Water Quality in Russia
Background and case studies
Jordan Duffy, Parker Forsley, and Jenny Bower
image credit:
http://sochiwatchdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_4490.jpg
Water Quality in Russia
❖ Policy
➢ Relationship between government and science
❖ Water quality impacts
➢ Industrial/military pollution
➢ Hydropower
➢ Sochi
❖ Water availability
➢ Clean Water Program
Photo Credit: geography.about.org
Environmental policy
❖ “Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment”
➢ conflict of interest
❖ environmental issues have low priority
❖ private interests and public interests intertwined
➢ Gryzlov & Petrik
➢ public officials have ties to companies w/governmental contracts
❖ natural resources “shadow economy”
❖ Russian Academy of Sciences
➢ dissolved in 2013
➢ Mikhail Kovalchuck
Industrial and military pollution
❖ Soviet legacy: pollution
➢ environmental contamination not a concern
➢ led to 40% of Russian territory facing moderately high to high ecological stress
❖ Current contamination
➢ 75% of surface water
➢ 50% total water
➢ 30% groundwater
❖ Aging/obsolete infrastructure
❖ Pollutants
➢ Heavy metals
➢ Dioxins
➢ Fertilizers
➢ Oil
➢ Chemical weapons
➢ Radioactive waste from weapons
“Radioactive rivers”
❖ In 1948, nuclear weapon production starts at Chelyabinsk-40 along the Techa River in
the southern Ural mountains.
➢ diluted effluent dumped straight into the river (2.75 million curies between 194956)
➢ contained high levels of Strontium-90 and Cesium-137, with half lives of 30 years
➢ Primary water source for residents along river. 28,000 exposed to high levels of
radiation
★ In 1951 Soviet scientists discovered high levels of radiation along river banks
-effluent disposal moved to nearby Lake Karachay which contained no inlets or
outlets.
-drying of lake causes dust to spread.
❖ September 29, 1957: cooling system of reservoirs fails
➢ explosion resembling ammonium nitrate bomb occurs, fallout cloud spreads
hundreds of kilometers.
➢ 10,000+ residents evacuated with no explanation
Oil spills
❖ Russia accounts for 12% of the world's oil production and near 50% of the total oil
spills with approximately 20,000 per year.
➢ Approximately 30 million barrels of oil spilled annually.
➢ ~4 million barrels flow straight into the Arctic Ocean.
❖ Russian authorities claim there are only hundreds of inland spills per year.
➢ According to Russian law, spills less than 56 barrels do not need to be
reported.
■ Government often turns a blind eye to many oil spills. Either ignoring
fines or drastically reducing them.
➢ Emergency and spill response tools are not often enforced.
❖ As Arctic sea ice recedes, oil spills become more of a looming threat.
➢ Conditions in these drilling sites are unpredictable, floating icebergs, etc.
➢ Response team would be far too slow and there is currently no technology
effective at cleaning oil spills in ice conditions.
photo credit: Greenpeace
Oil-contaminated rivers in the city of Usinsk
❖ Over 1,200 miles from
Arctic Research and
Design Center for
Offshore Developments
(ARC). ARC is responsible
for monitoring and
preventing emergency
situations.
Hydropower
❖ 16% of electricity generated by hydropower
➢ ranked 5th in the world for hydroelectricity production
❖ Export to China
➢ China Yangtze Energy + EurSibEnergo
➢ 100 billion kW hours supplied over next 25 years
❖ Negative effects
➢ Resettlement
➢ Poor oversight and regulation
■ Sayano–Shushenskaya accident: 75 dead
➢ Uncleared reservoirs; ecological harm
➢ Some located in seismically active zones
Sochi impacts
❖ strong ties between contractors and government
➢ hasty environmental assessment
➢ “green construction standards” = post-construction bandaid
➢ repression of protesters
❖ construction affected over 8,000 acres of Sochi National Park
➢ “protected zones”
❖ water contamination due to illegal landfill dumping
❖ clearcutting
❖ destruction of wetlands
❖ pollution of Mzytma, Laura, and Achipse rivers
➢ increased turbidity, arsenic levels
➢ vulnerable salmon population
photo credit: Al Jazeera
Problem areas
❖ Volga and Dnepr rivers
➢ sewage, eutrophication
➢ Volga spontaneously ignited in 1970
❖ Baltic, Black, Caspian seas
➢ sewage, flooding of Caspian
➢ Black Sea contains only 5 species of fish; only 10% of volume contains
enough oxygen to support aquatic life
❖ Lakes Baikal, Ladoga, Onega
➢ heavy metals, radioactive military waste, fertilizers, chemicals,
sewage
❖ St. Petersburg, Moscow
➢ disease from polluted waters
Water availability
❖ Aging/obsolete infrastructure
➢ rusting pipes
➢ 40% of system needs
refurbishment
❖ Giardia in St. Petersburg
❖ Cholera, brown water in Moscow
❖ Large number of untreated
wastewater effluents
➢ in 2004, only 10.6% of
wastewater was treated
according to regulations
❖ 25% of world fresh water
➢ neglected, polluted
Clean Water Program
❖ Initiated in 2006 -> Plans to run through 2017
➢ 331.8 billion roubles (10 billion USD)
❖ Aims to bring clean water to public institutions
❖ Federal government will fund up to 60%, remaining from regional and
municipal
❖ Resented by Russian scientific community
❖ Viktor Petrik’s filters (nanotechnology) were chosen to use on the pilot
project
➢ Petrik’s filters were abandoned and program revised in 2011
Pure Water Federal Target Program
❖ Supply population with quality
freshwater, introduce modern
technologies --- 2011->2017
➢ produce light steel tubing, noncorrosive for 100 years
➢ repair all existing pipelines
➢ wastewater treatment, combine
UV and ultrasound disinfectant
➢ wastewater for space heating
Activism
❖ Environmental Watch of North Caucasus (EWNC)
❖ Sochi activists
➢ Vitishko and Gazaryan
■ arrested for “swearing in public”
❖ “Eco-blogger”
➢ trying to publicize the orange chemical sludge
■ beaten in public
❖ Greenpeace
➢ Arrested for protest banners
спасибо!!
References
http://countrystudies.us/russia/25.htm
https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5384-Russia-s-Siberian-dams-power-electric-boilers-inBeijing
http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-26/issue-4/regulars/creative-finance/russian-water-andwastewater-market.html
http://www.nprvo.ru/en/water/program/
http://www2.epa.gov/international-cooperation/epa-collaboration-russia
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/PageFiles/480942/Point_Of_No_Return.pdf
http://newamericamedia.org/2013/10/behind-russia-vs-greenpeace-furor-unreported-oil-pollution-of-the-arctic.php
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/EPNZ_1-3_oil_and_gas_areas.png/640px-EPNZ_13_oil_and_gas_areas.png
http://ewnc.org/files/sochi/Doklad-Sochi-2014_EWNC-Eng.pdf