The most serious environmental concerns of Dnepropetrovsk

09:56 02.09.11

 

Drinking and domestic water out of water taps, pump-rooms, wells located in the city is importable and unusable. Water is polluted by organochlorine contaminants, oil products, surfactants, etc. During summer time it is polluted by dioxins caused by the blue-green blanket degradation. On boiling, water toxicity is increasing significantly; in some cases dioxins are generated.

The city is surrounded with electromagnetic smog created by cellular phones, cellular and satellite communication base stations, TV and radio- transmitting stations and transmission lines located and still being operated near dwelling houses, kindergartens, schools, hospitals and higher education institutions. In many cities, electromagnetic radiation flux is 2-10 times higher than a maximum allowable rate.

There is no proper environmental monitoring system in the city. Out of 39 types of air polluting substances, not more than 6-7 polluting indexes are being controlled within the small territory of the city. Monitoring of soil pollution and land surface waters within the limits of the city is practically not available.
Radiological (electromagnetic, ionizing, light) and acoustic (noise, vibration, infrasound) radiation monitoring is completely not available.
The lack of the environmental monitoring system enables thousands of enterprises to pollute the environment with impunity and uncontrollably and significantly harm to the health of citizens, not paying considerable cash (which could have been paid for environmental problems solving) for emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere and air pollution with physical influencing factors (electromagnetic, ionizing radiation), surface water (Dnieper) discharge of untreated toxic waste, disposal of top priority waste.

The information about quality of the environment, foodstuffs and household utensils is fully blocked for the citizens.
The lack of complete and reliable information cannot change the existing catastrophic ecological situation and bring guilty parties to account, neither the citizens are able to make their own decisions on health protection.

The construction in the city of the environment-damaging facilities, such as metallurgical plant Dneprostal (OJSC Interpipe, Nizhnedneprovskiy pipe plant), processed accumulator batteries utilization plant of Vesta Corporation, plastics industry plants, small metallurgic workshops and sections will become even a greater threat for the ecological situation.

More than 18% (6,3 thousand ha) of the city territory is in the submergence zone due to the Dnieper’s left bank flow control,  leakage in water supply networks, unsatisfactory land drainages (storm run-offs) in the right bank of the river.
Water table rise over time and entailing settling deformation cover more than 6% of the right bank of the river.

Slides are quite common in the city. They are caused by the water table rise due to the leakage in water supply networks (daily leakage from water supply networks comprises about 200 thousand tons of water), lack of storm-water drainages or their unserviceable condition, as well as slopes load with high block residential or industrial developments. Slopes development for the construction purposes is a widely applied process, generally associated with sides cutting and substantial load. This may activate soil slips in the future.

Up to 90% of damaged and ineffective atmospheric discharge treatment facilities are installed in the city. In practice, enterprises do not meet any operating requirements for gas and dust purifying equipment. Pridneprovskaya termal power station, Interpipe Nizhnedneprovskiy pipe plant, Dnepropetrovskiy metallurcical plant named after Petrovskiy, Dneprokoks, Dneprotyazhmach, wall paper factories, asphalt processing plants, waste burning plants and many other enterprises being an example.

The citizens are constantly affected by high-toxicity chemicals: dioxins, furans, benzapyrene, etc. from the operation of waste burning plant, wall paper factories and asphalt processing plants, enterprises OJSC Dneprokoks, OJSC Dneproshina and a score of metallurgical plants and workshops using scrap metal in their technologies, as well as from incineration of garbage and leaves at unregulated landfills and in the yards.

Soil and open air are lead contaminated due to the operation of the processed accumulator batteries manufacturing and utilization plants, stripe and sheet lead-covering of the OJSC Dnepropetrovskiy metallurgical plant named after Komintern. Samples of soil contain lead exceeding the slip form rate 8–12 times.

Daily city traffic exceeds 200 thousand of transportation vehicles and 5 thousand of transit vehicles. Transport means burn over 2 thousand tons of fuel daily leading to the substantial city pollution with exhaust gases, noise, vibration, dust from tires and road pavement, electromagnetic radiation.

There is radioactive gas radon in all basements and first floors of residential and administrative buildings. In particular cases, metering shows that radon exceeds 2-5 times maximum allowable rates.

Due to the misuse of construction and finishing materials, radioactive dust fallout from metallurgical and chemical plants emissions, motor transport, Zaporozhskaya atomic power station and burial of radioactive wastes (near the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk), increase of radiation level is observed in certain locations.

Self-willed land parcels seizure does not stop in the city near residential areas with the purpose to build various trading and entertaining facilities. This fact resulted in the mass clearing of green planting, strengthening impact on the citizens of such harmful physical factors as noise, electromagnetic and light radiation.

On banks of Dneiper and its affluents residential buildings, leisure centers and building are being constructed illegally, resulted in the continuous emission of Dnieper, plants clearing, as well as the deprivation of citizens’ right to free excess to the water.

Storages of production wastes - tailing ponds and slurry storages, sewage and process water ponds, sediment ponds and evaporator ponds are in most cases not equipped with waterproofing causing continuous ground-water contamination.

Production waste water and utility fluids are spewed into Dnieper without proper treatment. All city storm-runoffs together with unauthorized production waste water and utility fluids are spewed into Dnepr and its affluents without any treatment.

The situation in the city is hostile as regards the generation, collection, disposal, storage and utilization (destruction) of hazardous wastes. The accounting of qualitative and quantitative waste composition is, in practice, not organized at most of the city enterprises. It is not known, where is the location of about 6 thousand tons of lead/acid electrolyte a year (probably, the lead/acid electrolytes are spewed into the river and soil).

As major portion of the city economy is hidden, more than 80% of the city enterprises are beyond control in terms of their compliance with sanitary-hygienic and environmental standards.

Storm-runoffs purification plants are lacking at 98% of the city enterprises. Crude storm-runoffs (contaminated with oil products, heavy metals, surfactant materials and other toxic substances) enter ground waters and Dnieper.

Unregulated landfills of consumer, construction and processing waste are appearing. Facilities of consumer and construction waste treatment and burial are not available.

Approved projects of water conservation zones and coastal shelter belts are not in place. This fact resulted in unlawful construction and the coastal area destruction.

In the past decades, Dnepropetrosk experienced powerful environmental footprint resulted in the deep disruption of ecological balance in the citizens’ life-sustaining activity.

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