[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[News > World news > Russia]
Anger at Putin decision to allow Lake Baikal paper mill to reopen
Russian prime minister rules that mill can resume production 15 months after being closed down on ecological grounds
Luke Harding in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 January 2010 16.46 GMT Article history
Environmentalists today rounded on Vladimir Putin after he amended legislation to allow the pollution of Russia's Lake Baikal, home to one-fifth of the world's supply of fresh water and unique plants and animals.
Putin ruled that a pulp and paper mill on the shores of the Siberian lake could resume production 15 months after being closed down on ecological grounds.
His decree appeared to be a favour to Oleg Deripaska, the plant's billionaire owner and the Russian prime minister's favourite oligarch.
For decades, environmental groups have attacked the Baikalsk pulp and paper mill, which bleaches paper with chlorine and discharges its waste water into the lake.
Putin allowed the factory to reopen after a visit to Baikal last summer, when he went to the bottom of the lake in a submersible mini-submarine.
Today, Greenpeace said it was deeply concerned by Putin's decree, adding that it had written to the president, Dmitry Medvedev, to ask him to cancel it.
It described the Soviet-era paper mill as an "ecologically dangerous enterprise" and claimed Russia was flouting its international commitment to protect the lake, a Unesco world heritage site.
"The impact of the mill has been discussed many times not just by environmentalists but also by scientists," Roman Vazhenkov, Greenpeace Russia's Lake Baikal campaigner, told the Guardian.
"I think we can be sure it [the mill] will never kill Baikal, but it can significantly spoil the southern part of it.
"The area of impact is several dozens of square kilometres. It covers quite a big part of southern Baikal – not just the water, but the shore as well."
Vazhenkov said there had been a "huge die-off" of Baikal's indigenous seal or nerpa population – one of only three entirely freshwater seal species in the world – during the 1990s.
The lake also boasts its own fish, the omul, 1,085 species of plants and 1,550 animals.
Scientists found the seals had died of disease, but also discovered chlorine substances in the creatures' fatty tissues and weakened immune systems.
Sulphur compounds from the mill have damaged lakeside forests, Vazhenkov said.
The Russian media questioned why Putin had given preferential treatment to Deripaska, whose struggling aluminium and auto empire has already benefited from billions in state handouts.
"Judging by the number of presents Deripaska has got from the government over the past crisis year, it must be love," the opposition Novaya Gazeta paper said.
The Kremlin-supporting Moskovksy Komsomolets was also critical. "The fact that Putin has signed this legislation shows that the interests of oligarchs and Deripaska are far more important to him than the interests of nature in this country and Baikal," Aleksey Yablokov, an ecologist and Russian academy of science member, told the paper.
Opponents suspect a decision to allow the factory to restart was taken several months ago.
After returning from the lakebed last summer, Putin said he had found nothing untoward.
"As far as Baikal is concerned, it's in good condition," he said. "There is practically no pollution." He added that he had found "a lot of plankton and small creatures".
The Russian government has been trying to help the country's troubled monogorods, single-factory towns devastated by the economic crisis.
The Baikal mill employs 2,000 people, and is the main employer in Baikalsk, which has a population of 17,000. It also includes a heating complex that warms the town.
Critics said Putin's decision would damage Baikal's future as a tourist destination and scare off potential investors.
Many of those thrown out of work when the mill closed in October 2008 have already found new jobs, they added.
The factory, built in 1966, was earmarked for closure in 1987 but survived because of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The new legislation comes into effect on 25 January and also allows for the dumping of waste, including radioactive material, on the shores of Lake Baikal.
Putin previously reacted to public pressure in 2006 when, as president, he routed an oil pipeline away from the lake.
"This is a major national scandal. There is huge opposition in Siberia. It's also a PR disaster for Russia internationally,' Vazhenkov said.
Asked why Putin had signed the decree, his first legislative act of 2010, he said: "The factory is economically unprofitable. I simply don't know."
Oksana Gorlova, a spokeswoman for the paper plant, said it "doesn't represent, and hasn't represented, a threat to the lake or its ecology".
"The ecosystem hasn't changed over the past 45 years, and the environment ministry's annual reports confirm this," she added.
She said Deripaska had wanted to close the loss-making factory, but had agreed to reopen it to prevent a social crisis under state pressure. It was the only way of saving the town, she claimed.
[Environment > Waste]
Time Team-style scanner to uncover illegally buried waste
Environment Agency to use new technology to trace buried waste sites and prosecute polluters
Alok Jha, green technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 January 2010 00.05 GMT Article history
Illegally buried waste can now be discovered by a Time Team-style scanner without the need to dig up the ground, according to the UK's environment watchdog.
The Environment Agency said the technology would speed up and make easier the hunt for criminal polluters and getting them pay for proper cleanup of their waste.
The scanner, similar to that used on Channel 4's Time Team programme, uses electrical currents to create an underground map of an area. "If something has been buried in the ground and it's a significant volume of material, [then] if the site isn't licensed or hasn't had a licence in the past, then it's clearly not a legal landfill," said John Burns, a project manager in the national enforcement team at the Environment Agency.
The scanner has already led inspectors to a large area of buried waste in the New Forest National Park that they estimate could cost around £500,000 to clean up. That cost will now be passed on to the landowner who illegally dumped the waste there.
In the past two years, the agency has shut down around 1,500 illegal waste sites, with fines for polluters shooting up from £1.4m in 2003 to £3m last year. Inspectors believe, however, that around 800 illegal sites are still in operation.
"In the main it tends to be, in terms of landfilling, construction and demolition waste and some tyres," said Burns. "In terms of the illegal dumping or depositing, it's quite often scrap and other materials like that which aren't very cheap to dispose of by legitimate means."
Illegally dumped waste can have serious environmental consequences. "If someone decides they're going to deposit a load of oily waste or a load of waste containing paints or spirits or cleaning materials, it could cause ground or surface water pollution and that can be quite serious. If a pollutant gets into the groundwater, it can take a long time to get it out and it's a very expensive process."
The agency's scanners use a technique known as resistive tomography where electrodes are inserted into the ground at regular intervals and an electrical current is passed between them. Because different materials respond to the current in different ways, the scanner can build up a picture of whatever is underground. "You can plot out a relatively large area in a day or two. The advantage is that it's non-invasive – you don't have to bring machines on to a site and have to start digging it up," said Burns.
Paul Leinster, chief executive of the agency, said: "By dumping waste illegally, waste criminals avoid landfill charges and undercut legitimate waste businesses, but more importantly they put the environment and human health at risk. We are making sure that waste crime does not pay, and have set up specialist crime teams to catch criminals and confiscate the assets they've gained from crime."
The agency plans to use the scanners along with other forensic science techniques, including handwriting analysis and SmartWater tracking – a solution which invisibly marks items and also contaminates anyone who takes those items so that they can later be identified.
[News > World news > Russia]
Anger at Putin decision to allow Lake Baikal paper mill to reopen
Russian prime minister rules that mill can resume production 15 months after being closed down on ecological grounds
Luke Harding in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 January 2010 16.46 GMT Article history
Environmentalists today rounded on Vladimir Putin after he amended legislation to allow the pollution of Russia's Lake Baikal, home to one-fifth of the world's supply of fresh water and unique plants and animals.
Putin ruled that a pulp and paper mill on the shores of the Siberian lake could resume production 15 months after being closed down on ecological grounds.
His decree appeared to be a favour to Oleg Deripaska, the plant's billionaire owner and the Russian prime minister's favourite oligarch.
For decades, environmental groups have attacked the Baikalsk pulp and paper mill, which bleaches paper with chlorine and discharges its waste water into the lake.
Putin allowed the factory to reopen after a visit to Baikal last summer, when he went to the bottom of the lake in a submersible mini-submarine.
Today, Greenpeace said it was deeply concerned by Putin's decree, adding that it had written to the president, Dmitry Medvedev, to ask him to cancel it.
It described the Soviet-era paper mill as an "ecologically dangerous enterprise" and claimed Russia was flouting its international commitment to protect the lake, a Unesco world heritage site.
"The impact of the mill has been discussed many times not just by environmentalists but also by scientists," Roman Vazhenkov, Greenpeace Russia's Lake Baikal campaigner, told the Guardian.
"I think we can be sure it [the mill] will never kill Baikal, but it can significantly spoil the southern part of it.
"The area of impact is several dozens of square kilometres. It covers quite a big part of southern Baikal – not just the water, but the shore as well."
Vazhenkov said there had been a "huge die-off" of Baikal's indigenous seal or nerpa population – one of only three entirely freshwater seal species in the world – during the 1990s.
The lake also boasts its own fish, the omul, 1,085 species of plants and 1,550 animals.
Scientists found the seals had died of disease, but also discovered chlorine substances in the creatures' fatty tissues and weakened immune systems.
Sulphur compounds from the mill have damaged lakeside forests, Vazhenkov said.
The Russian media questioned why Putin had given preferential treatment to Deripaska, whose struggling aluminium and auto empire has already benefited from billions in state handouts.
"Judging by the number of presents Deripaska has got from the government over the past crisis year, it must be love," the opposition Novaya Gazeta paper said.
The Kremlin-supporting Moskovksy Komsomolets was also critical. "The fact that Putin has signed this legislation shows that the interests of oligarchs and Deripaska are far more important to him than the interests of nature in this country and Baikal," Aleksey Yablokov, an ecologist and Russian academy of science member, told the paper.
Opponents suspect a decision to allow the factory to restart was taken several months ago.
After returning from the lakebed last summer, Putin said he had found nothing untoward.
"As far as Baikal is concerned, it's in good condition," he said. "There is practically no pollution." He added that he had found "a lot of plankton and small creatures".
The Russian government has been trying to help the country's troubled monogorods, single-factory towns devastated by the economic crisis.
The Baikal mill employs 2,000 people, and is the main employer in Baikalsk, which has a population of 17,000. It also includes a heating complex that warms the town.
Critics said Putin's decision would damage Baikal's future as a tourist destination and scare off potential investors.
Many of those thrown out of work when the mill closed in October 2008 have already found new jobs, they added.
The factory, built in 1966, was earmarked for closure in 1987 but survived because of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The new legislation comes into effect on 25 January and also allows for the dumping of waste, including radioactive material, on the shores of Lake Baikal.
Putin previously reacted to public pressure in 2006 when, as president, he routed an oil pipeline away from the lake.
"This is a major national scandal. There is huge opposition in Siberia. It's also a PR disaster for Russia internationally,' Vazhenkov said.
Asked why Putin had signed the decree, his first legislative act of 2010, he said: "The factory is economically unprofitable. I simply don't know."
Oksana Gorlova, a spokeswoman for the paper plant, said it "doesn't represent, and hasn't represented, a threat to the lake or its ecology".
"The ecosystem hasn't changed over the past 45 years, and the environment ministry's annual reports confirm this," she added.
She said Deripaska had wanted to close the loss-making factory, but had agreed to reopen it to prevent a social crisis under state pressure. It was the only way of saving the town, she claimed.
[Environment > Waste]
Time Team-style scanner to uncover illegally buried waste
Environment Agency to use new technology to trace buried waste sites and prosecute polluters
Alok Jha, green technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 January 2010 00.05 GMT Article history
Illegally buried waste can now be discovered by a Time Team-style scanner without the need to dig up the ground, according to the UK's environment watchdog.
The Environment Agency said the technology would speed up and make easier the hunt for criminal polluters and getting them pay for proper cleanup of their waste.
The scanner, similar to that used on Channel 4's Time Team programme, uses electrical currents to create an underground map of an area. "If something has been buried in the ground and it's a significant volume of material, [then] if the site isn't licensed or hasn't had a licence in the past, then it's clearly not a legal landfill," said John Burns, a project manager in the national enforcement team at the Environment Agency.
The scanner has already led inspectors to a large area of buried waste in the New Forest National Park that they estimate could cost around £500,000 to clean up. That cost will now be passed on to the landowner who illegally dumped the waste there.
In the past two years, the agency has shut down around 1,500 illegal waste sites, with fines for polluters shooting up from £1.4m in 2003 to £3m last year. Inspectors believe, however, that around 800 illegal sites are still in operation.
"In the main it tends to be, in terms of landfilling, construction and demolition waste and some tyres," said Burns. "In terms of the illegal dumping or depositing, it's quite often scrap and other materials like that which aren't very cheap to dispose of by legitimate means."
Illegally dumped waste can have serious environmental consequences. "If someone decides they're going to deposit a load of oily waste or a load of waste containing paints or spirits or cleaning materials, it could cause ground or surface water pollution and that can be quite serious. If a pollutant gets into the groundwater, it can take a long time to get it out and it's a very expensive process."
The agency's scanners use a technique known as resistive tomography where electrodes are inserted into the ground at regular intervals and an electrical current is passed between them. Because different materials respond to the current in different ways, the scanner can build up a picture of whatever is underground. "You can plot out a relatively large area in a day or two. The advantage is that it's non-invasive – you don't have to bring machines on to a site and have to start digging it up," said Burns.
Paul Leinster, chief executive of the agency, said: "By dumping waste illegally, waste criminals avoid landfill charges and undercut legitimate waste businesses, but more importantly they put the environment and human health at risk. We are making sure that waste crime does not pay, and have set up specialist crime teams to catch criminals and confiscate the assets they've gained from crime."
The agency plans to use the scanners along with other forensic science techniques, including handwriting analysis and SmartWater tracking – a solution which invisibly marks items and also contaminates anyone who takes those items so that they can later be identified.
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