Last week Samara hosted a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on environmental security issues. Special attention in the & nbsp; report of the Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev was given to companies belonging to the & nbsp; Hazard class 1-3, the activity of which, accordingly, carries a potential technological and environmental hazard and, therefore, requires special attention from authorities and regulatory authorities.
Where is the corporate responsibility?
The situation in the & nbsp; Volga Federal District, where the largest number of industrial plants is concentrated, including & nbsp; linked to & nbsp; 1-3 hazard class, in the production of which chemicals are used, leaves much to be desired. In the past three years, 10 major man-made accidents have occurred in the area. And & nbsp; with & nbsp; every year, the problems of ensuring environmental safety and & nbsp; environmental protection become more and more acute, and & nbsp; their & nbsp; unresolved negatively affect & nbsp; the quality of life of the population & nbsp; and as a result leads to & nbsp; increased social tension.
“ The technological load on the environment is the main factor determining the ecological situation in the district, which in a number of areas of the district remains difficult. The level of emissions into the atmosphere of pollutants in the neighborhood remains high & nbsp; & mdash; nearly 3.5 & nbsp; million tons & mdash; and & nbsp; represents 14% of & nbsp; total emissions in the & nbsp; country, & nbsp; & mdash; noted in & nbsp; his speech to & nbsp; a meeting with & nbsp; participation of representatives of federal control departments and & nbsp; authorized representative of the President of Russia in & nbsp; Volga Federal District Igor Komarov, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation & nbsp; Nikolai Patrushev. & mdash; & nbsp; Until & nbsp; & nbsp; in & nbsp; all cities correctly monitor atmospheric air. & # 39; & # 39;
Will the Volga take it all?
No less depressing is the pollution of ground and surface water. As a rule, industrial companies and public services are the main perpetrators. Often the cause of pollution is the reluctance of companies to comply with industrial and environmental safety measures. Organizations, making a lot of money, are in no rush to bear the financial costs of switching to modern technologies.
Quite often companies, alas, don't even have their own local treatment facilities, as a result, an explosive mixture of industrial waste enters & nbsp; in rivers, groundwater and & nbsp; from there & mdash; in & nbsp; the main artery of the most densely populated district in Russia: the Volga.
In 2020 alone, 44 cases of extremely high pollution of surface water with chemicals were recorded in the territory of the Volga Federal District. In the arrondissement, an anti-record was set for the volume of untreated wastewater discharges, which exceeded 2 billion cubic meters. mr. Naturally, all this, therefore, affects the & nbsp; safe drinking water, which residents of the Volga region are obliged to use.
Photo by: Kremneva Julia.
Exclusion zones
But & nbsp; the county's biggest problem & mdash; elimination of accumulated damage to the environment.
“ Work on & nbsp; many objects of accumulated damage, and & nbsp; their & nbsp; in & nbsp; there are 267, are carried out without prior studies of the chemical composition of the waste, without designing works and & nbsp; their & nbsp; scientific and technical support, & nbsp; & mdash; made a & nbsp; review in & nbsp; address of officials the Secretary of the Security Council. & mdash; & nbsp; This practice not only prevents the completion of the liquidation work on time, but & nbsp; and & nbsp; contributes to the further pollution of the environment with harmful substances. & # 39; & # 39;
There are such areas of contamination, for example, on the territory of the former phosphorus plant (now & mdash; “ chemical plant '') in & nbsp; the town of Togliatti in & nbsp; Samara region and & nbsp; & nbsp; 37 & nbsp; kilometers from Nizhny Novgorod, to & nbsp; Dzerzhinsk area “ Plexiglas & # 39; & # 39;). Environmentalists in both regions have long sought more drastic measures to address the problems. However, for now, as Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev rightly noted at the last meeting, the negative impact on ecology in these territories does that increase.
The reason why environmentalists see everything in & nbsp; these & nbsp; same chemical companies located on & nbsp; these sites & nbsp; and, alas, continuing to treat nature as a consumer. Signs of this & mdash; lack of local treatment facilities, air filtration systems and nbsp; control of & nbsp; broadcasts in & nbsp; atmosphere and & nbsp; just reluctance of companies to invest in & nbsp; industrial safety and & nbsp; environmental.
AiF I have already analyzed the situation several times, and & nbsp; more precisely, the attitude of regulatory authorities, of which, in fact, compliance with the law in & nbsp; particularly dangerous enterprises of danger class 1-3 depends on & nbsp; the example of the coagulant production plants belonging to the Metakhim holding; : LLC “ Aqua Reagent '' (Dzerzhinsk) and & nbsp; LLC Alchem (Togliatti).
Write letters
“ We regularly write appeals to & nbsp; various regulatory authorities on & nbsp; the situation that developed in & nbsp; & bdquo; Chemical plant & ldquo ;. Many companies have fallen into & nbsp; our Field of View, LLC & bdquo; Alchem & ldquo; in & nbsp; including. We have questions about the & nbsp; local cleaning, which according to the idea of & nbsp; should be, but & nbsp; not & nbsp; the fact that there is. As a result, all production waste can be dumped into the general system, get into the ground, there are also questions and questions about the storage of highly hazardous substances. And & nbsp; then all this & bdquo; wealth & ldquo;, perhaps, floats in & nbsp; our Zhigulevskoe Sea, the main reservoir of the & nbsp; Volga. That & nbsp; same & bdquo; Alchem & ldquo ;, which has been around for over 20 & nbsp; ans (!), as some controllers tell us, only in & nbsp; last year, after calling on the & nbsp; ; public prosecutor's office and & nbsp; threats of complete closure, began to do something in & nbsp; the field of ecology. And & nbsp; where has everyone, excuse me, looked before? In my opinion, it all comes down to simply the reluctance of business owners to spend money one way or another for environmental safety and for one. formal approach to control over the work of particularly dangerous companies. They say the territory and & nbsp; is recognized as ecologically dangerous, so why bother, nature will take it all … And & nbsp; after all, it's not the right of companies to comply with the law, but & nbsp; an obligation, and & nbsp; this should not happen & nbsp; after the threat to shut down production. I don't & nbsp; more & nbsp; and & nbsp; on & nbsp; the fact that on the territory of & bdquo; Chemical plant & ldquo; phosphorus burns regularly. Every summer, toxic smog blankets the city of fires. We have questions in the & nbsp; part of the purification of emissions in & nbsp; atmosphere and & nbsp; to & nbsp; business operation, and & nbsp; to & nbsp; to & nbsp; same & bdquo; Alchem & ldquo ;, already included in the blacklist of & nbsp; & bdquo; & ldquo; environmentalists & raquo ;, & nbsp; & mdash; Stanislav Volokhin , chairman of the council of the Samara regional branch of the All-Russian public movement “ Russian Ecological Movement '' & # 39; expresses his opinion.
Brothers in & nbsp; Cataclysms
A typical situation develops and & nbsp; to & nbsp; Dzerzhinsk, where on & nbsp; the territory of the eastern industrial zone “ Plexiglas & # 39; & # 39; located dozens of companies, many of which are particularly dangerous, using in their production, like LLC “ Aqua-Reagent '', toxic substances.
“ In general, a feature of the territory of the Dzerzhinsk urban district is a high level of environmental pollution from production and consumption, & nbsp; & mdash; the famous environmental expert Elena Kolpakova comment on the situation … & mdash; & nbsp; In the & nbsp; chemical composition of groundwater, we found more than once an increased content of sulfates, nitrates, iron, the presence of organic compounds and & nbsp; special components of industrial pollution, and & nbsp; also heavy metals and & nbsp; organochlorine compounds. The soils of the & nbsp; Eastern industrial zone have been intensively polluted for many decades in & nbsp; as a result of leaks from & nbsp; waste ponds, and & nbsp; therefore, they are now a secondary source of groundwater pollution and & nbsp; surface waters, which literally reach the Oka within a few kilometers.
To admit, in the case of & nbsp; with the aforementioned detention of 'chemists', which fell into the field of vision of the & nbsp; environmentalists from two regions at once, it's really scary at the number of violations that the controllers don't have & nbsp; seen for a long time, which allowed companies to pollute and & nbsp; without this nature exhausted with waste from the production of coagulant.
And & nbsp; who else will defend & nbsp; nature protection?
And & nbsp; without & nbsp; to have waited, alas, actions of & nbsp; from regional ministries, in & nbsp; whose powers include the control of & nbsp; environmental safety, and & nbsp; also the main supervisory body & dash; Rosprirodnadzor, & mdash; AiF journalists in & nbsp; September 2020, independently taking soil and wastewater samples from & nbsp; these companies, conducted a study in a & nbsp; certified laboratory at & nbsp; Moscow.
September 23 & nbsp; September 2020, the results were received. Bottom line & nbsp; & mdash; MPC in & nbsp; water and & nbsp; ground on & nbsp; LLC territory “ Alchem '' for & nbsp; some indicators are largely outdated. And & nbsp; it's hardly a legacy of Phosphorus, as many might think. Experts have studied the material and & nbsp; arrived at the & nbsp; conclusion that & nbsp; PH in & nbsp; water instead of the acceptable value 6 & nbsp; is 3.3. The sulfate ion content is exceeded & nbsp; 4 & nbsp; time. Both of these indicators can have a direct impact on the production of coagulants. In addition, the & nbsp; soil contains more than & nbsp; three times more lead, zinc and & nbsp; there is a significant presence of mercury.
The result of the MPC in & nbsp; water and & nbsp; sol LLC “ Aqua-Reagent '' are also largely outdated. The standards of PH & nbsp; in sewage are exceeded by & nbsp; 2.3 & nbsp; time. The sulfate ion content is exceeded & nbsp; 7 times. In addition, here the experts found the content of chlorides, which is above the norm by & nbsp; 2.8 & nbsp; time. And zinc, lead and & nbsp; mercury were also found.
All results have been sent to & nbsp; Volga Interregional Environmental Prosecutor's Office, and & nbsp; from there & mdash; in the control structures of & nbsp;, which, as it turned out after almost 8 & nbsp; months, do not really have and nbsp; began to verify companies and & nbsp; addressed the issue of & nbsp; >For some reason, only the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Nizhny Novgorod region went to the scene of the events to take research material. The result, I admit, amazed both & nbsp; us and the & nbsp; environmentalists: the content of sulfates and & nbsp; chlorides in & nbsp; water is over 25,000 & nbsp; mg per & nbsp; liter (!), indicates & nbsp; high concentrations of mineral salts.
“ These are compounds that affect the & nbsp; PH and & nbsp; dry residue, which significantly affects the composition of the water. A low pH value characterizes the natural water sample studied as strongly acidic, which is usually the result of the hydrolysis of heavy metal salts. Dry residue & nbsp; & mdash; it is the content of all dissolved substances, the main part of which is Mg2 +, Na +, K +, Ca2 +, HCO3-, SO42-, Cl-. The analysis of dry residues makes it possible to establish the degree of total pollution of wastewater with organic matter and & nbsp; minerals. With a value of this parameter greater than 1200 & nbsp; mg/dm3 (the lowest water quality class & mdash; V), in & nbsp; in this case, even & bdquo; worse & nbsp; quality class V & ldquo; of & nbsp; ecological positions. In this case, further studies of the pollutant content are necessary, & nbsp; & mdash; emphasizes environmental expert Elena Kolpakova.
Why is everything so formal?
Nevertheless & nbsp; less in & nbsp; Dzerzhinsk water for & nbsp; the presence of compounds of heavy metal salts for some reason does not & nbsp; steel and & nbsp; the results of the control were only satisfied with a fine on the & nbsp; director, not even & nbsp; on & nbsp; a moral person. And when calculating the damage to the environment, controllers usually didn't even care. In the region of & nbsp; Samara & nbsp; and & nbsp; absolutely calm and & nbsp; smooth surface.
The environmental prosecutor's office even sees the actions of regulatory authorities as a refusal to go to & nbsp; check out these organizations.
& nbsp; In the & nbsp; approval of an unforeseen recording & nbsp; in relation to these organizations, a refusal was made of & nbsp; communication with & nbsp; non-compliance with the requirements for & nbsp; But & nbsp; these violations of management requirements and & nbsp; have not been eliminated. In & nbsp; as part of & nbsp; violations of the legislation on & nbsp; state control, the heads of said interregional departments of Rosprirodnadzor made representations & raquo ;, & mdash; said the senior assistant to the prosecutor of the Volga Interregional Environmental Prosecutor's Office Maria Sidorova.
Now the prosecutor's office is forced to force officials to do their jobs in their entirety & nbsp; as it should be, not & nbsp; only with & nbsp; establish the sources and & nbsp; the extent of the pollution, but and with & nbsp; accountability of legal persons with & nbsp; subsequent payment of damages and & nbsp; elimination of consequences.
Offset & nbsp; neutral
After the Security Council meeting “ AiF & # 39; & # 39; visited both regions. It should be noted that since & nbsp; last year at & nbsp; Togliatti carried out a lot of work in the territory of the old factory “ Phosphorus ''.
& mdash; & nbsp; In & nbsp; 2019, Togliatti administration announced the site of the former Phosphorus OJSC emergency threat area. This allowed the Municipality to allocate their own funds for the assessment of the current situation, in order to really understand the depth of the problem. In 2020, SamSTU specialists developed a feasibility study to allow us to carry out work on the elimination of pollution hot spots in the territory of the former OJSC Phosphorus. A wide range of works and surveys have been completed, a comprehensive survey of storage sites for waste containing phosphorus and other types of waste has been carried out; preparation of documentation for the certification and certification of such wastes; developed technical solutions for the use and neutralization of phosphorus and waste containing phosphorus; prepared a technical mission and & nbsp; estimate for & nbsp; development of design and surveying work, & nbsp; & mdash; The mayor of Togliatti Nikolay Renz explains the current situation. & mdash; & nbsp; We & nbsp; have already approved the layout of the land undergoing reclamation in & nbsp; Rosimushchestvo. This gives us the opportunity to carry out a topographical survey of the territory, to highlight all of the 11 plots on which there is either phosphorus itself or waste containing phosphorus.
All of this will allow the territory of the ancient OJSC of Phosphorus to be included in the & nbsp; State register of objects of accumulated damage to the environment and & nbsp; claim & nbsp; federal money, which will go to & nbsp; liquidation of hazardous waste. The & nbsp; clear position on this issue of the governor of the Samara region Dmitry Azarov , which also during the & nbsp; last meeting of the Security Council, raised the issue of & nbsp; contaminated territory.
And & nbsp; who is in the & nbsp; law ?
However, it is noteworthy that during all these years the beneficiaries of Khimzavod actively sold & nbsp; what was left of & nbsp; property of Phosphorus. Yes, they & nbsp; land they couldn't claim, it's federal, but & nbsp; here are the buildings and & nbsp; structures, on the basis of which companies such as the & nbsp; even “ Alchem '' , & nbsp; have been operating for many years, & nbsp; enough. And & nbsp; At this time, the mayor's office has started to question the legality of the activities of these organizations.
“ I also want to bring to your attention that the Togliatti administration intends to determine which companies and & nbsp; organizations operate on the territory of the former OJSC & bdquo; Phosphorus & ldquo; and & nbsp; on & nbsp; on what basis. In this work, I consider it necessary to involve the regulatory authorities and & nbsp; first of all & nbsp; & mdash; the prosecutor's office, we intend to verify the legality of the reconstruction of buildings and structures, the construction of new ones, because all this had to be obtained the appropriate authorization and agreement with the & nbsp; administration of Togliatti, but, as far as we already know, & nbsp; the absolute majority of these documents do not, and & nbsp; therefore, the legality of the place of production is under a big question & raquo ;, & nbsp; & mdash; the Togliatti leader summed up his position constructively.
Such actions on the side of the local authorities are quite justified, because as soon as the intention was announced to include the territory in the list of areas of accumulated environmental damage, many of those whose legality of the production is now surveyed have already started to dream of & nbsp; get from the federal budget; multi-million dollar compensation for & nbsp; their property. And & nbsp; Togliatti town hall wants to spend money for & nbsp; ecology, and & nbsp; not & nbsp; for & nbsp; enriching someone.
We hope that very soon a similar path will be followed by & nbsp; in & nbsp; administration of Dzerzhinsk, where a big job, in & nbsp; including legal.
Enough selected approaches
And & nbsp; what to & nbsp; regulatory bodies, then, as stated during the & nbsp; meeting of the Security Council in & nbsp; Samara in & nbsp; Last year, only Rosprirodnadzor in the Volga Federal District identified more than one thousand two hundred violations of environmental law. This means that they can work and & nbsp; attracting companies to responsibility.
But, as Nikolai Patrushev rightly noted, the crime situation in the Volga Federal District in the field of ecology remains difficult.
“ I have named only a part of the environmental challenges and threats that are noted in the regions of the Volga Federal District. At the same time, I would like to emphasize once again that the elimination of the accumulated damage to the environment, the reduction in the level of pollution of the air, water resources, soil, the solution of waste disposal and recycling problems & mdash; all this is a prerequisite for improving the quality of life and strengthening the health of our fellow citizens. In addition, the violations of environmental legislation identified in the & nbsp; district create an increased threat to environmental security and & nbsp; require additional measures to be taken & nbsp; & mdash; underlined the secretary of the Security Council.
However, as stated 8 & nbsp; months from & nbsp; the day of the release of the material “ Dangerous production. Chemical factories are suspected of & nbsp; non-compliance with security measures & nbsp; from & nbsp; from the side of all controllers to & nbsp; there is still some indecision in & nbsp; with regard to the companies of the holding company “ Metakhim & # 39; & # 39 ;.
PS & nbsp; I would love to as local prosecutors, in collaboration with the & nbsp; Attorney General's Office, include & nbsp; why all those who are responsible for & nbsp; compliance with the law in & nbsp; similar procedures in & nbsp; Volga Federal District, because & nbsp; for decades has not stubbornly & nbsp; noticed violations in the & nbsp; companies mentioned, including & nbsp; those about which we & nbsp; & nbsp; have not yet but & nbsp; about & nbsp; which are known and & nbsp; for a reason & nbsp; for a reason & nbsp; again & nbsp; (all facts are given in & nbsp; above material & mdash; ed. note). And & nbsp; we & nbsp; will continue to monitor & nbsp; the situation in the & nbsp; Volga region.