On a barrel of poison
01.11.2013 11:20 Sergei Mokrushin, “Issues of National Security”
Documents, published by the weekly Zerkalo Nedeli Ukraine, once again revealed facts that will
not be convenient for any officials: in the sea by the Crimean peninsula, there are buried containers
with chemical weapons from World War II. The program to search and dispose of them was foiled
and the majority of budget money allocated to implement this program (more than UAH 50 million)
was spent in violation of the law.
It is also impressive to point out the volumes – according to unofficial data there are 1,200
containers of various capacities buried near the
shore. These 100-200 liter barrels initially were
meant for chemical air-to-land bombs and the 400
liter containers for refilling smaller capacity
containers. It is pretty complicated nowadays to
determine the locations of the buried containers.
Gennadiy Rubtsov, director and owner of the
enterprise Sittal, who conducted the search ordered
by the Ministry of Natural Resources in February
2011, in an interview with Noviy Kanal said that
many containers were located not in the places
where they were initially planned to be buried – the
situation on the frontlines forced changes.
Gennadiy Rubtsov
“This created a huge problem when the issue of allocating these containers came up. Basically,
some were around the Crimean peninsula, including in the Kerch Strait, up to 1,200 containers. We
found only 500 and outlined the regions. According to our findings, there are around 11 regions in
which there were dumps of containers with mustard gas and lewisite,” said Rubtsov.
According to his information, chemical weapons were buried in the sea around Crimea not just in
the war years. In the 60s, over 300 containers with sarin and soman were buried in the Azov Sea.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has information about the location of the burial
sites; in 2011 when information about the chemical weapons became a real informational bomb, the
head of the Crimean central division of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Aleksandr
Nedobitkov said Ukrainian officials requested the Russians open up the maps. There were
numerous requests, including at the level of the president of Ukraine.
Map of chemical weapon burial sites according to
Piramis
However, the northern neighbor never provided the
maps, so the location of the majority of the burial
sites of dangerous containers and their exact
number is still a mystery to our government.
Ukrainian citizens know even less than that – the
information is sifting in through the media in small
pinches and today the public knows about 11 burial
sites. Two and a half years ago, the information
agency Noviy Region published a report about
another contractor who was also conducting a search, company Piramis; these reports indicated the
sites and volumes of about 500 buried containers.
As we can see, containers with chemical weapons are located along the entire Crimean sealine –
from Evpatoria to Kerch – however, the more-or-less exact coordinates were not stated in these
documents.
Last week, the public found out about a letter from Valentina Simonenko, head of the Accounting
Chamber of Ukraine, to Viktor Yanukovych, president of Ukraine, in which special attention was
given to the burial sites near Kerch. Specifically, the letter indicated very alarming information
about pollution of the Kerch Strait water area.
Freeze frame of Sitall underwater filming
“According to various documents, the amount of
containers buried near Kerch ranges from 11,
according to Piramis, to 60 locked in sarcophagi,
according to the former head of the Accounting
Chamber of Ukraine. The location of the technical
sites where the concrete coated-containers were
waiting for reburial can be found in a different
document,” said a letter by academic Valeriy
Kukhar. He said that during a storm in November
2007 two barges with fuel oil were torn from their
anchors and ran aground, specifically in a place
where there were technical sites with chemical weapons. Most likely, this was in the region between
Cape White and Tuzla Island. It is not hard to imagine what would happen if a barge hit the
container with a poisonous substance, even concrete-coated ones, which means that they are just
covered with special concrete.
The whole fact of the existence of chemical weapon dumps near Kerch is no secret to people in
scientific circles. The former head of the Southern
Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries
and Oceanography, Boris Panov, says that some
information about the threat was mentioned in
2005 at a meeting of the city council with the
participation of representatives from the
Committee on Emergency Situations of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
“It was said that they found several barrels with
mustard gas within the city limits under some
piers. As far as I understand, it was in the center of
the city where there were fish protection boats.
There was no information later regarding these
chemical weapons and what happened to these
weapons,” said the scientist.
Boris Panov
As to the pollution of the Kerch Strait and influence of chemical warfare agents on live organisms,
the scientist is not aware of such studies. Boris Panov cited data from 2007 that as a result of a
shipwreck in the Kerch Strait water area tons of oil and sulfur got into the water. “In 2007,
toxicologists were checking fish very seriously on their exteriors and their internal organs for
lesions on their body parts, but also did not clearly find out. Of course, they were seeking
consequences of oil pollution, but I think if there were some lesions or aberrations, the scientists
would have noticed them.”
However, according to information from the investigators, the containers that held poisonous
substances could have started to actively disintegrate much later – in 2010 – since this is the
expiration date for these containers in terms of their technical characteristics. The information from
the head of the Accounting Chamber indicated more than triple the maximum allowed
concentration of arsenic in water in the Kerch Strait, which today officials from the Southern
Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography recommend not taking too
close to your heart. Since the water itself that is in the strait, as is well known, does not stay there,
reaching such high indicators is most likely barely possible, they say in the institute. The talk is
rather about the concentration of harmful
substances in sediment. The institute’s staff has
nothing to present to counter the Accounting
Chamber’s information since starting from 2006 it
has had no possibilities to monitor the arsenic
concentration in water or live organisms. But even
back then the specialists talked about a high
concentration of harmful substances in sediment.
Without detailed research it would be difficult to
state the causes – too many factors exist that cause
the pollution of the water area – from
transshipment on the routes, about which we talked
about in 2008, to the geological peculiarities of
Kerch soil.
Oleg Petrenko
“Arsenic follows ore bearing zones and our Kerch region is not only in a strait, but situationed on
soil in an ore bearing zone. That is why the excessive levels of arsenic in this sediment could be an
indicator of the presense of iron in them as well,” said Oleg Petrenko, director of the Southern
Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography.
Anatoliy Mogilev, head of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, also calls for people not to panic
since as he justifiably points out, the letter from the head of the Accounting Chamber does not state
the specific source of the pollution or the specific places of chemical weapon dumps. However,
there is no doubt that Valentina Simonenko had access to those documents.
“I would put it this way – if there are some official docuiments presented to the government then I
would be ready to consider them and react to them. Today, we do not have any information about
any pollution of our shoreline or water by any poisonous substances. Therefore, let them send us
some documents and we will be ready to talk about them. The Accounting Chamber is not an expert
institution that conducts research about water quality. The Accounting Chamber only watches the
use of the budget. Therefore, if we get the documents, we will study them,” says Mogilev.
We hope that the Crimean prime minister noticed that Zerkalo Nedeli Ukraine published not only
the letter from the head of the Accounting Chamber, but also references from the Ministry of
Economy, Ministry of Emergency Situations and the academic Kukhar. All of the aforementioned
experts have the same conclusions about the potential danger of an ecological catastrophe in Crimea
in case the containers with chemical weapons are not disposed of. By the way, in Simonenko’s
claims, it was also stated that Crimean officials were unreasonably excluded from resolving this
problem. Let us also remind Anatoliy Mogilev that in 2011 the government of Vasiliy Dzharta
made an effort so that the foiled program to search and dispose of the remainder of the chemical
weapons was revived. Therefore, all necessary documents that Anatoliy Vladimirovich Mogilev can
find, not even coming out of the Cabinet of Ministers, are with his deputy, Georgiy Psarev.
We would like to call attention, one more time, to the fact that regardless of the legislation of
Ukraine, very important information for each citizen about the possible danger to the environment
has in fact been made secretive and journalists for many years have had to literally drag it out. Such
a sad picture is also enhanced by the fact that big budget money allocated for the search and
disposal of chemical weapons, also classified with the same secrecy, was spent with big violations –
three-quarters of the money was spent inappropriately. What is the danger that can come from the
disintegration of the containers with mustard gas and lewisite, we can see from the example of the
Baltic Sea, where the amount of chemical weapon burials was much greater – at least 50,000 tons –
and it already is having a result. However, they do not keep silent about this information. Some of
the containers have already disintegrated and clots of mustard gas have been caught in fishing nets.
By 2003, there were more than 20 such cases registered.
In these photographs, you can see how chemical weapons affect fish that live around it. This
problem is not being ignored in countries on the Baltic Sea and they have had maps for a long time
that indicate the sites of the biggest burials of poisonous substances; they conduct in-depth research
on it and information about this problem is open to the public.
Source: http://investigator.org.ua/articles/105524/
On a barrel of poison 2
18.11.2013 16:32 Valentina Samar, “Issues of National Security”
The Center for Investigative Journalism
continues to look into the topic of
potential dangers hidden in chemical
weapons sunk during World War II in
the Ukrainian section of the Black Sea.
To be correct, the biggest danger right
now is coming from the inactivity of the
Ukrainian government, who stopped the
state program to search and dispose of
chemical warfare agents (CWAs), which,
let us remind, was financed only 55%, of
which two-thirds of the money according
to an Accounting Chamber audit were
used in violation of the law. Moreover,
the objectives of the program were less than half completed. After publication in the weekly
Zerkalo Nedeli Ukraine of correspondence between institutions and the airing of the program
“Issues of National Security” with the first part of this investigation, the topic was picked up
by many media outlets; in interviews to those media outlets, officials reassured that the
situation was under control – however they continued to keep the factual nature of the
questions secretive. First of all, the fact that the carcophagi with the CWAs, instead of being
resunk at deeper depths, were left in dangerously shallow water in the Kerch Strait. Second,
mustard gas and lewisite leaking from containers disintegrating due to corrosion do not
dissolve in water and do not come to the surface, but present a big threat to everything alive
in the sea. To prove the second fact, we refer to the results of scientists’ studies in the Baltic
Sea, where as we know, the biggest chemical weapon dumps are located. Therefore, in
response to the withholding of information and open lies of officials, we will present more and
more new documented proof.
Let’s start with the good news. Among the facts presented in the documents published by ZN.UA,
the big alarm was caused by the information written in a letter from V. Simonenko, head of the
Accounting Chamber, to V. Yanukovych, president of Ukraine, about the fact that in the place
where partially disintegrated container L 400 was found (Cape White district), the concentration of
arsenic in the water exceeded the maximum allowed level by 3.46 times; there is the same high
level of arsenic in the area of the Geroevskaya settlement, where there are lots of popular beaches
and clam banks.
It is not possible to check this data by
taking samples of sludge, water and
biological material (seaweed and mollusks)
in the district of the disintegrated
containers with CWAs since it is necessary
to know their exact coordinates. However,
considering the fact that nobody has
officially denied the published documents,
that the chances of contamination of this
part of the sea water is pretty high, that fish
and fish products are the main
breadwinners of local people in this
territory, and that right now is the height of
the fishing season, we decided to submit
samples of fish caught by local people in
the Kerch Strait for an expert review. We decided to study just one parameter – the concentration of
arsenic that was mentioned in the letter by V. Simonenko and which is a decomposition product of
the CWAs.
Let’s note that the maximum allowed concentration of arsenic in sea fish is much higher than for
any other kind of product – 5 milligrams per kilogram. For comparison, the maximum allowed
concentration of arsenic in meat is 0.1 mg/kg. This can be explained simply: sea products (fish,
mollusks and seaweed) have always had a lot of arsenic and are products where it is highly
concentrated (maybe that is why during Soviet times fish day was only once a week :).
First, we submitted grey mullet caught in the district of the Geroevskaya settlement to the
laboratory of the Crimean Sanitary-Epidemiological Station. After the prescribed and promised
three days, the experts told us that they were confused by the results, which is why they were going
to redo the tests. In a week, we were informed that arsenic dust existed in the fish, but the
concentration was much lower than the maximum allowed concentration – 0.65 mg/kg out of a
maximum of 5.0 mg/kg.
In order to verify that Kerch fish is still safe to eat, we decided to conduct another study involving
two laboratories this time – the Crimean Sanitary-Epidemiological Station and the Crimean
Scientific Production Center for Standardization, Metrology and Certification. We sent bullhead
fish caught in the Kerch district of Arshintsevo and purchased from local fishermen. We randomly
divided a kilogram of each fish for the two laboratories. The results came out totally different. It
was different by almost double the amount, but in both cases there is no reason to worry: the arsenic
concentration was 0.32 and 0.57 mg/kg.
These results are reason to be optimistic, but not for too long since pollution by the byproducts of
disintegrating CWAs, as we have found out are being seen very closely from chemical weapons
objects, but the locations of the burials are being kept secret. That is why the second news is bad
news. There is documented proof that at the location of the chemical weapon dumps, seaweed,
crabs and rapanas have been contaminated by the byproducts of disintegrating CWAs.
The Center for Investigative Journalism received documents that have been talked about for five
years, but that have never been published before. Sitall General Director Gennadiy Rubtsov gave us
copies of the document, the original of which (with wet stamps) was addressed to him. It is part of a
report on the results of ecological monitoring of the Black Sea water area in the Cape Sotera district
(Alushta). It was sent to him by the director of the state enterprise Voenkonvers-43, the Kharkiv
branch of Ecotsentr-42 of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in December 2011. The report about
scientific-research work dates back to 2007 and was conducted as part of that same state program to
search for and dispose of the remains of chemical weapons. It was sent to Rubtsov over eight
letters, but he gave us only four. In this part of the report, there are two tables. Table 11 contains the
tests of seawater samples and sendiment samples from the Cape Sotera district. The list of
discovered pollutive substances filled 1.5 pages. All compounds listed in the table and as stated in
the report “are byproducts of the disintegration of chemical warfare agents and are listed in the list
of precursor substances by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.”
The concentration of arsenic in the demersal zones of seawater in this district is at background
levels and does not exceed the maximum allowed concentration: it was only registered in two
samples of sediment (maximum excess of the norm: 1.35 times).
However, at this district, they found the
presence of dimethyl phosphine acid – it is a
byproduct of the disintegration of phosphoric
CWAs sarin and soman. In that same place,
there were also compounds that were the result
of the disintegration of mustard gas, which also
proves the pollution of Cape Sotera by CWAs.
In Table 12, there are there the results of the
study of biological objects for the presence of
arsenic – seaweed, crabs, rapanas and
seahorses. Levels beyond the maximum
allowed concentration were found by scientists
in the second of every 10 samples. The excess
concentration was from 1.245 to 3.075 times.
The district of Cape Sotera is not the only
polluted area. Among the report pages provided
by Rubtsov, there is a map of an ecological
study of sea water in 2003-2008, which
indicates six districts where the byproducts of
the disintegration of CWAs was found. One of
the districts was near Shcholkino, two more – in
the Kerch Strait, places already well-known to
us – Cape White and Cape Sotera, two more
districts in Sevastopol, Cape Khersones and Cape Fiolent. However, it is unclear what exactly is
buried in those place, what are the objects of the pollution, how much of them are there and at
which depth and distance they are from the shore.
The situation with the containers with CWAs that were discovered and left in shallow water is
finally clearing up due to a big effort. We sent informational requests to the Ministry of Defense
and State Service on Emergency Situations, but the responses brought little facts that could clear up
the situation about the program to dispose of the chemical weapon containers. The Ministry of
Defense put the responsibility for the answer to this question on the State Department on
Emergency Situations, which is now subordinate to this same ministry. However, while conducting
this program, the Ministry of Defense had its own tasks. In its turn, the deputy director of the state
service, S. Daniliuk, did not burden himself with answering five questions and just shortly
informed, not even naming the amount, that near Sevastopol and in the Kerch Strait, while
executing a program into the seas, they inspected 30 square kilometers of seawater and found
“disposed objects with remnants of chemical weapons at depths that were accessible to divers.”
Nevertheless, since this topic was picked up by other media, representatives of the State Service had
to answer questions from journalists and even contradicted their own colleagues, who two years ago
reassured the public that the situation was under control and containers with chemical weapons
were buried 15 kilometers from the shore at a depth of 150 meters (speech by the head of the
Crimean department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Nedobitkov).
The head of the department of the State Service of Emergency Situations, Grigoriy Marchenko, live
on Channel 5, when answering questions from host R. Chayka on whether the containers were
really buried at such depths and such a distance from the shore, hesitating, answered that the state
service does not have that information.
Grigoriy Marchenko said the amount of discovered and reconcreted containers with mustard gas
and lewiste was 117. Out of those, 60 are still located at a technical site in the Kerch Strait as stated
in the document published by ZN. However, it was impossible to get an answer to the question
about at what depth they are located and whether they are dangerous for ship traffic and ecology in
the Kerch Strait. “They are located at a depth of less than 100 meters,” said an official that tried to
deviate from the question.
It is not enough to call such an answer incorrect, since it is obviously not true. Let us remind that
the letter by Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations Vitaliy Romanchenko to the Cabinet of
Ministers about the execution of tasks on disposing of chemical weapons, among other information,
stated that two reconcreted containers were first transported to a significant distance, which allowed
for practicing a technique for evacuating the sarcophagi to deep sea depths. Listen to how it is cited:
“We practiced using a technique for releasing them from the soil and moving to reconcreted
sarcophagi underwater from district 691 to 690. The towing distance was 25 kilometers. Thus, we
conducted the first experimental technique to evacuate concrete sarcophagi from worksites to
reburial sites in the Black Sea.”
Thus, 60 sarcophagi, as we can see from the Ministry’s correspondence, were not reburied at deep
depths as required by the technique and the program, and they remain laying at worksites at a depth
of five meters, thus creating a navigational hazard. Judging from the description, this region is
between Cape White and Tuzla Island. Two concrete sarcophagi, as written by the deputy minister
of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were transported from district 691 to district 690. We
managed to receive the navigational maps with indications of these secretive districts from various
resources at the same time.
District 691 is in the city of Kerch’s water area near the Kerch fish port and district 690 is the
Tobechik lake water area. Grigoriy Marchenko claimed that the sarcophagi are located at a depth of
“less than 100 meters.” However, if we look at the depth indicated on the horizontal lines of the
navigational maps, then we can see that district 690 where the sarcophagi were transported is only
2-4 meters deep.
There is one more fact proving that the sarcophaguses are still there – these districts have a limit on
ship traffic. “For ship traffic in the Black and Azov Seas, these districts have the following
qualification: prohibited from anchoring, fishing, or catching fish with demersal fishing equipment,
underwater dredging, explosion works and swimming with an etched anchor chain,” said our
source.
In this way, we can state that in the Kerch Strait there is a real navigational threat that has to be
immediately taken care of. Both military and emergency services have to clean up the leftover
sarcophagi remaining in shallow water before another storm throws some de-anchored ship at them.
Let us also note that there is one thing in common of the testimonies of Ukrainian officials and
scientists – relating to the situation in the Baltic Sea where, according to latest data, there were
about 50,000 tons of buried chemical weapons. They say that we have much less sunken CWAs,
while they have much more and they are not panicking about it. However, this is also not true since
during the entire last decade, Baltic countries have experienced serious consequences from the
disintegration of containers with chemical weapons. According to Dr. Jacek Bełdowski (Institute of
Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences), 80% of chemical weapons buried in the Baltics is
mustard gas and only in a few places was tabun also found. The research proved: fish that was
swimming in the area of weapon dumps had genetic mutations.
“Our research proved that in the Holland Depression there were about 8,000 tons of ammunition
that pollutes the environment. We verified that the sea bottom near these objects is polluted. Fish
swimming around the areas of buried weapons have a lot of diseases compared to ones living in
other sea areas. They also have genetic mutations. Up until now, it was more of a theory…” said J.
Bełdowski.
And lastly – let us comment about the document that can make us laugh to tears.
After publication in Zerkalo Nedeli of official documents and the airing of the program “Issues of
National Security”, with the comments of scientists and ecologists, representatives of the state
Azov-Black Sea Ecological Inspection took a trip to the “probable site of pollution” in the water
area. The indicated date was October 31, from which we can conclude that it was the only trip to the
site.
“After a visual study of the water of the Kerch Strait, we did not find facts of pollution. The
remainder of the burials, in which there could possibly have been chemical weapons were not
registered, strange smells that could have indicated the evaporation of chemical substances were not
noticed. Cases of mass deaths of water life during the summer period of 2013 were not registered,”
said an answer to an informational request by TV company Briz signed by the head of the State
Ecological Inspection O. Medvedev.
Judging from the answer, here is how we see the picture of Crimean ecological inspectors checking
the situation: the ecologists came out to the strait, looked around (there is no mention of any divers),
and they did not see any chemical weapon burials. The inspectors’ senses did not notice any smells
of mustard or garlic, which is typical of mustard gas, or geraniums, which is typical of lewisite.
Conclusion: the fact of pollution was not proven. That is why ecological inspectors and their boss,
who signed the letter probably have little idea about the chemical characteristics of CWAs,
otherwise they would have known in which state, for example mustard gas (it is a liquid), can be
seen at the bottom of the strait when it hardens up in cold water.
Ecologists also took samples of the water around Cape White and the Geroevskaya settlement. But
they did not say where exactly. The experts’ study showed that the water had an amount of iron that
exceeded the maximum allowed concentration by 3.2-4.0 times and the amount of oil products
exceeded the norm by 1.2-1.8 times. As for pollution by CWAs, it was impossible to state anything.
And not only because mustard gas does not dissolve in water, but also because the “laboratory of
the State Ecological Inspection is not equipped to conduct laboratory tests on the findings of
poisonous substances in seawater!”
This investigation was conducted with the support of SCOOP – the investigative journalism
network in Eastern Europe, Russia, Caucasus, Central Asia and Western Africa, founded by
the Danish Association of Investigative Journalists (FUJ)
Source: http://investigator.org.ua/articles/107712/
© Center for Investigative Journalism