russia and Europe. Operates for about 35 years - introduced in 1973. Nowadays it is operated by the Kaprolaktam plant (OJSC Sibur-Holding).

Help from the factory website

“By January 1, 1939, it was planned to create significant capacities for the production of toxic substances in the country. Great hopes were placed on Dzerzhinsky plant No. 96, whose capacity was to be 40 thousand tons of mustard gas, 8 thousand tons of lewisite and 3 thousand tons of phosgene per year.<…>

On May 8, 1944, a report was prepared by the Gorky Research Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases on occupational morbidity during the years of the Patriotic War at plant No. 96: in the second half of 1941, injuries were officially recorded for 765 people, in 1942 - 2397, in 1943 - 494, and in the first half of 1944 - 134 people. Hundreds of those who worked at Zavodstroy in those years did not live to see the Victory. And only a few are alive today.”

The White Sea contains about 7 million tons of chemical production waste, among which, environmentalists fear, there is first-class hazard waste. However, according to the official version, “the waste contained in the White Sea belongs to the fourth hazard class and is characterized as “low-hazard.” Almost 60% of the total volume is water, the rest is non-toxic, low-hazard mixtures of insoluble salts, mainly carbonates.”

Currently, Sibur is racking its brains over what to do with the White Sea: preserve it or recycle it? Both cost enormous amounts of money - we are talking about hundreds of millions of rubles. So the main direction in which both the plant and the administration of Dzerzhinsk are working with complete confidence is “demythologizing the White Sea facility.”

No less interesting is the history of another ecological landmark of the city - the so-called “Black Hole”. “Black Hole” is a huge karst failure* that appeared about 30 years ago. Experts call this sludge dump wild because no one has ever formally built it - this chemical dump appeared spontaneously. Basically, the chemical plant "Plexiglas" dumped its production waste into the "Black Hole", but other plants did not neglect this opportunity. Over all the years of operation, the shallow niche in the ground, as it seemed at first, never overflowed. That is, everything that factories dumped into the pit for decades dispersed into karst caves in the ground.

Since the sludge receptacle did not have an official owner, the environmental prosecutor's office tried through the courts to involve the administration in the reclamation of this repository. But the “Black Hole” still exists today.

“White Sea” and “Black Hole” are the most famous chemical dumps of Dzerzhinsk. But there are others, often no less large-scale - more than 50 of them in total. Today, most of the city - the so-called industrial zone - is a continuous Martian space, covered to the horizon with neither solid nor liquid, but some kind of quick-moving substance that slowly digests rusty the skeletons of some mechanisms, no one knows how they got here.

According to official statistics from Rosstat, oncology is the second (after heart attacks, traditional for our country) cause of death in Dzerzhinsk. The reason for this is not only the chemical industry, but also the entrepreneurial spirit of the population, which, however, also has its roots in the chemical industry. Until recently, in many surrounding villages, furnaces were heated with graphite waste from surrounding factories. Graphite waste contained a full range of toxic substances, and they had to be disposed of according to special rules. But there was no gas in the villages then, and people relieved the factories of the burden of processing toxic graphite.

Recently, the environmental discussion has reached a new level in connection with a big federal undertaking to raise the level of the Cheboksary reservoir. This idea immediately encountered a number of obstacles on the ground, including the most obvious, catastrophic chemical pollution of Dzerzhinsk. Rising water in the reservoir can lead to flooding of chemical burial sites (which sometimes happens during floods). There is a risk that their contents will one day end up in large waterways. So landfills and sludge dumps are, in some way, a counter-argument against this project.

How desires diverge from possibilities

Here was the story. Several years ago, the small town of Sasovo (in the Ryazan region), with a scandal, through multiple courts, expelled from its territory a newly built workshop for the production of phenol-formaldehyde resins. The workshop was contrary to environmental legislation, and the Sasovites said: “We don’t need such happiness. Even taking into account new jobs and increased budget revenues.”

As a result, the workshop moved to Dzerzhinsk. Do you think anyone here will make claims against him? Here, already for several years, Roshydromet in its reports has consistently recorded exceeding the maximum permissible concentration for phenol. And not a single responsible structure could identify the source of the excess. Deputy Head of the Department of Investment Policy, Foreign Economic and Interregional Relations and Environmental Protection Dmitry Alsofiev says in this regard that it is very difficult to actually prosecute someone for exceeding phenol levels, although the corresponding work is still being carried out. The environmental prosecutor's office also shrugs. “Many chemical production facilities in the city are under the control of federal government bodies, such as Rosprirodnadzor, Rostechnadzor, etc.,” writes Maxim Kondratyev, deputy Nizhny Novgorod environmental prosecutor. “According to current legislation, regulatory authorities at the regional or municipal level do not have the right to enter the territory of such an enterprise to check the environmental situation or take samples, except in the event of an emergency with consequences, for example, in the form of fires, poisoning of citizens, etc.”

And Orekhov, who at that time was still listed as an RCEM specialist, while the others were helplessly complaining, came up with this. He demonstratively took air samples in the immediate vicinity of the enterprises - not at them themselves. He was not allowed into the enterprises, but he drove up a Gazelle with measuring equipment, placed it near the fence in the torch zone and took samples. Among the main suspects were the Plant named after. Sverdlov" and "Plexiglas" are two of the largest city enterprises. As Orekhov says, “based on the results of the research, work was carried out with enterprises.”

Orekhov, of course, is not a professional ecologist (which many professionals never tire of reproaching him for). But nevertheless, as a result of the work carried out, phenol emissions immediately somehow decreased by themselves.

Political ecology

In 2006, American researchers from the Blacksmith Institute ranked Dzerzhinsk in second place after Chernobyl in the ranking of the dirtiest places on the planet. The same study stated that the average life expectancy for a man in the city was 42 years and for a woman 47 years.

The study caused a lot of noise. The offices of environmentalists who collaborated with Blacksmith were searched by the FSB and the police, looking for the “orange trace.” The emerging investors turned their backs on Dzerzhinsk. The city administration was tearing its hair out for allowing itself to be deceived so cheaply (and Blacksmith, before denigrating Dzerzhinsk in the eyes of the whole world, gave it several water treatment plants). In the end, the Americans themselves were forced to admit that if Dzerzhinsk is in second place after Chernobyl on their dirty list, then only if it is alphabetized in Latin transcription.

And yet, the study of American ecologists in relation to Dzerzhinsk - despite all the dubiousness and tension of the conclusions - was very revealing. The fact is that the Americans in their calculations were based on the public information that was previously openly presented by officials. In particular, in 2002, during the election campaign for the mayor of Dzerzhinsk, Vladimir Brikker, at that time a deputy of the city duma and the regional Legislative Assembly, actively attracted public attention to the environmental problem in the city. He spoke about the removal of workshops and the elimination of chemical dumps in the city. He went even further, declaring that at the slightest danger to life and health, the residents of the villages should be resettled. And: “Of course, all residents of the villages should receive compensation, as required by federal law.”

Bricker was elected mayor - and calmed down about the environment, answering residents to their alarming letters in the following spirit: “Currently, according to the information available to the administration, all work regarding sludge ponds is carried out in accordance with existing legislation to ensure the safety of citizens and environmental protection "

This was probably the first time that information about the state of the environment was converted into political capital. But in the future this scheme worked.

About the next mayor of Dzerzhinsk, Viktor Portnov, “Vyunitsa” wrote in one of her public addresses to the city leadership: “... began with a public recognition that the environment is one of the most important obstacles to effective investment activity, and ended with a simple statement that the city has no serious environmental problems.” problems."

But a lot has changed since then. Now on the agenda is the very “demythologization” of local dead zones. And the main current complaint of Orekhov and other ecologists to the city authorities and other structures responsible for the fact that Dzerzhinsk remains a huge garbage dump is complete lack of initiative. Indeed, when it comes to the reclamation of sludge reservoirs, we are often talking about such amounts that the Dzerzhinsk budget has never even dreamed of. But the city, as if out of principle, does not participate in targeted environmental programs - regional and federal. Today, Dzerzhinsk, first of all, wants not so much to cleanse itself of the rubbish that has been accumulating here for years, but, on the contrary, dreams of attracting investors. It would be better, of course, clean ones - and then what kind will come.

Moreover: in a sense, being a landfill is even beneficial for the city.

By law, all “dirty” enterprises must compensate for their negative environmental impact (NEI). All emissions, all waste of the enterprise are calculated into payments. And initially the legislator intended that all NVOS fees should be spent precisely for this purpose. Dzerzhinsk, however, was neither hot nor cold from this, because... all payments “for the negative” still went to Nizhny in some roundabout way. And in 2007, amendments to the Budget Code severed the connection between the revenue and expenditure parts of the budget. And even though environmentalists have achieved that a significant part of the environmental pollution now remains in Dzerzhinsk, the city spends only about 10% of the collected 150 million rubles on environmental protection measures.

* Karst is a phenomenon associated with the dissolution of rocks in water and the formation of voids in the soil. Typical for soils with a predominance of easily water-soluble rocks - gypsum, limestone, rock salt, etc.

What to do with Dzerzhinsk sludge storage tanks?

Dmitry Alsofiev,Deputy Head of the Department of Investment Policy, Foreign Economic and Interregional Relations and Environmental Protection:

Roshydromet annually compiles a list of the most polluted cities in Russia. Dzerzhinsk is not included in the priority list*. This allows us to conclude: the situation is not so terrible. At the same time, significant environmental damage has accumulated during the operation of enterprises in Soviet times, and numerous waste disposal facilities have been created. Most of them are currently ownerless. The administration has prepared proposals to attract subventions from the federal and regional budgets to carry out the reclamation of the facilities of the former Plexiglas plant (industrial waste landfill, deep burial landfill, Black Hole liquid and paste waste dump), the White Sea slurry reservoir of the Kaprolactam plant and others objects. It is quite obvious that the city budget alone will not be able to handle the reclamation of Dzerzhinsky chemical burial sites. The implementation of these works is possible only on the terms of co-financing from higher budgets.

The situation with waste disposal facilities may worsen significantly if the level of the Cheboksary reservoir rises. The estimated cost of protecting the city from negative impacts is over 134 billion rubles. And our entire city budget is 2 billion. Federal budget assistance is needed.

Vladimir Orekhov, Executive Director of the public environmental organization "Vyunitsa":

Our city budget for reclamation, of course, is not enough, but it should be enough to prepare projects that can already be addressed to the federal authorities. You can’t just come out like that: “Give us money!” We need to have a substantive conversation with them. Dzerzhin residents defended their Motherland, people laid down their health, laid down their lives - should the country somehow help the city now?!

Maxim Kondratyev,Deputy Prosecutor of the Nizhny Novgorod Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor's Office:

Since the 90s, after a change in the economic structure in the state, the sludge dump “Black Hole” has actually become an ownerless facility. The environmental prosecutor’s office tried through the court to involve the city administration in mothballing this facility, but the court refused to satisfy the demands of the prosecutor’s office. The city authorities have not withdrawn from solving this problem, however, due to the high cost of these measures, the issue is being resolved slowly.

"White Sea" is a waste storage facility organized in an authorized manner. Despite the fact that the operating organization claims to comply with environmental requirements during its maintenance, the very fact of the existence of this object already poses an environmental hazard. Specialists from various departments and public ecologists have different assessments of the degree of its negative impact on the environment, from acceptable impacts to extremely dangerous ones. Some link the excess of chemicals in groundwater to this object, others explain this by the overall influence of enterprises in the industrial zone of Dzerzhinsk. In the absence of an indisputable expert opinion on the negative impact of the storage facility on the environment, and no one contacted the prosecutor’s office with such studies, the environmental prosecutor’s office has no reason to interfere in what is happening. To monitor the situation, the measures that are available in the arsenal of specially authorized regulatory authorities are sufficient.

Alexey Yablokov,Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ecologist:

Nowhere in Europe are there sludge storage facilities comparable to the “White Sea” - neither in scale nor in design characteristics. They realized 60-70 years ago that this was unacceptable. The “White Sea” is a terrible object, fraught with a colossal threat in the event of a breakthrough and the entry of groundwater into the Oka and Volga. The White Sea, like other sludge reservoirs, can be reclaimed, but it will cost a lot of money. Possibly hundreds of billions of dollars. However, there is also a mechanism for solving this kind of problem. It is necessary to assemble an expert commission, which would include independent ecologists, chemists, and economists. And calculate what would be more profitable: liquidate numerous chemical burial grounds or resettle people from Dzerzhinsk and the surrounding area? It is possible that the second solution to the problem will be less expensive.

* The Upper Volga Department of Hydrometeorological Service names Dzerzhinsk as a candidate for inclusion in the priority list of the most polluted cities in the Russian Federation.

In order to see the salt lakes, you don’t have to go to Bolivia or the Astrakhan region. It is enough to come to the small village of Igumnovo, which is near Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region. It is near it, just one kilometer away, that the largest slurry reservoir in Russia and Europe is located, “The White Sea,” as it is popularly called. Here, on an area of 92 hectares, according to various estimates, from two to seven million tons of waste, mainly chemical, are stored. I suggest that lovers of technogen and post-apocalypse take a short walk along it.

But first, I want to correct myself a little and say that about “the dirtiest river in the world,” which is called and about which I already wrote, is located right here, and not in the place that I described in the last post. It just flows out of the White Sea. Here she is

Next to all these “beauties” is the village of Igumnovo, which I will write about separately a little later. Imagine, it is located between the “White Sea”, Volosynikha, “Black Hole” and the Igumnovskaya solid waste landfill (one of the largest in Europe!) - you won’t envy it...

The sludge storage tank itself was put into operation in December 1973 and is intended for storing sludge produced by the state enterprise Kaprolaktam plant. The area of the sludge storage area is 92 hectares. The height of the dam is 7.5-8.0 meters. Useful design capacity - 4.13 million cubic meters. meters. Currently, the sludge reservoir is 97% full, and 93% of its waste volume was generated in Soviet times. The sludge storage facility has been part of SIBUR-Neftekhim since 2001. SIBUR received the White Sea waste as an “inheritance” along with the production facilities of the former Caprolactam plant. Now, as I understand from the news, it is on the balance sheet of Dzerzhinsk.

Getting to the sludge dump site is very easy. All that is there is an open barrier and the sign “Transmission prohibited.” Well, we’re not driving, we’re walking.

Along the way you can see water discharges from production, they flow like a clear mountain stream straight into Volosyanikha

Volosyanikha herself has her own “pond”. Space landscapes

The dam is closer

After walking a little more, you can see a plastic guard in a booth. One must be afraid here, first of all, of dogs, whose traces are everywhere here. Although I didn't come across any.

There is also some kind of landfill formed near the sludge settling tank. Overall - beauty

Lakes and Volosyanikha behind the ramparts of the "White Sea"

As I understand it, today the White Sea sludge storage tank is used for its intended purpose. SIBUR and its subsidiary SIBUR-Neftekhim, which directly operates this engineering structure, maintain its technical condition in full compliance with the requirements.

Small aspen and birch trees are gradually growing almost everywhere in the area

Shaft

Dog tracks are common here, but sometimes wild boar tracks are also found.

The cost of mothballing the White Sea slurry reservoir in the industrial zone of the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region will be about 1 billion rubles, said Sergei Khlopov, general director of Sibur-Neftekhim OJSC.

In June 2011, Dmitry Medvedev set the task for Sibur-Neftekhim OJSC to gradually liquidate the White Sea slurry reservoir on the territory of the Kaprolaktam plant. According to Khlopov, the sludge reservoir currently occupies an area of about 55 hectares and contains about 4 million cubic meters. m of sludge, which is a paste consisting of 50% water, and the rest from calcium and magnesium carbonates, which remain after the use of substances in the electrolysis process.

Three options for solving the sludge reservoir problem were considered. “It’s processing it into something, transporting it somewhere or canning it locally to minimize harm,” Khlopov said. According to experts, the first two options are much worse from an economic point of view.

Conservation will include removing sludge deposits from the area adjacent to the storage tank, leveling its surface, creating a drainage system and creating a vegetation cover at the final stage of work. The work is expected to last four years and will begin after the completion of state and environmental examinations, which are planned to be completed by the end of 2012.

In general, it’s better to read more about the conservation situation and who is responsible for it on the Internet, in particular, I haven’t been very involved in this issue

By the way, do you see that dark patch of forest near the horizon? This is the high bank of the Oka, where we all get our water from...

Here's some information from environmentalists:

"The chemical plant "Caprolactam" (military chemical plant No. 96) in Dzerzhinsk in 1939-1959 produced highly toxic chemical warfare agents - mustard gas and lewisite. The waste from this dangerous production, as well as all defective products, was dumped into the lowlands near the plant. This wild dump was turned into a more or less tolerable “landfill” only in 1973. However, at the time of converting the landfill into a so-called landfill, no one was going to cover its bottom and side walls with clay. So it has always been extremely dangerous for people and will remain so forever. If it is not liquidated according to all the rules. And SIBUR, which received the Caprolactam plant practically for nothing, most likely did not know about this at the time of the “purchase”. And now he doesn’t know how to get out of the situation he’s gotten himself into.

Here is what is written about the history of the issue in L. Fedorov’s book “Chemical weapons - a war with one’s own people. The tragic Russian experience” (2009):

"... during the war years, the special landfill ("liternaya") of plant No. 96, located in the terrain above Volosyanikha, had neither a fence nor identification marks. Waste from special production was dumped into this landfill without degassing. When the wind changed, the "breath" of the landfill was felt nearby workshops and buildings, and this situation remained for many years. The impact of that landfill on the Oka and Volosyanikha rivers was not studied.

As of 1963, the issue of recycling such a group of waste from chemical enterprises as solid bottoms, sludge, and spent catalysts had not been resolved. In those years, solid waste was stored on dumps organized inside industrial sites, and sludge was sent to sludge storage tanks (mostly). All this was not regulated by sanitary rules.

The issue of organized disposal of solid industrial waste in the soil in the Dzerzhinsk region has always been complicated: the soil in those parts is sandy, karst phenomena are characteristic of those places, and the city’s water supply is groundwater. Therefore, each plant alone solved the problems of solid waste disposal. Accordingly, information about the disposal of solid industrial waste in and around plants No. 96, No. 148 and ChKhZ is insignificant. Although any resident of the city will willingly show where the “White Sea” is located (the sludge storage tank of plant No. 96, where the waste from mustard gas production was received)..."

A year ago, during the highest visit of the current Prime Lawyer to Dzerzhinsk, not a word was said about the toxic waste from mustard and lewisite production being located in the White Sea. Everyone was very polite. To this day, all the bosses and the obedient press pretend that they are not in the know. And in recent weeks, the authorities have decided to commit an environmental crime. As is known, accumulated environmental damage, existing in the form of landfills, is eliminated in three stages: first, reclamation occurs, then sanitation and then rehabilitation. Only after this can the treated area of land be considered safe for people. As we see, our bosses, in collusion with SIBUR (known for its noisy chatter about love for the environment), decided not to do anything at all - not even reclamation. A lot of money will be needed for the environmentally sound liquidation of the “White Sea” in Dzerzhinsk, but little will be stolen."

But still, I hope that the authorities and residents will still be able to resolve this extremely difficult issue, but for now, as far as I can see, nature itself is taking its toll...

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..3

Chapter 1. Theoretical aspects of a sludge reservoir as an environmentally hazardous object in the Nizhny Novgorod region………………………………….5

1.1. History of the White Sea slurry reservoir………………5

1.2. Contents of the “White Sea”……………………………………………7

…………………………………8

2.1. Proposals for the phased conservation of the “White Sea” slurry reservoir……………………………………………………………………………………………...8

2.2. The economic aspect of the liquidation of the “White Sea”……………………12

2.3. Expected result…………………………………………………….14

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….15

List of references………………………………………………………...17

Applications………………………………………………………………………………...18

Introduction

My native country is wide, there are many forests, rivers, lakes and seas in it. However, not all seas evoke delight, tenderness and joy. For example, “White Sea” in the city of Dzerzhinsk. The city of Dzerzhinsk is one of the centers of the chemical industry, with more than 30 industrial enterprises.

Our miracle worker, chemistry, produces all sorts of products: mineral fertilizers, caprolactam, plastics, pesticides, fatty alcohols and much more. And all this in one city, which has essentially been turned into a complete industrial site.

During the Great Patriotic War, explosives, bombs, and aircraft were produced in Dzerzhinsk, and chemical waste was dumped nearby.

The most polluted areas of the city are villages located in the zone of influence of the eastern group of enterprises, which make a significantly large contribution to soil pollution.

It is in Dzerzhinsk that the largest sludge dump in Russia and Europe is located, “White Sea”, located just 800 meters from the village of Igumnovo. According to various estimates, on an area of 92 hectares, from two to seven million tons of waste, including chemical, are stored.

The beauty here, of course, is monstrous: dazzling white sand, clear water. But what appears to be water is actually an alkaline solution. Environmentalists say that in the soil and water of the village of Igumnovo, excess concentrations of heavy metals were found: iron, cadmium, lead, mercury, copper.

The White Sea sludge storage tank was put into operation more than forty years ago and is currently 97% full. Since 2001, it has belonged to the Sibur-neftekhim enterprise, and is still used for its intended purpose. However, at present, waste discharges are quite insignificant compared to the Soviet period.

The purpose of the work is to consider the White Sea slurry reservoir as an environmentally hazardous object
Job objectives:
-Study the history of the sludge reservoir
-Analyze the composition of the “White Sea”
-Identify options for environmentally hazardous facilities

Chapter 1. Theoretical aspects of the White Sea slurry reservoir as an environmentally hazardous facility in the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region

1.1. The history of the White Sea slurry reservoir

The Soviet government accelerated the industrial growth of Chernorechye, opening more and more factories and rebuilding the old ones. Thousands of peasants flocked to production: hunger was driving, there was rationed bread at the factory.

As a rule, they were dumped nearby. Thus, in particular, the White Sea sludge storage facility was formed.

The White Sea sludge storage tank is a hydraulic structure built in 1973 for the disposal of chemical waste. The object is a large artificial bowl, built in the ground and reinforced with a dam.

1.2. Contents of the "White Sea"

Almost 60% of the total volume is water, the rest is non-toxic, low-hazard mixtures of insoluble salts, mainly carbonates.” (Annex 1)

Today the area of the sludge reservoir is 55 hectares, its depth is about 9 meters. The contents of the “White Sea” look like a white pasty mass with a yellowish tint, in some places liquid and in others almost frozen. The sludge storage tank is 97% full, of which 93% was filled back in Soviet times before the Kaprolactam plant was transferred to the ownership of Sibur-Neftekhim. The river is reliably protected from direct hits by a dam. Meanwhile, solid sludge undoubtedly poses a danger to the environment.

Chapter 2. Ways to eliminate the “White Sea”

2.1. Proposals for the phased conservation of the White Sea slurry reservoir

"White Sea" is a waste storage facility organized in an authorized manner. Despite the fact that the operating organization declares compliance with environmental requirements during its maintenance, the very fact of the existence of this object already poses an environmental hazard. Specialists from various departments and public ecologists have different assessments of the degree of its negative impact on the environment, from acceptable impacts to extremely dangerous ones. Some link the excess of chemicals in groundwater to this object, others explain this by the overall influence of enterprises in the industrial zone of Dzerzhinsk.

Representatives of SIBUR emphasized that, despite the fact that the White Sea was largely filled back in the Soviet years, the company does not shy away from participating in the fate of the sludge reservoir and is ready to finance work on its conservation or processing of sludge into construction products.

Currently, SIBUR is racking its brains over what to do with the White Sea: preserve it or recycle it? Three options for solving the problem of the sludge reservoir were considered: to recycle it into something, transport it somewhere, or preserve it on site to minimize harm. Both of them cost colossal amounts of money - we are talking about hundreds of millions of rubles. So the main direction in which both the plant and the administration of Dzerzhinsk are working with complete confidence is “demythologizing the White Sea object.”

Conservation will include removing sludge sediment from the area adjacent to the storage tank, leveling its surface, creating a drainage system and creating a vegetation cover at the final stage of work. The work is expected to last four years and should begin after the completion of state and environmental assessments.

But how can you think about money when we are talking about the ecology of the environment and the lives of people living in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

SIBUR is ready to consider both options. In particular, according to him, a conservation project has already been ordered, while a search is underway for ways to process sludge. Both options are costly, so for the company this is not a financial, but a reputational investment.

The obsolete chlorine production facilities of the former Caprolactam plant are gradually being closed and will be finally decommissioned. The production site with the existing infrastructure is being repurposed into the Oka-Polymer technology park, in which external residents are involved who plan to create and develop environmentally friendly business areas. According to the project, the White Sea sludge storage facility as a facility for disposal of liquid industrial waste will be eliminated through conservation. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out a set of measures to improve its environmental safety and minimize the impact on the environment. The facility will be freed from sludge water, the existing discharge pipeline for clarified sludge water will be dismantled. The supply of new waste will stop, the moisture content of the already accumulated sludge will be reduced to an average value of 45-55%, which will make it non-flowing.

The entire territory of the slurry reservoir will be penetrated by a network of earthen ramparts one meter high and three meters wide along the ridge. This will allow the “White Sea” to be divided into 12 compartments (maps) of 4-5 hectares each. A surface drainage system will be created - plastic perforated pipes with a diameter of 110 and 160 millimeters will be laid on the surface of the compartments (cards), which form reservoir drainage. Wells with shut-off valves will be built at the map nodes. Anti-landslide measures will also be carried out, the sludge storage dams will be strengthened, which will eliminate the possibility of a hydrodynamic accident occurring and developing. In addition, it is necessary to build an additional waterproofing screen, which will avoid the filtration of atmospheric precipitation into the body of the sludge reservoir. The technical stage of conservation will be completed by the biological one - biomats will be laid on the surface of the sludge reservoir over an area of 55 hectares, which will form a continuous green lawn. Upon completion of conservation, work will be carried out to control and monitor groundwater (level, qualitative composition), surface water (from the drainage system) and vegetation (grass) cover.

Two alternative options for eliminating the White Sea - by processing the sludge or moving it to another place, according to experts, are currently more environmentally dangerous than the conservation option. To date, there are no technologies that can completely recycle the White Sea sludge.

For the waste remaining after partial processing, the construction of a new sludge storage facility would be required on an area of at least 7-8 hectares. In addition, the process of partial processing of sludge itself takes

less than 40 years would inevitably have a direct negative impact on the environment (air emissions, groundwater pollution).

The option of moving the White Sea waste to another location would require the construction of a new sludge storage facility on an area of at least 15 hectares.

2.2. Economic aspect of liquidation of the White Sea sludge storage pond

As Sergei Khlopov, General Director of Sibur-Neftekhim OJSC, said, the cost of mothballing the White Sea slurry reservoir in the industrial zone of the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region will be about 1 billion rubles.

In June 2011, Dmitry Medvedev, as president, set the task for Sibur-Neftekhim OJSC to gradually liquidate the White Sea slurry reservoir on the territory of the Kaprolaktam plant.

According to Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Vladimir Lebedev, the work will be financed from the federal and regional budgets, as well as from Sibur-Neftekhim.

As reported by the press service of the mayor's office of the city of Dzerzhinsk, Sibur-Neftekhim will transfer the White Sea slurry reservoir to the ownership of the administration of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region.

In the event of the earliest possible transfer of the sludge reservoir to municipal ownership, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation guarantees the inclusion of the necessary amount of funds for its subsequent liquidation in the draft federal budget.

To resolve the important issue of eliminating the environmental damage accumulated during the Soviet era, Sibur announced the phased closure of chlorine production at the former Caprolactam plant.

The phased shutdown of facilities began in 2012 and will continue until it is fully implemented, which will allow the process of stopping production to be carried out as safely as possible. Closure measures will be implemented in close cooperation with the authorities of the Nizhny Novgorod region

region and Dzerzhinsk under the control of the regional department of Rostechnadzor.

Stopping chlorine production will lead to a complete cessation of discharges into the sludge reservoir, known among residents of the region as the “White Sea”. At the same time, Sibur, together with federal, regional and local authorities, will continue to work on the conservation of the facility.

Today, the White Sea slurry reservoir is used for its intended purpose. SIBUR and its subsidiary SIBUR-Neftekhim, which directly operates this engineering structure, maintain its technical condition in full compliance with the requirements of the project and BP Rules 03-438-02. Control over the operation of the sludge reservoir is carried out by government agencies - Rostechnadzor, Rosprirodnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor.

2.3. Expected result after mothballing the White Sea

According to the bright plans of the head of Dzerzhinsk for the reclamation of the White Sea slurry reservoir, famous throughout the region, a golf course can be built in its place in the city, for which it is necessary to remove the top layer of soil and fill the sea with special materials.

The conservation of the landfill is planned to be completed by 2015, and now the authorities are considering projects to improve the area.

Infrastructure development should affect the entire industrial zone of the “city of chemists”. The Caprolactam plant ceases its work and an industrial park is formed on its premises.

According to Jurgen Tsigelsky, production director of the industrial park resident company, this site is suitable for them for production, since it is located close to the place where they will supply products and there will be no problems with labor and personnel.

Soon these workshops will produce components for foreign cars. Automotive components are planned to be supplied to car factories in Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga. Production should become another link in the regional automotive cluster. A petrochemical cluster will also be developed here. Currently, 10 companies have already signed a contract with the management of the industrial park, and another 70 are negotiating.

They decided to attract new investors here so that the base created decades ago would not go to waste. There are already all the necessary communications, gas and electricity - everything for new technologies to start working in the old workshops.

Conclusion

But independent environmentalists do not share the official optimism, since conservation means that the “White Sea” will remain on the territory of the urban district for an indefinite period, and in a potentially dangerous state for the environment. At the same time, a detailed assessment of the environmental impact of the mothballed sludge reservoir was not carried out at all. According to the executive director of the environmental organization “Vyunitsa” Vladimir Orekhov, only its impact on the environment during the construction of the sarcophagus was assessed, and even then a very limited composition of potential pollutants was studied. Film and biomats will indeed reduce the negative impact on the environment for some time, but it is very likely that after some time the planned protection will be destroyed.

This can be facilitated by the root system of trees, which quite possibly will grow there as a result of self-seeding, the passage of equipment and many other factors.

“Elimination through conservation,” according to Vyunitsa employees, is a deception of the public, creating in people the illusion of solving a problem that can cost us dearly.

It is environmental pollution that causes higher morbidity among city residents.*

Currently, control over the facility is carried out by the MBU “Ecological Systems of Dzerzhinsk”, consisting of several people who take water samples. The distribution area of the pollution is 1.9 kilometers. It is known that the project for eliminating the sludge reservoir, after eliminating all the comments of the working group, will be sent for a second state examination.

Experts, meanwhile, warn that it is practically impossible to determine the exact degree of environmental pollution and the damage caused to the city’s ecology.

The Nizhny Novgorod public organization “Center for Environmental Action “Green Patrol” proposed concluding a cooperation agreement within the framework of public control over the implementation of the Federal Target Program “Elimination of accumulated environmental damage for 2014 – 2015.”

The liquidation of the White Sea slurry reservoir should be undertaken by SMP-Stroy LLC, which promises to complete the entire scope of work by November 30, 2015 for 830 million rubles.

The city authorities encourage everyone who is concerned about environmental safety issues to contact the reception.

Now there is increased attention to environmental issues in Dzerzhinsk, and this is good.

The need to maintain good health and high performance of city residents increases the requirements for environmental quality.

I, as a young resident of the city, am pleased that people are concerned about the ecological state of the natural environment and are ringing all the bells to improve it.

Bibliography.

1. Bylov A.M., Chernova N.I. “General Ecology” M.: Bustard, 2004.
2. Mavrishchev S.S. “Fundamentals of Ecology” 3rd ed., Spanish. and additional - Minsk: Higher School, 2007.
3. Pustovoitov V.V., Sitarov V.A. “Social ecology” M.: Publishing center “Academy”, 2000.
4. Razumova E.R. “Ecology” M.: MIEMP, 2010.

Internet resources:

www.gorky.tv
http://www.new chemistry .ru/letter.php?n

http://qotyda.ru/index.php/novosti/novosti biznesa i economiki/item/7163-2015-12-02%2018-15-37

http://zmdosie.ru/otkhody/situatsiya/5 00- dzerzhinsk-beloe-more

http://zmdosie.ru/otkhody/situatsiya/815-dzerzhinsk-obrastaet-svalkami

Annex 1

Fig. 1 Diagram of impurity content in the White Sea slurry reservoir