Head of Rosprirodnadzor: 140 hectares of former "Ufakhimprom" territory should be cleaned up

Today the head of Rosprirodnadzor Svetlana Radionova, who is on a working trip to Bashkiria, visited the former production sites of the Ufakhimprom plant. As a reminder, in the spring of 1990, Ufakhimprom caused a severe environmental problem. As a result of the phenol ingress into the Shugurovka River, which flows into the Ufa River, drinking water sources were poisoned. Clean drinking water was brought to the capital of the republic in tank trucks.

Today sludge of sludge collectors, soil, and ground in the territory of "Ufakhimprom" are contaminated with dioxins, chlorobenzenes, chlorophenols, polychlorinated benzenes, diphenyl sulfone, oil products, and heavy metals. The approximate volume of waste stored in eight sludge collectors is more than 500 thousand cubic meters. The main non-utilized dioxin-containing waste is lime sludge formed due to the neutralization of acid-containing wastewater with a lime solution. The total contaminated area is 142.9 hectares.

In 2004, during the mothballing of the technological production facilities of JSC Ufakhimprom, the issue of protecting the environment from the negative impact of accumulated industrial waste was not resolved. Since December 2010, the company has been declared bankrupt; the bankruptcy procedure was completed in December 2016.

The Prime Minister of the Government of Bashkortostan Andrei Nazarov noted that the Ufakhimprom site had been being a bleeding wound for our region for a long time.

Svetlana Radionova said that the task of their department was to objectively assess the situation and report to the government for a joint decision.

Andrei Nazarov recalled that an agreement was reached on creating an interdepartmental commission with Rosprirodnadzor, including representatives of the public. The commission will meet quarterly to discuss and solve all the accumulated problems in Ufa, Sterlitamak, Salavat, Uchaly, Trans-Urals.

According to the head of Rosprirodnadzor, the law on accumulated harm that is being developed should regulate all such moments so that the owners of enterprises are responsible for the damage caused to nature and do not leave such territories as the former site of Ufakhimprom after their activities.

"All risks of environmental problems lie with owners, and they must eliminate them if they make a profit and use the natural resources of our country. This is the main message that we convey to everyone. Ecology is everyone's business. I have talked about this many times. No inspector can handle this on their own. Everyone should be involved here: entrepreneurs, residents, the public, inspectors, and the state as a whole," Svetlana Radionova emphasized.

The preliminary cost of eliminating the object of accumulated environmental damage and land reclamation is 25.4 billion rubles.