"Breathe smoke and stench." Why do residents of Moscow demand to close the garbage plant - 4

The garbage plant-4 has been working in the Kosino-Ukhtomsky district near Nekrasovka since 2004. Until 2018, the enterprise was used for a third of its capacity, and then began to work in full force. It is from this moment that activists demand to close MSZ-4. Locals have repeatedly complained that the plant polluting the air, went to rallies. What problems are around the enterprise and how they are offered to solve.

The work of MSZ-4 at night. Photo: adres-msz4.ru / youtube.com

Live near the factory

“Throughout the summer, almost every night in the area there was a terrible stink. You don’t know whether to close the window and sleep in stuffiness, or breathing with poisoned air, ”says Dmitry Shuvalov, municipal deputy of the ugly. He notes that the nearest houses to MSZ-4 are located in its area.

To protect people from the harmful effects of enterprises, sanitary protection zones are installed around them. According to SanPins , for MSZ-4, this zone by default is installed within a radius of a kilometer.

“It is not a fact that she really protects citizens,” says activist Alexei Balan. - These metrics were accepted back in the USSR. With an increase in the power of the plants, they may not be enough. ”

The plant from the Moscow Property Department is rented by the regional waste management operator - Khartia LLC. According to Balan, Rospotrebnadzor and the Hartia reduced to 190 meters a sanitary protection zone in some places, based on mathematical calculations. However, there are data at the disposal of activists, including on the basis of measurements of mosecomonitoring, which show that the abbreviated area is ineffective.

Even at a distance of one and a half kilometers there is excess of pollutants

, - the expert emphasizes.

As Balan says, he lives at a distance of three kilometers from the MSZ. Under certain weather conditions, when pollutants disperse worse, the man still “breathes smoke and stench” that the plant produces.

According to the results of instrumental control, which is conducted by the “Charter” on the border of the sanitary protection zone since 2018, the number of harmful substances in the atmosphere does not exceed existing standards. The company evaluates the quality of air in these places as “proper”. The Charter emphasized that information about the emissions of the enterprise is transmitted to the screen at the entrance to the plant building, and is also displayed on the official website of the company in the MSZ No. 4 section.

Oppessless activity

Despite the data that the Charter is talking about, the activities of any MSZZ are opaque, it is difficult to control, the author of the telegram channel about the Ecology Trash Economy , who wished to remain anonymous, explains it. That is why it is difficult to prove something and eliminate the problem, if any.

When there is no public reporting, none of the ordinary people can check anything. The nose that inhales unpleasant odors, and the eyes that cuts from caustic smoke do not prove anything to anyone

- says the expert.

Alternative measurements of harmful emissions and waste after burning could do activists, but their methods are not certified, the author of the telegram channel explains. Therefore, as a rule, their data is not used to analyze the situation by departments or in court.

Research can also conduct responsible departments, but emissions are unstable - the measurement can be made when there is no excess, the interlocutor says. There is no constant monitoring online, as far as the expert is known.

Another way, how to monitor emissions, is to study the composition of the waste that enters the plant, emphasizes the interlocutor of TD. So you can understand whether there can be some harmful and polluting substances at the output. However, according to the expert, there is no information about such studies.

Courts

In the sanitary protection zone

In 2019, activists submitted a petition to the Moscow City Hall demanding to close the plant, which was signed by 12 thousand people. Another - with 3.5 thousand signatures - to the presidential administration. Separately 4377 complaints were signed. In the first case, activists were not responded, in the second and third cases, unsubscribes came.

All appeals were introduced to the statement of the Society for the Protection of the Environment “Principle”. It disputed in court the decision of Rospotrebnadzor to reduce the sanitary protection zone of the MSZ-4. However, on August 18, the Tverskaya District Court of Moscowrejected the lawsuit. The decision is still not ready, emphasizes Alexei Balan. The activist added that the “principle” was deprived of the opportunity to present evidence and claim them from government agencies. Further, the environmental protection society plans to dispute the decision up to the Supreme Court.

Activists, according to Balan, also sent a complaint to the environmental prosecutor's office. It says that in the sanitary protection zone there is a river, including in connection with this, it is impossible to conduct economic activity there. Activists said they did not receive a response of the department. “Such cases” sent a request to the environmental prosecutor's office. At the time of publication, there was no answer.

License to operate explosive objects

In May 2021, the municipal deputy Dmitry Shuvalov conducted an analyst at open data and came to the conclusion that the Charter did not have a license to operate explosive objects. Shuvalov applied to Rostekhnadzor. The agency conducted an audit and on July 1 filed a lawsuit with a request to suspend the activities of MSZ-4. The lawsuit was considered only a month and a half after filing. Shuvalov believes that in this way the court gave the “charter” time to issue a license, which they managed to use.

The Charter confirmed that from March 20 to July 4, Rostekhnadzor conducted an unscheduled verification of documents. “When conducting an audit of the MTU, Rostekhnadzor did not establish hazardous production facilities, with the exception of the absence of a license to operate explosive and chemically hazardous production facilities of the I, II and III hazard classes,” the company said. Representatives of the "Charter" said that now all identified violations have been eliminated. On August 17, Rostekhnadzor provided the company with a license for the operation of such facilities.

Perovsky court appointed the company a fine of 200 thousand rubles for violating industrial safety requirements for MSZ-4. According to Shuvalov, the court thereby confirmed that for almost three years the plant worked with a gross violation of the law: without the most important permits. Activists are preparing new complaints.

Where is the ash go

Activists are worried about the activity of MSZ-4 not only because of possible emissions, but also because of ash at the enterprise-the result of burning garbage. Alexey Medvedev, who has been involved in the problem since 2018, explains that there are two types of dangerous waste. The first is the flying ash of the first - third hazard class. According to the activist, MSZ-4 carries it in large bags. Another type is a gold. It contains a large amount of glass, aluminum, copper, tile and other small substances.

If goldflies can be used in the construction of roads, then the flying ash must be neutralized-lower the hazard class before using it, emphasizes anonymous TD expert.

“In the West, such technologies exist, but we don’t have them yet,” he says. - Therefore, such a waste is attended. But at a simple landfill for household waste, this cannot be done. We need a special training ground where the burial of dangerous waste is allowed. ”

In the suburbs and regions closest to the capital, there is no such place. Therefore, the question is where the flying ash goes

- concludes the expert.

Medvedev says that in all types of ash there are benzapirene - a product of burning the first hazard of danger along with mercury, plutonium, polonium, strynin and lead oxide. The substance can cause cancer of the respiratory organs, pancreas and intestines.

According to the activist, LLC SFRA and LLC Ecostroyprogress participated in tenders for the export of ash from MSZ-3 and MSZ-4. It suggests that part of the waste is taken to the quarry, and part is on the territory of the villages of Mashkovo and Motyakovo. He emphasizes that if the ash lies in the open air and people breathe it, it is very dangerous due to the presence of benzapirene.

According to the "Charter", non -combustible fractions and waste after thermal neutralization is sent to organizations with which the operator concluded contracts. It is these contractors that are engaged in further processing and disposal.

"I see: the mountain is growing"

In 2018, the Ministry of Ecology of the Moscow Region for the first time discovered harmful substances in the ash, which was found by the activist. It filed a lawsuit against Ecostroyprogress, which was engaged in the removal of ash from factories.

The statement says that municipal waste after heat treatment was stored near the village of Mashkovo, in the water protection zone of the infantry river. There, according to the agency, in 2016-2017, more than 14 thousand tons of slag formed, in 2017 - about 61 thousand tons. The Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region fined Ecostroyprogress for 6 million rubles for violations.

After the decision of the Court, the “SFRA” and “EcoSTostroyprogress” stopped concluding agreements on the supply of ash for the reflection, says Medvedev with reference to answers from the departments to his complaints. Now, he says, companies conclude contracts illegally.

“But I see: the mountain is growing,” the activist is indignant. Since then, he began to photograph the places where, in his opinion, the ash and slag were illegally left, to write complaints to the supervisory departments. He also conducted his own investigation and found out that in the detected ash a large amount of metal, which causes an excess of the radiation background.

Sometimes it worked. For example, a year ago, Alexei shot a video with a mountain of ash on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street in Lyubertsy. The activist wrote a complaint to the governor of the Moscow region. At the beginning of 2021, Alexei was called to the department for combating economic crimes. The Environmental Protection Department reported that harmful waste from the plant was removed . “However, it is impossible to remove the whole training ground in such a short time,” the activist said. According to him, it is not enough to take the ash - it is important that the relevant departments conduct an investigation, who "continues to fall asleep with ash and slag, the entire Lyubertsy district."

In response to complaints in the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of Moscow, Alexei replied that the plant is a “modern technological enterprise that burns garbage at 850 degrees”. He remained unhappy with the answer. “I, living in Nekrasovka, be tormented, I suffer from emissions, and in return for my suffering, some kind of unsubscription comes to me that everything is fine,” he commented. “It would be better if they sent a gas mask, he would just come in handy for us.”

From the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor they wrote to him that the ash is supplied only to fill the lower layers of roads. “And I find it in the upper layers. She lies, not sprinkled with crushed stone, or sandal, - says Medvedev. “Rospotrebnadzor considers that ash is sold to various legal entities who allegedly know how to use it.”

"They will cut me"

On July 11, Medvedev published a video with ash, which he discovered in the territory of the LCD “Aircraft” in Lyubertsy. He explained that the local administration decided to improve the playground and “thoughtlessly poured it with ash”, purchased from the organization “Sphere”. On July 15, the Ministry of Ecology and Nature Management of the Moscow Region opened the case of an administrative offense and the investigation began. The Investigative Committee began checking the administration of the Lyubertsy due to the back of the ash.

“Such cases” sent a request to the organization “Sphere”. At the time of publication, there was no answer.

The Charter stated that the company conducted an internal investigation based on Medvedev’s materials on the traces of waste on the playground. To do this, they attracted an accredited independent laboratory. The company emphasized that the study showed the inconsistency of the composition of the ash and waste from the activity of the plant. According to the company, Medvedev’s statements should be confirmed by irrefutable evidence, otherwise the activist “deliberately misleads the persons observing his publications.”

On July 17, Medvedev found near the bus stop opposite the helicopter street, house 6, ash, which, in his opinion, remains after the burning of garbage at the factory, and then scatters around the vicinity. The man wanted to take this violation on the video, but he was interfered. “They saw me, recognized me, got into two cars and began to smoke in the area,” recalls Alexei. According to the activist, this happened to him for the first time.

They brought a fist to my face and, clinging to the grid, said that if I also ride and shoot videos in the area, they will cut me. When trying to call the police, they told me that if I don’t take a phone or try to photograph them now, then they will break it about my head

- said Medvedev.

The activist wrote a statement to the police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs began a check.

The examination conducted by Rosprirodnadzor and the Ministry of Ecology showed that in its composition the ash does not agree with the waste that MSZ-4 produces. Departments also commented that waste is the fifth class of danger, that is, almost harmless. Therefore, they can allegedly be used for improvement. Medvedev objects: “In this mixture there is a large amount of melted glass, metal, brick, tile, other objects, such as aluminum spoons, forks, knives that prove that these are residues from waste burning, and not just a construction mix.”

In August, the Ministry of Ecology and Nature Management of the Moscow Region issued a definition on the initiation of an administrative case under an article on non -compliance with the requirements in the field of environmental protection during the collection, accumulation, transportation, processing, disposal of or disposal of production and consumption waste. The defendants in the case have not yet been established.

What do activists want

All the people who are fighting with the activity of the plant have a maximum program and a minimum program, explains Alexei Balan. Maximum program-close the plant. The activist believes that this will happen in the near future, since four large plants are being built in the Moscow Region. While the new plants have not been built, the question arises of what to do with garbage. Activists offer a minimum program-to oblige the Charter to put new filters that allow you to better clean waste. Another option is to reduce the power of the plant. “This will help us survive until the entire garbage stream from MSZ-4 will go to other plants,” Balan says.

The Charter said that MSZ-4 used filter sleeves for filters. The service life of filter sleeves is two years, while a complete or partial replacement can be carried out according to the result of regular inspections of the gas treatment system, the company noted. Its representatives added that from 2018 to 2021, the Charter carried out a number of works on the modernization of the enterprise. On 2021–2023, the company agreed on an investment program aimed at further modernization of the plant, “including in relation to the reduction of anthropogenic environmental impact due to the use of its own funds,” the Charter said.

The author of the telegram channel TRASH ECONOMY emphasizes that garbage burning does not solve the problem of garbage that occurs due to the growth of waste volume and the lack of separate collection culture in people-even those who live next to the plant and requires it to close it. It is necessary to reduce consumption, re -use things, try to maximize the separate fee and stimulate manufacturers so that they pack their goods in the processed packaging, the expert is sure.