Baikal is promised not to be washed away – Newspaper Kommersant No. 202 (7403) dated 10/31/2022

The Ministry of Natural Resources has abandoned the idea to relax the requirements for the purity of wastewater discharged into Baikal. Instead, the ministry changed the standards for three types of pollution for industrial effluents into the rivers that feed the lake. Nevertheless, the agency assures that the effluent remains equated in purity “practically to distilled water” and the new standards “do not open the possibility of dumping harmful and toxic substances.” Ecologists insist on the need for state control over individual organochlorine compounds – they are the ones that threaten the lake most of all during the upcoming liquidation of accumulated waste from the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM).

The amendments of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia to the departmental order, which approves the standards for maximum permissible impacts on the ecological system of Lake Baikal, entered into force on October 29. The order also establishes requirements for the safety of industrial effluents entering the lake and the rivers that feed it.

Kommersant has already talked about the fate of the early version of the document. Then the Ministry of Natural Resources wanted to significantly soften the requirements for wastewater discharged directly into the lake (see Kommersant of May 16). The agency proposed to weaken the standards for the content of iron by 10 times, chromium – by 1.3 times, mercury – by 13 times, adsorbed organohalogen compounds – by 200 times. The Ministry of Natural Resources argued that the current requirements could not be accurately measured and, accordingly, observed.

Having studied the new document, Kommersant discovered that the department refused to adjust these particular standards. This decision was made after discussions with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the professional community, the Ministry of Natural Resources explained to Kommersant. The agency added that “it has always adhered to the position that the discharge into Lake Baikal is unacceptable.”

As a result, the ministry changed the standards only for industrial effluents into the rivers of the central and buffer ecological zones of Lake Baikal. And we are talking about three substances. The permitted concentration of anionic surfactants (ASS; these include, for example, soap) has been increased by 1.5 times. The threshold value of adsorbed organohalogen compounds (AOH) increased by 600 times, and that of suspended solids by 12 times. Vadim Annenkov, Deputy Director for Science of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch, confirmed in an interview with Kommersant that now there are simply no instruments capable of checking the concentration of ASPAS and AOX for compliance with past standards. “In addition, I believe, there was a request from the manufacturers of treatment equipment, which is vital on Baikal, but could not work in connection with the previous standards,” Mr. Annenkov said.

The agency insists that it equates runoff into the rivers of the central and buffer ecological zones practically to distilled water. “The order does not open the possibility of dumping harmful and toxic substances. The standards for discharge into the lake are still strict and high for wastewater and do not entail risks for Baikal. The task is to save the largest source of fresh drinking water from years of accumulated harm, ”they say. However, Vadim Annenkov believes that in order to protect Lake Baikal, it is necessary to control pollutants separately. “The existing method for measuring the concentration of AOX involves the determination of all chlorine-containing substances contained in water,” he explains. “But among the chlorine-containing substances, there are quite natural substances. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect the concentration of individual chlorine-containing substances toxic to nature. The same applies to ASPAV. Ordinary soap contains mostly sodium salts of fatty acids, which are not harmful in any way. But the surfactants contained in powders, dishwashing detergents are definitely harmful and toxic. This means that it is necessary to measure them separately and prescribe their maximum concentration in the decree.

Greenpeace Russia expert Roman Vazhenkov agrees with him: “AOH is a general indicator of the presence of substances in water. Therefore, at the discussion stage, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed to introduce a list of individual organochlorine compounds that need to be controlled. And they can be found in the waste of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill.”

Recall that the BPPM was closed in 2013. Over 50 years of operation, the enterprise has accumulated about 6.5 million tons of hazardous waste, which are stored in the so-called storage cards near Lake Baikal. If they are destroyed, tons of toxic substances can enter the lake. Previously, it was assumed that the waste would be gradually removed from the storage tanks and composted. But in April 2022, the government and the Federal Ecological Operator announced a change in tactics. The new lithification process is based on “a method of deep mass stabilization of waste with mineral geopolymer binders.”

Ecologists do not rule out that the changes in the standards are connected precisely with the work to eliminate the waste of the plant. The explanatory note to the draft order stated that the amendments were prepared as part of the instructions of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko after a meeting of the interdepartmental working group responsible for the elimination of BPPM waste. And changes in wastewater standards have been prepared for “implementation of tasks aimed at ensuring the performance of work to lower the level of oversludge waters located in storage cards.” Roman Vazhenkov recalls that the plant bleached cellulose with chlorine, and this substance may be in the water, which is going to be pumped out of waste ponds. “The state should control these substances. Organochlorine is a persistent organic pollutant. It accumulates in the body and is not excreted with water. And people catch fish and eat it,” he says.

Anna Vasilyeva; Vlad Nikiforov, Irkutsk