"I want to breathe"

Krasnoyarsk Igor Spekht for the last six months on its own monitoring air pollution in the city. To do this, he developed a special electronic system for tracking the environmental situation and expected that representatives of state bodies would be interested in his undertaking. They really became interested in - Igor was called to the prosecutor and asked to explain the reasons for his civic activity.

"Krasnoyarsk. Nobo"

Igor Spekht is the author of the Krasnoyarsk.bo project, which has not yet been analogues in any city in Russia. Together with other enthusiasts, Igor developed a site where people can track the air state in Krasnoyarsk online. They come from special sensors, which Igor Specht personally installed in several areas of the city. Visitors on the site "Krasnoyarsk.boba" is a lot - breathing in the city is getting harder. In Krasnoyarsk, over the past two years, about forty times have introduced the NMU regime - adverse meteorological conditions. This is when industrial emissions, dust, smoke and automobile exhausts accumulated in the air in outrun doses. And the lack of wind and high humidity prevented them from dissipating, and as a result, the city covered the brown-gray. The townspeople were recommended to leave on such days, and if there is no way, then there is less to visit the street and not to open the windows.

In the spring of this year, about two thousand people went to a rally in Krasnoyarsk. People demanded to stop poisoning air. Then the activists adopted a resolution in which they demanded to strengthen control over the state of the air, install the treatment equipment on enterprises polluting atmosphere, and prohibit the cutting down of the suburban forests, and transfer heat stations to natural gas. But Igor Specht believes that there will be no real results from such shares.

“The next day I came to work and thought what could be done further, because the rally only works as a form of a protest application, but nothing changes further,” says Igor Specht. - Those people who organized a rally do not approach the problem systematically. They wrote a resolution that has nothing to do with reality and contains impossible requirements.

The city needs an expert group that will determine the sources of pollution

Igor Specht believes that it is necessary to solve the problem differently: the city needs an expert group that will definitely determine primarily sources of pollution. The activist began to look for independent monitoring stations in Russia, studied information about how to make measurements. First, he stumbled upon the experience of one girl from Alma-Ata : she received a grant from the American embassy and bought a sensor for the study of the composition of the air for this money. It was installed on a high administrative building in Alma-Ata, and its measurements were available online. However, the cost of the device was about one million rubles. The businessmen whom Igor turned to financial support was not interested in the idea. In addition, one device for a million city is not enough, they had to be installed several. As a result, Igor Specht still managed to find suitable sensors, not so expensive.

Igor bought the first device at his own expense and began to test it, and then turned to the townspeople for financial support. The next three devices were bought by the Krasnoyarsk patrons, and two more were thrown by caring townspeople. Now for the Krasnoyarsk.bo project six sensors are installed in the city, their data is available to all residents of Krasnoyarsk.

- In this device there is a small cooler. He sucks the air, which enters the camera with a built -in laser and a small photocell, ”Igor Spekhta explains the principle of action of the sensor. - This LED at a certain moment begins to turn on for a short time, the laser lets the line in space, looks how many re -evidence. The laser enters these particles, so it reads their number in this small volume of air.

PM2.5 particles carry many substances harmful to the human body

All measurement results enter a single server, and already from there - to the site of activists. Now they measure only one type of pollution - the number of PM2.5 particles in the air (air pollutants). According to Igor Specht, they are recognized as the most dangerous, because through the lungs they easily fall into the human blood and have a harmful effect on the cardiovascular system. PM2.5 particles carry many substances harmful to the human body.

Invitation to the prosecutor's office

As a result, Igor Specht was invited to the prosecutor's office. The main claim of the supervisory authority to it is now the mismatch of the data of state monitoring organizations with those that are reflected on the website of Krasnoyarsk Nonbo. He was also asked to submit documents for the measuring devices that he installed.

- Further, the prosecutor’s office read questions from his notebook. I answered in detail, he wrote down, ”recalls Igor Spekht,“ how we set the devices, to whom they belong, how we receive data from the server, whether we can influence data, who are engaged in the development of applications, who made the site, are we organizing, who finances the project.

Activist sensors go off the emissions, but at the same time, according to state regulatory authorities, air in the city is clean

Igor explains such attention to himself only by one: his activities are clearly dissatisfied with the Ministry of Ecology and the rational nature management of the region, as well as in the Central Siberian Administration for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (UGMS). Often, activists simply go out of the emissions, but according to state regulatory authorities, air in the city is clean.

- One of the goals of the project - To attract the attention of the authorities to the problem of air pollution. This cannot but annoy various state departments. Perhaps the reason for the call to the prosecutor's office was a complaint from the Central Siberian UGMS, ”says Igor Spekht.

In turn, representatives of the Central Siberian UGMS assure that they did not write any complaints against Igor Specht and have nothing to do with his call to the prosecutor's office.

- Of course, we really do not like these attacks that activists publish. I read correspondence with them, everything is quite incorrect, ”says Oksana Salnikova , a leading specialist in public relations from the UGMS. “But we didn’t complain about them, we have no care of them.” Our organization works, performs its functions and does not follow anyone, we have no supervisory function. They argue that the reason for their call to the prosecutor's office is a complaint from the UGMS, this is not true.

At the same time, state experts have questions for the methods of working activists. According to the employees of the UGMS, there are clear regulations for measuring PM2.5 particles: super -precise scales and sterile room are needed. The Central ICMS does not have similar equipment due to a lack of funding. Therefore, at the monitoring posts that this department leads, all substances are measured at once, and specifically these particles are now technically impossible. At the same time, specialists of the UGMS doubt that the activists-ecologists have all the necessary equipment, and also have all the necessary skills to make the right measurements and issue true data.

- And now imagine those household sensors that are on the second floor, while all measurements should be carried out at an altitude of two meters to exclude various influences. We watched the descriptions of these devices in English, I understood that these solid particles are measured there indirectly, ”says Oksana Salnikova. -Carbon dioxide is measured there and somehow, on the basis of measuring this gas, conclusions are drawn about how much these PMs can be there. Moreover, I do not understand how the gas can be indirectly converted into solids. If a sterile room and high -precision scales are prescribed to us, then how do civilian ecologists measure this? What is the method of this measurement? No one said this, they do not license their devices. What can be compared here? If they came out with a proposal to hold ours and their measurements at the same time at one point, then we could talk about something.

The right to the air

The prosecutor’s office says that the activities of ecologists are checked at the initiative of the supervisory authority.

“There were messages in the media that such measurements are carried out, a violation is revealed,” explained Elena Pimonenko, senior assistant to the prosecutor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory for media relations. - The prosecutor's office will monitor the media. If they report any violations, in this case, environmental legislation on air pollution, we have grounds for conducting an audit. This is the environmental prosecutor's office. Before the verification, we have the right to say nothing to anyone.

Igor Spekht is now afraid of accusations of unlicensed activities. But he is sure that he has every right to engage in self -monitoring of the environment.

Civil ecologists will establish new sensors that will measure other substances

- The law very clearly prescribes: "People who have a legal entity or individual entrepreneur are subject to licensing in metrology." And I don't care - I'm just Igor Spekht. I do this for myself, if residents of the city use this, then let it, ”says Igor Spekht. - If they continue to find fault, we will file us on the courts, we will call it not monitoring the quality of the air, but, for example, monitoring the state of emotions of the inhabitants. What do they want, I honestly cannot understand.

Civil ecologists do not intend to curtail the project. Moreover, they soon plan to install new sensors that will measure other substances.

- I want to change the situation for the better in my city. This project will close, I said this earlier, only when everything in the city will become good with the ecology, ”says Igor Specht. - I want to breathe clean air. We specifically with anyone and do not against anyone is not friends, we just collect data.

The other day, activists were repeatedly called to the prosecutor's office: they want to find out the addresses of all the stations that they installed from them. According to Igor Specht, the specialists of the environmental prosecutor’s office, together with the employees of Rospotrebnadzor, intend to make their measurements in the same places.