Rosprirodnadzor Head Svetlana Radionova: I came to Bashkiria to remedy situation

The working trip of Svetlana Radionova, the head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), to Bashkiria began with an inspection of the automatic air pollution control station (ASKZA) in Salavat.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat LLC financed the construction of two stations located in the northern and southern parts of the city through a charitable foundation to support the city's social development. Their cost was 55.9 million rubles.

With equipment from leading companies in Japan, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, these stations measure the state of the atmospheric air for 23 types of pollutants. The monitoring results obtained from ASKZA, in contrast to the results of observation posts of the Bashkir Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring Directorate, make it possible to more objectively assess the quality of atmospheric air as the stations work in automatic mode and around the clock.

All data from the automatic station, including in the case of atmospheric air pollution, will appear on the website of the Ministry of Ecology of Bashkiria.

"The ecological situation in the republic requires attention from our agency. Over the past year, our experts have identified the damage caused by 700 million. Flying over the territory of the Bashkir Soda Company did not give me any positive emotions. We saw huge sludge ponds from the air, and yet there are no projects for their reclamation, and water bodies are close to them," Svetlana Radionova said, answering journalists' questions.

The head of Rosprirodnadzor noted that it is necessary to take all measures to fix and jointly solve all environmental problems associated with the activities of the Bashkir Soda Company (BSC).

She also positively assessed the work of the Gazprom neftekhim Salavat enterprise, which supplied automatic air pollution control stations at its own expense.

The Prime Minister of the Government of Bashkortostan Andrei Nazarov, in turn, noted the importance of maintaining a balance between industrial development and environmental preservation.

Salavat is a major center of the oil refining and petrochemical industry; it is the third industrial city of the republic regarding emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere after Ufa and Sterlitamak. The volume of pollutant emissions from stationary sources amounted to 38.5 thousand tons in the city in 2020.

The main contribution to emissions from stationary sources is made by such enterprises as OJSC Gazprom neftekhim Salavat - 24.6 thousand tons (64%), Novo-Salavatskaya CHPP LLC - 4.9 thousand tons (12.7%), Salavatskaya CHPP - 0.7 thousand tons (2%). To date, at the expense of extra-budgetary funds, nine automatic stations for monitoring atmospheric air pollution have been created in the republic.

Two of them work in Sterlitamak, three in Ufa, two in Salavat, one each in Sibay and Uchaly. To develop a full-fledged air monitoring network for the main industrial cities of the republic, it is necessary to additionally build seven more stations in Ufa, three in Sterlitamak, and one in Salavat.