Toxic carelessness

Environmentalists found dangerous chemicals in the wastewater from the Krasny Bor toxic waste disposal site. According to Greenpeace, they exceed the permissible concentration values ​​by 37 times.

The Krasny Bor chemical waste landfill has long attracted the attention of environmentalists and local activists. Over the past year, he has twice been involved in scandals related to violations of environmental legislation.

Novaya Gazeta wrote in detail about one of them in January . Then, on the eve of the Orthodox holiday of Epiphany, according to local residents, a flow of waste water flowed through the main canal leaving the territory of the enterprise. The head of the Telmanovskoye rural settlement municipality, Yuri Kvasha, witnessed the salvo discharge. Then the head and his colleagues took samples of wastewater, but the results of these samples were never made public. To avoid repeating the mistakes of their colleagues, Greenpeace activists took samples of wastewater flowing from the landfill without drawing attention to their actions.

The head of the toxic department of Greenpeace in St. Petersburg, Dmitry Artamonov, noted that the discharge of chemical waste produced by the landfill is dangerous for city residents. Because the drainage ditch flows into the Izhora River, and from it, through a system of channels, it flows into the Neva, and upstream of the city’s central water intake. That is, all the dangerous chemical compounds that flow from the landfill territory enter the homes of St. Petersburg residents through the water supply system.

The last time the discharge of wastewater from the territory of Krasny Bor was noticed was on March 30. Then, after the intervention of environmental activists, the management of the landfill was forced to stop the waste discharge. To do this, the sluice valve, located under the fence of the landfill, from which water flowed into the ditch, was buried. Now the sluice is still buried and water does not flow out of it. However, a few meters from the fence of the landfill, a stream flows into the ditch. If you walk along its bed, you can see that it flows out of the landfill territory. The guards assure that the landfill has nothing to do with the newly formed stream. Water samples from the stream were taken on August 5 at the initiative of Greenpeace's toxic department.

Photo

During a laboratory study, hazardous chemicals were found in wastewater in concentrations significantly exceeding the maximum permissible limits. The results of the study were sent to Rosprirodnadzor and the environmental prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

In the samples taken, experts found a multiple excess of carbon tetrachloride content. Its concentration is 37 times higher than the permissible limit. This substance is extremely toxic if vapors are inhaled, ingested with food, or absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes. In addition, it destroys the ozone layer, and with constant exposure to the body it can provoke fatigue, dizziness, headaches, pain in different parts of the body, memory impairment, cardiac disorders, irritation of the mucous membranes of the nose and throat.

Banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in wastewater. According to Russian environmental legislation, their presence in water bodies of fishery importance is not allowed. PCBs are dangerous even in the smallest quantities: they affect the human immune and nervous systems, contribute to the development of cancer, cause allergies and hypersensitivity, disrupt the endocrine system, leading to infertility, diabetes, and sexual dysfunction. May cause damage to the liver, kidneys and skin. In addition, these substances have a mutagenic effect, that is, they can negatively affect the health of subsequent generations of people. They are extremely toxic to the aquatic ecosystem: accumulating in living organisms, they are transmitted along the food chain.

“These toxic substances were used in the production of transformer fluids, solvents, refrigerants, fire extinguishers and other products that end up in our drinking water,” says Greenpeace expert Nina Lesikhina. “First of all, it is necessary to stop the illegal dumping of hazardous wastewater , organize regular environmental monitoring, and most importantly, ensure safe technology for storing and handling toxic waste. What we see now is not just a violation of environmental legislation, but also a crime against humans.”

At the moment the landfill is not functioning. On May 8 of this year, the Tosnensky City Court of the Leningrad Region suspended its work for 90 days. The Department of Rosprirodnadzor for the Northwestern Federal District reported that on August 13, the activities of the landfill were again suspended for 90 days, this time by the Arbitration Court. The reason is gross violations of licensing conditions, which were revealed during an unscheduled inspection that took place in May-June of this year. “At the court hearing, the department proved that there was a threat to the life or health of people, causing significant harm to the environment and its components,” noted the press service of Rosprirodnadzor. “The prosecutor’s office has repeatedly suspended the work of the landfill, but this does not solve the problem,” says Nina Lesikhina.

Let us recall that the Krasny Bor landfill, located six kilometers from the border with St. Petersburg, has been operating since the 1970s as a temporary place for storing chemical waste. The landfill stores waste of varying degrees of danger, the most dangerous of which is category I chemical waste.

Serafima Kurdyubova