In the town of Karabash in the Chelyabinsk region, the rehabilitation of areas of accumulated damage has started. Work has already started on Landfill No. 3, which appeared in the Soviet years as a result of the works on the concentration plant of the former Karabash copper smelter. Three other rehabilitation projects are being launched in parallel. The total investment will amount to around 2 billion rubles.
Reclamation projects
In order to assess all the damage to the environment of Karabash in the 20th century, an inventory of the accumulated damage was made in 2020. As a result, four recovery projects are under development.
The first project is the northern section, which includes the runoff from Poklonnaya Gora and the northern slope of Poklonnaya Gora. Now that the first stage of public discussions is underway, the preparatory work has started & ndash; improvement of the territory.
Second Section Recovery Project – “ Yuzhny & # 39; & # 39; – in development, public discussions are underway. The boundaries of this territory included the land along the street. Parkhomenko, floodplain of the red stream and the Sak-Elga river. Bioplato (hydrobotanical structures) will also be created in these facilities. & Nbsp;
The Karabash Pond Rehabilitation Project, an artificial reservoir near the factory, is also at the stage of public discussions. The object is unorganized storage waste of copper-pyrite ore, which was mined at Karabash in the 20th century. Due to natural runoff and weathering, the tailings landfill has been a source of natural air, soil and water pollution in the urban district of Karabash for many years.
& # 39; Rehabilitation of tailings landfill # 3 and northern section of accumulated damage at Karabash & ndash; a big step towards improving the ecological situation of the city, which is gradually getting rid of the negative legacy. These are increased environmental obligations, a serious contribution to the development of the territory, the creation of a comfortable urban environment, “said the governor of the Chelyabinsk region Alexey Teksler.
The # 3 landfill reclamation project in 2020 has been the subject of public discussions. The documentation received a positive conclusion from the state environmental expertise. According to the project, funding for the technical remediation phase began in 2021. It is designed for five years and includes land use planning for the tailings pile: surface leveling, screening and embankment reinforcement , as well as applying a layer of fertile soil. In the biological stage of reclamation, the landfill area, covered with a layer of fertile soil, will be seeded with perennial grasses. These measures will make it possible to stop pollution of the environment in the territory of the waste rock pile n ° 3. The total restoration area will exceed 45 hectares. & Nbsp;
The rehabilitation of the northern and southern sections is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. It is expected that all work on the rest of the recovery sites will be completed within 5 to the next 7 years.
“ Over the past century, for decades, the nature of Karabash has been negatively affected by outdated copper smelter production. Since 2004, we have invested more than 30 billion rubles in the modernization and improvement of the environmental safety of the company, which made it possible and timely to eliminate the accumulated damage to the company. ;environment. This will become a significant contribution of the company to the achievement of the goals set by the presidential decrees and the national projects of May '', said the president of the company Vsevolod Levin . & Nbsp;
Measures to minimize the environmental impact
Elimination of accumulated damage to the environment & ndash; one of the main objectives of the May decrees of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the national project “ Ecology ''. To implement the national project on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region in 2018, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Rosprirodnadzor, the government of the Chelyabinsk region signed a Cooperation agreement. In accordance with it, in 2019, the reclamation of the abandoned tailings landfill of the former concentration plant of the Karabash copper smelter, which was adjacent to the territory of the modern copper smelter “ Karabashmed & # 39; # 39; & # 39 ;, has been completed. Today there is a green lawn at the landfill site.
Since 2012, more than 14 billion rubles have been allocated for the implementation of environmental projects. Among the main areas of & ndash; measures to minimize the impact of production on the environment and ensure the health of the population in the territories of presence.
The city of Karabash & ndash; one of the historic centers of the national non-ferrous metallurgy. Industrial scale copper mining and production in the surrounding areas began in 1910 with the formation of the Karabash copper smelter. Due to the imperfection of technology and the lack of properly organized processing facilities for decades, intensively growing production has had a negative impact on the environment. This has led to the accumulation of significant environmental damage on the territory of the district, which continues to negatively affect the condition of the soil, atmospheric air and water bodies. of the region. & Nbsp;
The restoration of disturbed land in the territory of the urban district of Karabash has become possible thanks to the large-scale modernization of the successor of the old copper smelter of Karabash & ndash; “ Karabashmed '' copper smelter. It became part of the Russian Copper Company in 2004. From this moment the company begins a large-scale technical re-equipment, designed to increase the capacity and improve the environmental safety of production. More than 30 billion rubles have already been allocated for these purposes.