Do not rush to sign a signature

The petition against the Baikal Water Roser plant in the Irkutsk region has already gained more than 140 thousand signatures. But is everything so scary? And how much water can theoretically pump out from Lake Baikal?

The petition created in the first decade of April against the construction in the Slyudyansky district of the Irkutsk region of the plant in the rosple of Baikal water by the end of the month collected almost 150 thousand signatures . The result is truly impressive. And this is despite the fact that such factories in Baikal are already working and have never become a reason for environmental scandals. But citizens, as it turned out, willingly lend themselves to a frank provocation.

Against what is the protest?

The current project from Aquasib LLC is already the second, claiming Baikal and a piece of lake shore next to the village of Kultuk. Today, the concrete road leading across the swamp from the railway branch to the water is reminiscent of the past attempt to make a profit from Baikal water undertaken by Baikal San. More than 350 million rubles were invested in the project from the budget of the Irkutsk region, but investors who received active support at that time first vice-governor Vladimir Pashkov did not have enough forces or funds for the construction of the plant itself. In 2015, the company was declared bankrupt because it could not pay off the current payments, it introduced a competitive department. A year later, the administration of the Slyudyansky district terminated the lease on the coastal swamp. And now it is again considered as a place convenient for the construction of the plant.

The purpose of the new proposed project is to create in the kultuka a modern enterprise for the production of bottled, environmentally friendly water taken from the depths of Lake Baikal. “The project is focused on the guaranteed sales market for finished products in the PRC, in accordance with the agreement on the supply of Lake Baikal Lake Lake Lake Lake Lake, which acts as a co -founder of Aquasib LLC and the project investor. The total investment is 1, 4 billion rubles. The capacity of the enterprise is planned to be introduced in bursts in three stages, 148 jobs will be created within the framework of the project, ”the Government of the Irkutsk Region reported in March this year. The investor, like Baikal San, counted on the support of the regional authorities and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Despite the fact that there are already water -like water plants in Lake Baikal (see, for example, the Baikalsea website, which , incidentally, is working to create a listen of the complex for the extraction of deep water from the lake), the new investment project turned into another wave of “water panic”. She rose after the plot, published in the news of the Irkutsk GRTRK on April 9. Not particularly straining with the selection of interlocutors, the author of the plot interviewed merchants in the market in Kultuka, fishermen on the lake and a single ornithologist-Vitaly Ryabtseva. Judging by the sluggish reaction and laconic answers, most interlocutors of the crew learned about the project precisely from journalists. Unfortunately, the questions remained behind the scenes, so we cannot judge how exactly the authors intimidated local residents. But that the reaction is caused artificially and the survey can be considered “forming” - there is practically no doubt.

The author of the petition is Zorikikt Matanov, published a few days later, simply quotes the main horror stories from the plot text: “On the shore of our lake Baikal in the Slyudyansky district, they are going to build a Chinese plant for a sinking drinking water. The plant’s products will be delivered to China. Scientists confirm that the construction of the plant will cause significant damage to Baikal, which already suffers from environmental problems. This is a unique place! Its special microclimate contributes to the migration of many species of migratory birds, including rare ones. There is no such variety at any other point of the Irkutsk region. Scientists say that the place deserves protection and recognition as a monument of nature. But in no way construction of an industrial facility! ” Matanov himself is not a fake, he has pages in Odnoklassniki, when viewing which we can conclude that it is not a “bot”, but a completely real person.

We debunk fears

The worst thing is carried out at the beginning - The Chinese Plant. And what, in fact, is the difference - Chinese or Russian? The equipment will be the same, workplaces (which, apparently, there will be few) will not make the weather in the area. Even if we assume that the Chinese, the local budget, as well as small and medium -sized businesses, will receive benefit from the project, will receive benefits from the project - selling goods and providing services to employees of the service. The owners will still pay taxes in the regional and local budgets - be that as it may, whoever invests, and the enterprise will work according to Russian laws.

Of course, neither the author of the plot, nor his interlocutors in the Slyudyansky district, nor the author of the petition remembered that the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk region of the first convocation (2008-2013) for a very long time, in February 2011, approved a similar investment project “Baikal San” for the construction of just such a plant and in this very place. The deputies at that time discussed various topics: the source of funds that the region will invest in the construction of the road to the future plant; the number of new jobs; an agreement with the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, providing for the allocation of 347.4 million rubles from the federal budget for this project; The employment of the inhabitants of Baikalsk, who just at that time experienced special difficulties in connection with the closure of the BCBK (then not yet what happened, but already close) and so on. The deputies really wanted to “sink” the project and not to allocate funds for it. But never in any of the speeches at the meetings of the committees, not one of the publications sounded the topic of environmental damage, which the plant allegedly caused the lake.

Years passed, the investor changed, and they suddenly spoke about this damage. But where does he come from? This ordinary industrial enterprise can dump wastewater in the nearest water bodies, take out garbage to a landfill, throw harmful substances into the atmosphere from its own heat source and do many other things for which ecologists will not praise. The water plant is unlikely to be as dangerous as, for example, a furniture production plant - if only because it is just a large pump connected to the lake (to a depth of more than 100 meters) of the pipe. If we equip this plant, connect to the local water supply and sewage system, conclude a contract for garbage removal, then there will be no more harm from it than, for example, from kindergarten. The final product of the plant is still the same Baikal water, which has not undergone any transformations, just poured into bottles. Classic "green business", what is not an example for Lake Baikal?

In the plot (and after him and in the petition) another horror story sounded: to work the plant at the bottom, it will be necessary to lay a pipe about 3 km long - because Baikal in its southern ending is quite small, and the water must be taken from the depths. The authors of the plot and from their presentation, the fishermen claim that the approach to the shore will be blocked and local residents will not allow to fish. One could believe it if the pipeline was going to lay along the coast. But why block the coastline if the pipe just enters the water at a certain point? It will be enough a security zone with a several meters wide, and even then purely symbolic - it will not flow over the pipe and not gas, but the same Baikal water. Even if the pipe cracks throughout its entire length, this will not cause any harm to the lake.

An important point: since the pipe in any case will be very long, no one will prevent the Russian side from demanding its increase by another 500 meters - thereby the plant will be removed from the shore (by the way, swampy and not very convenient for construction) and its impact on the lake will be reduced to a minimum. The fence at the site of the construction site "Baikal San" stood for several years, and did not particularly interfere with anyone. So nothing prevents the new investor from moving a little.

Will the birds fly away?

The only significant argument against the plant in the plot of the Irkutsk State Health and Committee was expressed by the famous Irkutsk ornithologist Vitaly Ryabtsev: for some reason, the crew that the crew determined as the future construction site today serves as a haven for migratory birds. If the plant is built, Ryabtsev says, birds will not fly to this place. "But why?" - I would like to ask both the scientist and the authors of the horror stories. If the plant does not smoke, does not stink, and does not even make noise - what will prevent the birds from flying and stopping on a familiar swamp near the waders?

For example: in Irkutsk-according to the estimates of Ryabtsev himself-about 30 species of "red-blooded" birds live in Novo-Leninsky swamps located between two lively vehicles and the railway line. This place cannot be compared with a wader, and the birds fly there. Moreover, not so long ago (in the historical sense), some 25-30 years ago, in the same Kultuka, huge coal warehouses were piled up on the shores of Lake Baikal. The coal was overloaded to barges and transported to the coastal villages, simultaneously polluting the lake with fuel oil with a barge and the same coal, waking up with each overload. And the birds lived nearby and did not fly away anywhere. So is the fact that the water is really worse than coal pyramids?

The unrest of the Kultuk fishermen about fishing is also in vain: the plant will not produce anything dangerous, there are no effects on nature - too. Rather, the federal authorities will really make a ban on fishing for fishing for the protection of the Omul population, which will create a problem that has not yet been built to the fishing industry.

How much water can you pump out from Lake Baikal?

One important question remains: how much water such a plant is pumped from Lake Baikal? If we take a project for comparison, which the authorities of Buryatia were actively promoted in 2016 (before the resignation of Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn), then there it was about 2 million cubic meters per year. Suppose that the same plant will be built in the Irkutsk region. In order to compare these figures with something understandable Irkutski, we will make a simple calculation: in the last three low-water years, starting from the winter of 2014, about 1,200 cubic meters per second pass through the units of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station. It is easy to calculate that the volume that the water plant in Kultuka will be able to withdraw in a year flies through the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station in just 27 minutes.

We count further. The area of ​​Baikal is 31,722 square kilometers. One centimeter of the lake will be 317.22 million cubic meters of water. Thus, the factory in Kultuka, if it is still built, scoop up one centimeter of the volume of the lake for 158 years! Per year due to the drainage of the hangar, evaporation and other factors, level fluctuations are tens of centimeters. Feel the difference?

It’s his own, an employee of the Limnological Institute of the SB RAS Pavel Sherestyankin in 1997 calculated the volume of water, which can be removed from Lake Baikal without prejudice to the lake - and in his work it was about 1-2 billion cubic meters annually. With a physiological norm of 3 liters of drinking water per day, the population of Russia for a year is enough 164 million cubic meters, China - 1.64 billion.

Exactly the same thing said in an interview with the Teleinform news agency in early March, the already mentioned Vitaly Ryabtsev: “If we talk on this topic, it seems to me that it will be more correct to supply drinking water in bottles, in different containers. This could be an important source of income, and not the transfer of technical water, which, of course, will lose all qualities, being pumped through the pipeline. The value of Baikal water is that it is pure, natural. I do not see much harm to the ecology of Baikal here. ”

So it is so, but in this case, not environmental, but a technical restriction comes into force. In the full -flowing period, Baikal can give a cubic kilometer of water without harm. But bottled water in such quantities will not be able to take out the railway. The construction of pipelines with a length of more than 1000 km is limited to the capabilities of pumping stations, which will have to be built at least 10. The alarm of the inhabitants of Russia for the fate of the sacred lake is clear. But before starting to panic, sign petitions and look for “agents of influence” - try to figure out the problem.

Konstantin Zverev