Bashkiria plans to invite experts to solve problem with Khimprom's waste

Bashkiria plans to invite experts to solve the problem with chemical production wastes. Speaker of the parliament Konstantin Tolkachev announced the discussion of accumulated environmental damage in the territory of the former plant "Khimprom" at the Committee on Agrarian Issues, Ecology and Nature Management of the State Assembly of the Republic.

"It is necessary to invite experts and hold a discussion of the environmental situation in the territory of Khimprom," he said. "If necessary, we will create a working group. We need to go to the site, see what is generally being done with this site, how the allocated funds are being used. There are many speculations, but the true state of affairs is not clear. We should find out if there are any projects at all in this industrial zone if there are organizations ready to be engaged in its reclamation".

In the spring of 1990, Khimprom caused a severe environmental problem. As a result of the ingress of phenol 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.

"Thirty years have passed since the phenolic catastrophe," Konstantin Tolkachev said. "But to this day, hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous dioxin-containing waste remain in the sludge collectors. Every spring, during a flood, special equipment pumps out polluted meltwater from reservoirs and sludge ponds so that chemicals do not get into rivers, but the problem is not fundamentally solved. We should collect all relevant information, discuss the current state of affairs and understand the prospects for this problem area."